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Of the 55 players who appeared in uniform for the 2005 Washington Nationals, only 4 are still with the team. Pitcher Livan Hernandez, who returned late last year for a second tour; pitcher Jason Bergmann, who arrived August 28 of that year; third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who was brought up in September; and shortstop Cristian Guzman. Guzman, obviously, is the only one who's been with
There wasn't a lot of fanfare when the Nationals signed outfielder Willy Taveras to a minor league contract on February 15. He'd been DFA'ed by Oakland right after the A's had acquired him from Cincinnati for Aaron Miles. The $4 million he's owed this season will be paid by the A's, and inasmuch as it appears he'll be part of the outfield picture for the
Depending upon what happens between next Monday and October, perhaps we'll look back at this spring training as the coming-of-age of righthander Craig Stammen. Stammen's performance has been fairly notable over the past few weeks. He's pitched just over 14 innings, allowing 5 earned runs on 10 hits and 4 walks. He's also struck out ten hitters, earning a win, a loss and a save.
Chris Coste can catch, but whether he catches in Washington this season is yet to be determined. Coste was claimed on waivers today from the Mets, where he hit .308 this spring in 10 exhibition games. At 37, he's a career back-up with a .272 lifetime BA in the big leagues. One NL scout I spoke with describes Coste's receiving skills as "average," but says
It's no shock that Ian Desmond will be the opening day shortstop. Desmond has followed up his impressive big league September with some solid hitting this spring. His 12 RBI in exhibition play lead the club. That said, it's safe to say that Cristian Guzman will still get a lot of starts at short, and should Desmond hit the wall, could end up back with
This morning I was telling someone that it wouldn't surprise me if the Nats signed Mike MacDougal to a minor league contract after his release by the Marlins. By the afternoon, that's just what they'd done. Mike led all major league relievers in save percentage last year, 20 out of 21. Based on that stat - and being arbitration eligible - he might've received upwards
The news that Jordan Zimmermann is throwing already - and is ahead of schedule on rehab - is one of those unexpected bits of news that can cause those proverbial visions of sugarplums. If it really is all about starting pitching - and it's hard to dispute that - the thought that the rotation in September might be (not necessarily in this order) Lannan, Marquis,
I can't imagine anyone is terribly shocked by the minor league demotions of first-round picks Stephen Strasburg and Drew Storen. GM Mike Rizzo is absolutely right: the track record for players jumping almost straight from the amateur ranks to the major leagues is abysmal. Starting Strasburg off at Double-A is a little surprising though; I thought he'd start at Potomac in high-A. Storen was sent
When I was a high school senior, a new student arrived at Jefferson High School and ended up in my mixed chorus class. I remember his name, but that's not really important. He was clearly older than the rest of us; it turned out he was 20. He kept pretty much to himself, but the stories and rumors around him were plentiful: He'd been in
The Elijah Dukes experiment, project, call it what you will, ended today with the outfielder's release by Washington. In 188 games with Washington over two seasons, Dukes batted .256 with 21 home runs and 102 RBI. Dukes was acquired by the Nats from Tampa Bay in December 2007 for minor league pitcher Glenn Gibson. Without getting into specifics, let's just say that Elijah was considered
Home runs by Mench, Guzman, Zimmerman, and a grand slam by Harris, some decent pitching, and - at long last - a spring training victory in Viera, a 12-3 pasting of the Marlins. Guzman's shot came as a lefthanded hitter, a drive that cleared the right field fence. Last night in BP he hit some impressive shots to left as a righty swinger. The shortstop
VIERA - It's a fairly sparse crowd here for the Nats and Marlins, but the lack of ambient crowd noise is making for an interesting day. You can hear home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt clearly on ball/strike calls, and on a checked swing, you hear him clearly yell "Did he go?" at the first base ump. Craig Stammen is really popping Wil Nieves' glove, and
VIERA - When you talk with Nationals' manager Jim Riggleman about his potential rotation, it's perfectly apparent that he beiieves that Garrett Mock is a very strong contender for a spot. Not that Riggleman will guarantee Mock a spot; he's non-committal on that possibility, and Mock doesn't feel like he's been given any guarantees. Tonight's performance against Atlanta, while not without flaws, won't hurt his
I encountered one of Brevard County's finest an hour ago when I went out to my car to get a jacket. He spotted my media tag and asked me if the fans in Washington were as excited about Stephen Strasburg as the fans in Florida seem to be. I replied that they were likely pretty jazzed about his arrival at Nats Park, whenever that turned
VIERA - The Nationals are prepared to head into the season with only one lefty - Sean Burnett - in the bullpen. Six players were cut today. Five were optioned to the minor leagues, and Ron Villone was released. Manager Jim Riggleman admitted it was tough telling Villone he was being let go, but was confident Ron would pitch in the major leagues this year.
