Zimmerman's postseason could play into 2017

Frist baseman Ryan Zimmerman had a less than Ryan Zimmerman type regular season. Could his performance in the National League Division Series catapult him into a better 2017? Zimmerman hit .218 for the season. In the postseason, Zimmerman went 6-for-17 (.353) in the 2016 postseason. He has hit .357 in his postseason career. He even started this NLDS going 5-for-11 (.455). Zimmerman was asked prior to NLDS Game 5 about his recent run how it will help him in the future. He mentioned the StatCast statistic showing he has been able to hit balls hard despite creating more outs than hits in the latter part of the season. His average exit velocity on pitches was 94.2 mph, which was No. 14 in all of baseball during the regular season. In the postseason, his single off of Clayton Kershaw October 7 was clocked at 112.7 mph exit velocity, which was second best mark in the postseason to date. "A bunch of you guys told me about that," Zimmerman smiled. "I have no idea what all that stuff means. (Thomas Boswell) is the king of telling me that. Keeps my spirits up. "Yeah, that's baseball. I mean, I'm a pretty streaky hitter; I always have been. I've never really gotten to great starts, and come June, July, August, sometime around then, I would usually kick it into gear. This year for some reason, it never really happened. I feel like I'm in a good spot now. I've had a good series so far. "Baseball is a funny sport, man. It tests you mentally, it tests you physically and you just have to keep going. There's nothing else you can do. Just keep going out there and doing your work and hope that something clicks and you get hot for a little while." Zimmerman did not want to go into the offseason so soon, neither did any of his teammates. But the way he was able to hit in the NLDS should definitely be a positive sign that maybe he can get back to hitting the ball well in 2017. His career average is .278. "This is kind of what you want to play for," Zimmerman said of the postseason. "This is fun to go out there and play baseball on a stage like this and have everyone watching one game or whatever you want to talk about. This is why you play." Zimmerman also said after the Game 3 win that despite all his struggles during the season, he believed he could hit in the postseason. "Nobody is going to feel sorry for you. You just got to go out there and just continue to have confidence in yourself. I feel good right now and hopefully I can keep that going." But after the loss to the Dodgers, Zimmerman is now faced with a career mark of three postseason appearances and not series wins. After the loss Thursday, Zimmerman was asked if he wondered if he ever would advance to an NLCS? "I think a lot of people have played baseball a lot longer than me and never even made the playoffs," Zimmerman said. "I cherish getting to the playoffs. Everyone wants to win the World Series. Everyone wants to get to the next level, get a deep postseason run. Truth is, it's really hard to do. Obviously, play well, get some lucky breaks, and have a few things go your way. I think we should look at the positives. Look at what we've done the last five years. Obviously we're a little disappointed right now, but we did a lot of good things." He also had some wise words on the length of the baseball season and what these guys go through. They play over 200 games. They start in early February. They work out between October and February to get ready. They play baseball pretty much everyday. And then in one game in mid-October it is over. "It's the end of the year," Zimmerman said. "We've been together since February. We've all worked hard. We've achieved a lot of goals, obviously. Not the ultimate goal. Not goals that we sat down and wanted to achieve, but we did a lot of good things. "Any time you put as much time and effort into this, and take time away from your families and do things that, honestly, most people don't even understand what we do, of course it's hard. But at the end of the day, that's what we get paid to do, and we'll enjoy the offseason and come back next year and start all over." Zimmerman has to feel a little better about his game and how he was able to deliver in the postseason. That will help him get ready for 2017 and the promise of another attempt at a deep postseason run with a team equipped for the long haul.