Ranking the NL East: First Basemen
By Pablo Roa
Sep 27, 2014; Washington, DC, USA; Washington Nationals left fielder
Ryan Zimmerman(11) at first base against the Miami Marlins during the eighth inning at Nationals Park. The Nationals won 5-1. Mandatory Credit:
Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
The Washington Nationals won the NL East by a whopping 17 games last season and entered the offseason knowing that they would be favorites to win it again in 2015. And with this month’s acquisition of right-hander Max Scherzer, the team not only ensured that they would enter the season as NL East favorites, but they’ll also start 2015 as World Series favorites.
Of course, as Nationals fans know all too well, none of these labels means anything during the offseason. A team can go from “World Series” to “bust” in a matter of months, and the best team on paper isn’t guaranteed to accomplish anything.
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For this reason, it’s important to keep track of everything that is happening in the NL East and to monitor each team in the division going into the 2015 season.With that in mind, we we want to take a look at this division position-by-position to see who has the edge at certain positions. For this slideshow, we are going to look at the first basemen in the NL East.
First base is usually where some of the team’s best hitters play and, for the Nationals, last year was no exception as Adam LaRoche dominated with the bat all season long. This year, however, LaRoche will no longer be with the Nationals. Instead, former Gold Glove award-winning third baseman Ryan Zimmerman will slide across the diamond to become the team’s permanent first baseman.
Moving Zimmerman to first base is a great move for the Nationals and for Zimmerman because it will help him stay healthier in 2015. But now that the Face of the Franchise finds himself in a new position, how does he stack up to the other first basemen in the NL East? That’s what we’ll find out in this slideshow.
Here are my Top-5 first basemen in the NL East:
Next: Number Five