Ryan Zimmerman vs. Bob Zimmerman (aka Bob Dylan)

Yesterday was Washington Nationals 3rd baseman Ryan Zimmerman's 23rd birthday. Zimmerman was last year's NL Rookie of the Year runner up. Combine those two facts and I started to wonder how Zimmerman did in the supposed sophomore slump second year. Give me another second to think about it and I start to wonder how Ryan Zimmerman's second season compared against Bob Zimmerman's (aka Bob Dylan) second season.

This year Ryan Zimmerman's numbers are pretty much down across the board with the exceptions of scoring more runs and hitting 4 more home runs than last year. If Ryan Zimmerman was a recording star - the name of his second album (season) probably would be Down Twenty as he has 20 fewer RBI and his batting average and OBP are also down 20 points.

Even with being slightly down this year vs last - Ryan Zimmerman is still the biggest star on the Nationals and is easily one of the top 10 3rd basemen in all of baseball.

Bob Zimmerman's (aka Bob Dylan) first album Bob Dylan was not memorable at all. If there was new folk singer of the year voting - then Dylan would have been lucky to fall into the "also receiving votes" category. The album only sold 5,000 copies. Bob Dylan's breakthrough came with his second album (season) The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. This album included all-time classics such as Blowing in the Wind, A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall and Masters of War.

Ryan Zimmerman may have had the advantage with his rookie season but Bob Dylan clearly took the lead with his sophomore effort.

If a Ryan Zimmerman / Bob Zimmerman parallel career comes to fruition then that's great news for Nationals fans. It means that Ryan Zimmerman will have a long career with at least his three best seasons yet to come (I'd rank Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde and Blood on the Tracks as superior to The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan).

It's not all rosy though. If the comparison holds up then that means that Ryan Zimmerman may do something to infuriate his early fans the way Bob Dylan did by going to electric guitars. Maybe leaving Washington as a free agent would do it. Late in his career Ryan Zimmerman may also convert to Judaism.