WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - And so the day has come. The clubhouse is full of suitcases and boxes, players are making sure they're not leaving anything behind and there's a different energy than any other day this spring. It's time to go home, and there isn't a person here who isn't thrilled about that fact.
But first, one final game to wrap up the Grapefruit League season. The Nationals - who have a 12-16-2 record this spring, if you care about such things - face the Cardinals in one final...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Max Scherzer wanted to throw 100 pitches Saturday in his final tune-up before his opening day start in Cincinnati. He wound up settling for a pitch count of 93, but seven full innings on the mound, tops among all Nationals starters this spring.
Exceptionally efficient early on - he only needed 40 pitches to complete his first four innings - Scherzer wound up not having a real chance to reach triple digits, unless he wanted to try to convince the coaching staff to let him...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Nationals roster isn't down to 25 players just yet, and it doesn't appear it will be until after the club heads north and plays its final exhibition game Tuesday in D.C. But with a flurry of moves today, the Nats did finally settle a few important matters and codify the final remaining decisions they have to make before Thursday's season opener in Cincinnati.
Today's transactions: Austin L. Adams, Pedro Severino and Andrew Stevenson were optioned to Triple-A...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - If the Nationals needed somebody to step up and rustle them out of their late-spring slumber, who better than Max Scherzer to lead the way?
Five days after a shaky outing against the Marlins in which he served up three homers, Scherzer is mowing down the same Miami lineup in his final tune-up before opening day.
Scherzer is through four scoreless innings having allowed only one hit while striking out six. And he has managed to keep his pitch count to a minimum, throwing...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - We are getting down to the wire now, with only two days of spring training to go. Which means it's decision time. Davey Martinez, Mike Rizzo and others have been behind closed doors much of this morning making some tough calls. So far, the only player I know for sure has been cut is Ryan Raburn, who already went around the clubhouse saying his goodbyes. Raburn, 36, said earlier this spring if he didn't make the team he'd be calling it a career. So this can't be an...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - If there's one position at which the Nationals can boast significant depth, it's in the outfield. Adam Eaton, Michael A. Taylor and Bryce Harper are all locked into starting positions. Brian Goodwin is a versatile fourth outfielder. Howie Kendrick can play either corner position. Victor Robles is waiting in the wings at Triple-A in case one of the starters goes down. Andrew Stevenson and Rafael Bautista gained big league experience last season.
So why did the Nationals...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Nothing that happened tonight - barring injury - was going to change the Nationals' plan to open the season. A.J. Cole will be the No. 5 starter. Jeremy Hellickson will need more time to get himself up to speed after signing a minor league contract one week ago.
Manager Davey Martinez made all that official earlier this afternoon.
"We're going to open up with A.J. Cole being the fifth starter," Martinez said. "He's had a good camp. I like the way he threw all...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - As the clock ticks down on spring training and opening day looms in the near future, the Nationals have a pretty good idea what their 25-man roster will look like.
"We're close," manager Davey Martinez said today. "I won't say we're quite there yet, but we're close. We've still got a few games left. I just want to leave spring training, get to Washington, play Minnesota (in Tuesday's exhibition game) and get through those days healthy and ready to go for...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - It's not exactly ideal to have to play split-squad games this late in the spring. But with an odd number of teams training in both Florida and Arizona, somebody has to split up (or be off) every day of the exhibition season. So the Nationals drew the short straw tonight and will be playing a pair of games: home against the Astros (6:05 p.m. on MASN) and road against the Marlins (7:05 p.m.).
Davey Martinez will be staying here in West Palm Beach to watch A.J. Cole start...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - If you've been paying attention to the Nationals' starting lineups in recent days, you've certainly noticed a new wrinkle by manager Davey Martinez, rarely seen in these parts before but a bit more common around the rest of the National League: The pitcher batting eighth.
It's happened the last three days, with Stephen Strasburg on Tuesday, Gio Gonzalez on Wednesday and Tanner Roark on Thursday night. And, if we are to believe Martinez, it's going to happen...
