Ryan Zimmerman owns April

Phil Gurnee ♦ May 2, 2017 ♦ Leave a comment

Last year Ryan Zimmerman looked like a 1st baseman who needed to find a bench. He was the weakest link on the Nationals but his manager continued to bat him 4th or 5th in the lineup. Does that sound familiar?

Fast forward to May 1st, 2017, and you will find that Ryan Zimmerman just had the best March/April OPS split over the past three years based on a minimum of 50 plate appearances.

Player                  Split Year   OPS  PA HR RBI
Ryan Zimmerman    April/March 2017 1.345  96 11  29
Freddie Freeman   April/March 2017 1.283 101  9  14
Bryce Harper      April/March 2017 1.281 114  9  26
Eric Thames       April/March 2017 1.276 103 11  19
Adrian Gonzalez   April/March 2015 1.222  88  8  19

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/2/2017.

As you can see, 2017 had a quite a few noteworthy performances. Only the 2015 performance by Adrian Gonzalez can crack the top five. It was just two years ago that Adrian was smoking when the gate opened.

The Nationals have three of the best hitters going right now as the clock turns to May.  The Dodgers have two in Turner and Seager but neither are close to doing the lofty work of Zimmerman/Harper. They are more in line with Daniel Murphy.

I love these lists. The Brewers have two catchers on the list in Bandy/Pina and they are right next to each other otherwise I’d never have noticed.

Player                   Split Year Onbase_plus_slugging_vs_split  PA   OPS
Ryan Zimmerman     April/March 2017                           262  96 1.345
Bryce Harper       April/March 2017                           250 114 1.281
Freddie Freeman    April/March 2017                           249 101 1.283
Eric Thames        April/March 2017                           246 103 1.276
Aaron Judge        April/March 2017                           214  90 1.161
Mike Trout         April/March 2017                           213 115 1.151
Miguel Sano        April/March 2017                           208  97 1.127
Mitch Haniger      April/March 2017                           190  95 1.054
Zack Cozart        April/March 2017                           190  85 1.053
Matt Kemp          April/March 2017                           189  58 1.077
Jedd Gyorko        April/March 2017                           187  67 1.053
Michael Conforto   April/March 2017                           187  66 1.055
Aaron Hicks        April/March 2017                           186  57 1.042
Justin Turner      April/March 2017                           185  99 1.026
Avisail Garcia     April/March 2017                           182  93 1.029
Eugenio Suarez     April/March 2017                           181  94 1.025
Nelson Cruz        April/March 2017                           180 108 1.025
Khris Davis        April/March 2017                           180  99 1.032
Francisco Lindor   April/March 2017                           177 109 1.018
Corey Dickerson    April/March 2017                           176  96 1.015
Paul Goldschmidt   April/March 2017                           174 117  .983
Jett Bandy         April/March 2017                           174  53 1.010
Manny Pina         April/March 2017                           172  52  .986
Yoenis Cespedes    April/March 2017                           170  75  .992
Jose Ramirez       April/March 2017                           168 103  .982
Justin Upton       April/March 2017                           166  82  .968
Daniel Murphy      April/March 2017                           164 111  .969
David Freese       April/March 2017                           164  67  .954
Corey Seager       April/March 2017                           164 107  .961
Steven Souza       April/March 2017                           163 108  .954
Mark Reynolds      April/March 2017                           163 105  .968
Nolan Arenado      April/March 2017                           163 110  .971
Ryan Braun         April/March 2017                           162  99  .960
Starlin Castro     April/March 2017                           160  98  .947
Jay Bruce          April/March 2017                           160 100  .954
Tyler Flowers      April/March 2017                           159  54  .916
Matt Wieters       April/March 2017                           157  85  .934
Matt Davidson      April/March 2017                           155  54  .946
Evan Gattis        April/March 2017                           154  65  .918
Lucas Duda         April/March 2017                           154  50  .931
Charlie Blackmon   April/March 2017                           151 118  .925
Michael Brantley   April/March 2017                           150  85  .916
Kris Bryant        April/March 2017                           150 115  .907

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/2/2017.