VIERA, Fla. - ESPN's Buster Olney and John Kruk stopped by Nationals camp on Sunday. After taking in practice and talking with many of the players, the two discussed which Nationals players were the ones to watch in a 2015 season filled with so many expectations. With a star-studded rotation dominating the headlines, along with a lineup including Anthony Rendon and Bryce Harper, Olney's response may surprise you. "When you look at this team, it's clear the biggest weakness on paper is their...

Start spreading the news ... Grapefruit League action begins this week! The first Nationals spring training game will be played Thursday, March 5 at 1:30 p.m. MASN HD will air its first spring training game of the season on Saturday, March 7 at 1 p.m. While we await live Grapefruit League baseball, catch five "Nationals Classics" this week on MASN HD. Here's what's on deck: Monday, March 2, 10 p.m.: Games played between the Orioles and Nationals usually have a flair for the dramatic. May...

SARASOTA, Fla. - Infielder Paul Janish, who underwent surgery 2 1/2 weeks ago to remove bone chips from his right elbow, will take ground balls for the first time Tuesday and make throws this weekend. Janish's goal is to play in his first game March 20 or 21. "Relatively speaking, it feels about as well as it can up to this point. Probably a little bit ahead of schedule, which is a difficult thing to kind of expedite on the training room side of it," said Janish, who signed a minor league...

I've got good news, Birdland. Grapefruit League games begin for the Orioles on Tuesday, March 3 and MASN HD will air its first spring training game of the year on Thursday, March 5 at 7 p.m. While we rejoice in the return of live Grapefruit League baseball, be sure to catch five "Orioles Classics" this week. Here's what's on deck: Monday, March 2, 1 p.m.: Oriole Park at Camden Yards has been the home of the Orioles since 1992, but many fans still have memories from Memorial Stadium. On...

VIERA, Fla. - ESPN's tour bus rolled into Viera on Sunday to preview the Nationals during a special midday presentation of "SportsCenter." Buster Olney and John Kruk of "Baseball Tonight" and anchor Bram Weinstein interviewed several Nats players, including Bryce Harper and Max Scherzer, throughout the morning. Afterward, I had a chance to sit down with Kruk on the bus for a conversation about the Nats and the upcoming season. Kruk, of course, played in the majors for 10 seasons as a first...

When it comes to the Orioles offense, one much-discussed stat category is on-base percentage. We know the O's are somewhat lacking there. Their .311 team OBP last year ranked 11th in the American League. But the Orioles were at least within sniffing distance of the league average mark of .316 in that category. But in another stat category, the Orioles ranked last in the AL, last in the majors and were not even close to league average. That category is stolen bases. The Orioles had just 44 as a...

SARASOTA, Fla. - The Orioles are down to their final day of strictly workouts before their first exhibition game on Tuesday against the Tigers in Lakeland, Fla. Players have reached the point in camp where they're ready for the competition, ready to do something different besides going field to field for various drills, throwing off practice mounds and hitting in the cage. They want to face an opponent and reduce the distance between themselves and opening day. Yesterday's intrasquad game...

VIERA, Fla. - Seems like Danny Espinosa is taking most of his fielding reps with Ian Desmond at shortstop while Yunel Escobar and Dan Uggla are handling second base. But the focus this spring training is on improving Espinosa's production at the plate. The career switch-hitter continues to take extra batting practice every day as he attempts to transition exclusively to a right-handed hitter. As Nationals manager Matt Williams told us earlier, that means spending more time standing in the box...

SARASOTA, Fla. - A scoreless tie in an intrasquad game still held a certain measure of significance for a few players beyond facing live pitching and hitting on the first day of March. Matt Wieters caught for the first time since May, though he didn't make any throws to second base. Manny Machado batted for the first time since Aug. 11 and lined out to center field in his first trip to the plate. Rule 5 pick Jason Garcia was so impressive in his one inning of work, a few players moved from the...

VIERA, Fla. - Nationals pitchers threw to live hitters for the first time in spring training this morning. Though very few swings were taken, it does serve to be beneficial for pitchers to have actual hitters digging in the box as opposed to just throwing bullpen sessions. Fans scurried to the practice field where Max Scherzer was taking the mound to get a look at the newest Nats star. "First time out there facing hitters and it actually seemed like I knew what I was doing," Scherzer said....