VIERA - It's no secret that Adam Dunn isn't yet an average player defensively. As a full-time first baseman, however, he's clearly focused on improving those skills. He'll never be a Don Mattingly or a Mickey Vernon or a Wes Parker or any other slick fielding first baseman of the past you might remember. But le's be real honest about this: when you produce offense
VIERA - They tell me this was the nicest day, weather-wise, they've had here since spring training started. Low 70's, partly cloudy, a nice breeze, and Stephen Strasburg on the mound against the St. Louis Cardinals. It wasn't a pretty result - a 7-3 loss - but Strasburg tossed three scoreless frames, giving him 5 innings of shutout ball through two starts. I got down
Consecutive weather-related cancellations. Tomorrow is another day. Actually, tomorrow I fly down to Florida for a few days in Viera. Stephen Strasburg is scheduled to throw on Sunday against St, Louis, so I'm looking forward to that. Livan Hernandez will follow SS to the mound for his first spring training innings this month. I'll be on hand Saturday for the first couple of hours of
So much for that planned "All-Star Tribute to Eddie Guardado" downtown this summer. Seriously, the Nationals' release today of Guardado - and fellow lefty Shawn Estes - shows that these guys were never really counted on to make the big league staff. True, they got minimal mound time in the exhibition games - two innings for Eddie, one frame for Shawn - it's likely how
Richmond, Virginia has a new minor league club this year, the Flying Squirrels of the Eastern League. The Squirrels are affiliated with the San Francisco Giants, and 2010 is the last year of that working agreement; it's also the final year of the Nationals' deal with Harrisburg. It's no secret that many in the Nats' organization would like to see Richmond as Washington's Double-A affiliate
Twenty-seven pitches. Fifteen strikes. No runs. Two hits. Two K's. Okay, he didn't strike everyone out. He changed speeds pretty well. Showed he could fall behind in the count and still win the battle against a pretty good hitting club. Strasburg kept the ball down pretty effectively; I suppose when you can throw that hard you don't concern yourself that much with the wind. His
There is little if anything less relevant in baseball than a team's won-loss record during the exhibition season. If you're a longtime fan, you already know that. Yet, it seems many fans get all bent out of shape if their team doesn't come blasting out of the gates March 1. In 2008 spring training, the Nats and Phillies finished with identical 12-18 records. As I
About 30 years ago, when I was doing a nightly show on 1500 in Washington, someone called in and asked if I thought I'd see a female major league player in my lifetime. I responded that, while there was a strong institutional bias in the game against women participants - witness what's happened with the handful of women umpires in the minors over the years
My spring training travel plans are complete - I head south on 3/13 - and maybe it was that knowledge that triggered a pretty bizarre dream last night. If you've been to spring training before, you'll see that after a pitcher throws his prescribed innings (or number of pitches) he runs in the outfield, while the game is in progress. They've been doing it that
I like baseball movies, but frequently they make me crazy. "A League of Their Own" was on cable this morning, and in general, it's a fairly accurate representation of the old All American Girl's Professional Baseball League. Until the last 20 minutes or so. In the championship game scene, when Kit goes for an inside-the-park home run after driving in the game-tying run, she crashes
