Before I talk about some of the pitchers who give me, and others, problems, I want to talk about my hitting. I feel pretty good at the plate. Obviously the average isn’t as high as you’d want, but I’ve hit more home runs than last year and still have a pretty good RBI total. The average is the easiest thing to fix. The big thing is that you feel comfortable.

There are only a few guys who hit .300, hit 30 home runs and drive in 100. So I’m not worried. All it takes is one week to get your average up 15-20 points.

As for the pitchers, two of the toughest I’ve faced are on the team we just played: Atlanta.

1. Tim Hudson

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Nothing he throws is straight. The fastball sinks and it’s hard; 90-94 mph with a lot of sink. It seems like you’re always hitting on top of the ball and beating it into the ground. It looks like such a good pitch to hit and then at the last second it dives down. And he has a slider. All his pitches start at the same spot and then one goes left, one goes right and then he has a split that goes straight down.

2. John Smoltz

He’s more of a fastball pitcher and is straighter, but he throws on either side of the plate and then he obviously has a slider and a split. He’ll throw any pitch at any time. It could be 2-0 or 3-1 and he’ll flip a curve up there. He might only throw two curveballs a game. And just because the bases are loaded and it’s a 3-2 count doesn’t mean he’ll throw you a fastball.

3 and 4. The Dodgers’ Derek Lowe and Arizona’s Brandon Webb

Any of the sinkerball guys. That’s the hardest pitch for me to lay off because it starts down the middle and looks like a good pitch to hit and it suddenly dives in and you either foul it off your shin or you ground out. You have to look for a ball that’s out away from you and that’s hard to do because it almost starts off away and comes back in.

5. New York Mets’ Billy Wagner

When you face someone who throws 97, 98 mph you have to look for a fastball and then he throws a slider. It’s really not fair. You just hope he makes a mistake. You want to make a closer throw some pitches and get their pitch count up, but at the same time you want to swing at the first couple pitches because that’s usually the only time you’ll get a good fastball to hit. If they get ahead with the first pitch or two, now you’re on the defensive.

As told to The Examiner’s John Keim.

Nats third baseman Ryan Zimmerman is one of baseball’s rising stars and, at 22, the face of the franchise. Now he’ll share his thoughts with The Examiner’s readers each week throughout the baseball season.