A Few Good Men: 7 - Zimmermann

It's week two along our journey to 44 player reviews covering each and every player that graced NatsTown's presence this past season. We will continue to tweak the process based on your comments, so keep those going.
Jordan Zimmermann - Age 25
How he became a Nat: Drafted in the 2nd round of the 2007 MLB First Year Player Draft.
The Raw Numbers:
IP - 161.1
ERA - 3.18
FIP - 3.16
WHIP - 1.15
K/9 - 6.92
WAR - 3.4
Key Stat: BB/9 - 1.73. In his first full year back after Tommy John Surgery Jordan Zimmermann exhibited far better command than in any of his previous Major League seasons. His BB/9 was so good that it ranked 8th best in all of baseball (among starters), ahead of such names as Cole Hamels, Clayton Kershaw, and Justin Verlander.

Best Game: After such a fantastic year, it was tough to narrow down just which game was Zimmermann's most dominant - but we've settled on June 12th against the Friars of San Diego (founded by the Germans). In this game Jordan went 7 innings, gave up just 4 hits, gave up 0 runs, walked just 1, and struck out a whopping 10 batters - with an incredible 14 swing-and-miss strikes.

Worst Game: July 19th against Houston - a 7-6 Nats loss. Jordan went just 5 innings against one of the worst teams in baseball. His line for the day was 5 IP. 7 hits, 6 ER, 0 BB, and 5 K.
CapBall Grade: A. What more can you ask for coming off of Tommy John Surgery? Zimmermann was easily the Nats best pitcher - not just this year, but his 3.4 WAR was the Nats highest for a SP since the 2005 season when Esteban Loaiza and John Patterson posted a 4.6 and 3.9 WAR respectively. I'm not sure if the Nationals will be limiting Jordan Zimmermann's innings next year, but it looked like he had a bit more left in the tank at the end of this season.

2012 Nats Status: Jordan Zimmermann will be the Nats Opening Day starter - you heard it here first. The Organization will try to keep the pressure off of Strasburg as much as possible, so JZimm will most likely be given the nod due to his veteran status and stellar 2011 comeback. Also, he is arbitration eligible for the first time this year so he should be getting a raise to about $1.8 million (per MLBTR).