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - If there's such a thing as the Dog Days of March, this is it. The Nationals head north Sunday night. They open the season in Cincinnati in one week. They have long since practiced every bunt play and every pickoff move. With only a couple of exceptions, hitters have gotten all the at-bats they need and pitchers have thrown all the innings they need.
At this point, everyone simply wants to get through the weekend in one piece and get out of town.
Which doesn't...
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - The Nationals expect Erick Fedde to be a significant part of their big league rotation for a long time. But that day won't be coming quite yet.
Fedde was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse this afternoon, a move the organization's top pitching prospect had sensed was likely for a while, certainly since the Nationals signed veteran Jeremy Hellickson last week.
Though he didn't make the major league roster, Fedde did make an impression on the Nationals' new coaching staff,...
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - If now is the time to start really preparing for the regular season, the Nationals are doing so by playing back-to-back night games. Might as well, right?
This stretch of two games under the lights - unusual for spring training - begins tonight on the road against the Mets and concludes Friday with split-squad night games (home against the Astros, road versus the Marlins).
Adam Eaton is starting in left field and leading off tonight, making this the first time he's...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Perhaps the most difficult roster question the Nationals face in the final days of spring training is how to fill in the final vacancies in their bullpen.
It doesn't help that more vacancies have opened up during the course of the spring. Koda Glover's recurring shoulder woes and now Joaquin Benoit's forearm strain have created some openings that might not previously have existed. Not that there's an easy answer to this quandary.
Let's begin with the bullpen slots...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Gio Gonzalez might as well have been speaking for every ballplayer (and perhaps a few reporters) when he summed up today's rough outing - eight runs allowed in 4 2/3 innings - in simple terms that can be applied to lots of matters that take place in spring training.
"There were more positive results than what we saw out there," the left-hander said. "Don't read into what you see. It's all B.S."
It's easy to say that after a bad start, of course. Why would...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Nationals are going to need to tap into their right-handed bullpen depth to open the season.
Already down one arm all spring when Koda Glover reported to camp with a sore shoulder, the Nats now acknowledge they won't have veteran Joaquin Benoit for opening day after the 40-year-old was diagnosed with a strained forearm.
Benoit, who was signed to a $1 million major league contract one week after camp opened, made three Grapefruit League appearances, most recently...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Daniel Murphy acknowledged what has become obvious over the course of the spring: He won't be on the Nationals' active roster to begin the season.
"I think it's reasonable to expect I won't be in the opening day lineup," the veteran second baseman said this morning.
From the day Murphy had microfracture surgery on his right knee in October, the Nationals qualified their timetable for his recovery by saying they were "hopeful" he'd be ready for opening day. And...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - If you're stuck indoors all day because of the snow back home, you're in luck: Tune into MASN at 1 p.m. and watch the Nationals face the Astros on a sunny, 73-degree afternoon in Florida! (Sorry if that sounds like I'm trying to rub it in. I'm not.)
The whole crew is back in town for the next few days and will have the broadcast of this matchup. It'll be your first chance to see Adam Eaton with your own eyes. It's Eaton's third Grapefruit League game, and he's...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Stephen Strasburg's aversion to pitching on muggy, East Coast summer afternoons is well known. The San Diego native has long proclaimed his preference to take the mound in cool weather vs. hot weather.
But Strasburg also chose to sign a seven-year extension with the Nationals, making Washington (not to mention the rest of the National League East division) his home for the long-term. And that includes South Florida in March, because the conditions Tuesday at FITTEAM...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Ryan Zimmerman played in a Grapefruit League game March 2, going 1-for-2 against the Mets. He hasn't played in another one since, and it doesn't appear he'll be playing in another one until this weekend, sticking to the minor league fields as he has for the last three weeks.
It's a highly unusual way for a major leaguer to prepare for opening day, and one that has left scores of outside observers wondering if something's wrong. To those skeptics, Zimmerman is trying...