Baker confident Zimmerman can break out of recent struggles

First baseman Ryan Zimmerman said earlier this season that he is always been a second half player when it comes to offensive production. That has played out in his career splits.

For his career, Zimmerman has hit .254, .282 and .231 in the first three months of the season, but in July, August and September/October he has rebounded to hit .309, .305 and .293.

His power numbers have accelerated in his career in the last three segments of each season. For his career, he has had a .501, .523 and .499 slugging percentage for each month segment from July to September/October.

But through June and into early July, Zimmerman has yet to hit his stride, and the last few weeks have been very tough on him at the plate.

His average is down to .215 through 72 games, and he has gone just 8-for-56 (.143) his last 15 games. The righty is also 2-for-25 (.080) his last seven contests.

"I think right now he's our hard luck guy, which happens," manager Dusty Baker said. "I'm just urging him to (remain positive). You got to remain positive no matter what anybody else says, no matter what the public says, no matter what your batting average says, this is when you have to call upon your past.

"I have had people write me and tell me to bench Zimmerman. Okay, then what? Zim's a streaky player. But it's easier to stick with Zim because he has a track record. A guy doesn't have a track record, you don't know what he's going to do, what he might do."

Injuries have played a part in Zimmerman's past seasons. He has missed time with a right shoulder issue, plantar fasciitis, torn ligaments in his thumb, a left oblique strain, a strained right hamstring, a left abdominal strain and a small labral tear in his left shoulder.

Each time he has found a way to rebound, and many of those bounce backs occurred in the final three months of the season. By all indications this year, it hasn't been an injury that has slowed his start at the plate.

"We got a pretty good idea about Zim, as long as he's healthy," Baker said. "Water is going to seek its own level to within a few home runs, a few RBIs and a few points in the batting average. That's why I just know that he's going to have his time to carry us big time."

Of course, the season is far from over. It's early July. Zimmerman has said he is second half guy. The numbers prove that. Baker says "carriers" can carry the club with their big bat for a couple of months in a row, and accumulate half their season stats in that 62-day time frame.

"I still believe that the carriers do 50 percent of their damage in about 30 percent of the time," Baker said. "I noticed that with Reggie Jackson. Say if they're a 100 RBI guy and they have two months of 25 RBIs and that's half of their RBIs and they have two months of 10 or 12 home runs, and that's half their home runs. But you have to have the other guys around them that can carry the team while they're struggling."

Baker said they have had players like Bryce Harper, Daniel Murphy, Danny Espinosa and Wilson Ramos carry the offense at times this season. The key to a great team is getting more than one of those "carriers" to do it at the same time. Zimmerman has been that guy many times in his career.

"Just like Harp had his time to carry us, just like Ramos and Murph have been consistent in their carrying times," Baker explained. "Everybody can't carry. There's a lot of people out there that are helpers. The helpers can carry you for a few days. But the big boys, they can carry you."