Washington Nationals to struggle without Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse- MLB Feature
Strained lat of Michael Morse and shoulder pain by Ryan Zimmerman spell hard times ahead for the Washington Nationals. Fourteen wins they have recorded indicate their perfect start of the season. However with two of their hitters out, their offence does
not enjoy the luxury of blinders coming off from clean-hitters down in the line-up.
Hitters like Ian Desmond and Danny Espinosa are rightly capable of loading the bases and runs-manufacturing, display of homers late in the innings at the back of trailing of few runs remind one an importance of clean-up hitters. Both Desmond and Espinosa
are of different prodigy and thus cannot assume the role both Zimmerman and Michael Morse perform.
The fact hardly anyone in the Nationals at the moment possesses slugging percentage more than .50 reveals the extent to which pitchers have done job for the team. It also points to a major flaw in their offence.
Even Adam LaRoche, their clean-up hitter stands at a slugging percentage of .493, which is great but it does not match that of sluggers of big teams, ones the Nationals aim to emulate this year.
Adding to this, dearth of big wigs like LaRoche deprives the Nationals of options that can be valuable during the game.
Say for example LaRoche has a rough day and Zimmerman and Michael Morse miss the line-up, it will be tough for the Nationals then to bridge deficit during penultimate innings of the game. Since pressure during later innings of the game is higher, relievers
like Henry Rodriguez and Tyler Clippard will find it hard to pull off the saves.
On the other hand Zimmerman can turn the tables on the opponents on his own. A line-up that leaves a lot for its pitchers cannot sustain longer in terms of providing victories and therefore Morse and Zimmerman cannot remain out if the Nationals are to see
consistency in their present success.
At worst, one can say they are heading to the Philadelphia Phillies like scenario, a side which hosts one of most premier Major League pitchers and yet languishes at low end of the table.
By paralleling Ryan Howard with Zimmerman and Chase Utley with Morse and coupled with the knowledge that the rest of the Nationals' offence is not any better than the one the Phillies have, one can better analyse a potential loophole in their line-up.
Morse will miss at-least six more weeks in the season and thus an affect of his absence will have taken its due toll on the club by then. As for the Zimmerman, there are encouraging signs as his MRI confirms there is no structural damage and his shoulder
inflammation will wear away soon. The problem however is whenever a player struggles with a shoulder stretch, issue more often turns out to be lethal and keeps haunting the player intermittently.
Against this backdrop, even if he returns to the line-up, it amounts to a wishful judgment that he will find the composure right away. Same goes for the Morse who will take his time in rehab games on his return and only at a time when the Nationals will
have played chunk of their season matches, he will be available.
Unless positive developments occur in their rehabilitation process, the Nationals will be looking to ask even more from their pitchers. As much as starters like Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez can provide, their class is going to be tested thoroughly
in the games ahead. To what extent they live up to it will determine how the season unfolds for the Nationals.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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