NATIONALS QUICK WRAP
Score: Marlins 5, Nats 5
Recap: Erick Fedde, getting perhaps his last chance to start in a Grapefruit League game this spring, lasted only 1 2/3 innings. The 24-year-old prospect was battered around for five runs on four hits, three walks and a hit batter while throwing 51 pitches during a disappointing performance. A Nationals lineup made up mostly of backups was shut out for four innings before finally springing to life. Wilmer Difo drove in a run with a fifth-inning...
JUPITER, Fla. - Managers always have concerns when one of their players leaves camp for several weeks to play in the World Baseball Classic. Those concerns only grow when one of their players leaves camp for several weeks and then barely plays in the WBC.
Such is the case right now with Daniel Murphy, who in the 12 days since he left the Nationals to go play for Team USA has taken a total of 11 game at-bats, none in the last week.
Murphy, who finished second in National League MVP voting last...
JUPITER, Fla. - Hello from Roger Dean Stadium, where the Nationals seem to play every couple of days. Today they're facing the Marlins, and sending their top pitching prospect to the mound.
Erick Fedde isn't going to make the opening day rotation, but because Tanner Roark is pitching in the World Baseball Classic and Max Scherzer has yet to pitch in Grapefruit League games - that will change the next turn around the rotation, by the way - the Nationals have been able to get a good look at...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - There are any number of ways to evaluate Gio González's performance so far this spring, and all of them are positive.
Start with an 0.75 ERA in four outings. Then consider he has allowed only eight batters to reach base in 12 innings of work. Opponents are hitting a scant .135 against him. And he has issued only three walks.
All of that is great, especially for a left-hander was a model of inconsistency last season, often maddeningly so.
Here, though, is perhaps the...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Max Scherzer didn't need to say much this afternoon. His smile and upbeat mood said enough about his state of mind after an encouraging start in a minor league game.
"Now I feel back," he said.
The venue - Field 4 outside The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches in front of a few dozen fans - might not have suggested a full return to normalcy, but that was less important to Scherzer and the Nationals than the manner in which he pitched against the Mets' Triple-A squad.
Using...
NATIONALS QUICK WRAP
Score: Nationals 3, Mets 1
Recap: Gio González authored the best start of an already strong spring, holding the Mets without a hit over five innings. The left-hander put only one man on base (via walk) and quickly erased him with a double play. In four Grapefruit League starts now, González has surrendered only one run and five hits in 12 innings, walking three while striking out seven. Vance Worley took over and retired the side in the sixth, but Jacob Turner...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - It's only been three weeks of games, spring training games at that, so no one should draw any dramatic conclusions about its long-term implications. But those who have been watching Bryce Harper at the plate in the Grapefruit League can't help but notice a significant improvement in his swing.
Harper enters today's game against the Mets sporting a .308 batting average and .438 on-base percentage with five homers.
Among the notable differences from last season, when...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Nationals host the Mets this afternoon inside The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, but there will be an interesting development taking place at the same time outside the ballpark. Max Scherzer is scheduled to start a minor league game, the first time he's facing another team this spring and trying out his three-fingered fastball grip. All things considered, Scherzer's outcome may be more important than anything that takes place in the big league game.
As for that...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Oliver Pérez and Jhonatan Solano would rather not have been in the clubhouse at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches yesterday morning, rejoining the Nationals teammates they said goodbye to 10 days earlier en route to the World Baseball Classic.
And each player nearly had reason not to return to West Palm Beach just yet, each having seen his home country's team come within a whisker of advancing past the first round of the international tournament over the weekend.
For...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - If everything goes according to the Nationals' plan, A.J. Cole won't be in their opening day rotation. But with Tanner Roark still pitching in the World Baseball Classic and Max Scherzer still avoiding Grapefruit League games while testing his new three-fingered fastball grip, Cole is going to continue getting starts against big league opponents.
And what would the Nationals like to see from the 25-year-old right-hander in however many more starts he gets this...
NATIONALS QUICK WRAP
Score: Astros 8, Nationals 2
Recap: A.J. Cole was roughed up by the Houston lineup, allowing seven runs on six hits and three walks over 3 2/3 innings. Cole allowed a pair of homers (to Brian McCann and Jon Kemmer) and also walked in a run while throwing 73 total pitches. ... The Nationals scored two runs in the top of the second thanks to Ryan Zimmerman's infield single, Michael A. Taylor's triple to right-center and Stephen Drew's RBI single to left.
Need to know:...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - From the day they signed Matt Wieters, Derek Norris knew his time with the Nationals would be short-lived. The end finally came this morning, when the club granted the 28-year-old catcher his unconditional release.
Norris, who had been acquired from the Padres in early December presumably to be the Nationals' starting catcher, now becomes a free agent hoping to sign with another club before opening day.
"With two weeks left in spring training, I feel like I've done...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Hello again from The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. It's good to be back after a little mid-spring trip home (complete with some unexpected snow shoveling). Thanks as always to Pete Kerzel for helping out in my absence. I'll be here through the remainder of camp, and things should start ramping up soon as the big decisions have to be made and the regulars start playing a lot more.
Speaking of the regulars ... almost all of them are in the lineup for today's "road"...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - There is no way to adequately prepare in only two spring training starts for pitching in a high-level international competition at the end of the week. Tanner Roark knows this. He also knows he has done everything he can so far this spring to prepare himself as best he can for his next assignment: the powerhouse Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic.
"I feel like I'm well prepared," the Nationals right-hander said. "Body feels good, arm feels good, mind...
NATIONALS QUICK WRAP
Score: Twins 4, Nationals 2
Recap: In his final tune-up before the World Baseball Classic, Tanner Roark looked as sharp as he could, tossing four scoreless innings on 57 pitches. The right-hander scattered two hits and struck out three, setting himself up well to next pitch for Team USA against the Dominican Republic on Saturday night at Marlins Park. Dusty Baker's lineup featured seven regulars, but those hitters couldn't manage much against Twins left-hander Hector...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Shawn Kelley doesn't know who the Nationals closer is going to be to start the season. Neither does Blake Treinen nor Joe Nathan nor Joe Blanton nor Dusty Baker. (Well, maybe Baker knows deep down who he intends to have pitching the ninth inning, but he's publicly insisting that decision hasn't been made yet.)
To outsiders, this appears to be cause for concern, maybe even a major problem. How can a team as good as the Nationals, a team trying to win its fourth...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - It's a familiar sight in spring training ballparks across Florida and Arizona, managers and coaches watching the game not from the dugout but from folding chairs stationed behind the on-deck circles, on the field of play.
Given how many players there typically are in spring training, and given the less-than-official nature of these games, many managers and coaches like to sit in those chairs to get a better view of pitchers and batters.
All the while, though, they know...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Today marks the last time we'll see Tanner Roark, Daniel Murphy and four others in Nationals uniforms for a little while. Later this afternoon, the Nats' six representatives in the World Baseball Classic are set to leave camp and join their home countries to play in the international tournament. (Along with Team USA's Roark and Murphy, Rafael MartÃn and Oliver Pérez will pitch for Mexico, Jhonatan Solano will catch for Colombia and Enny Romero will pitch for the...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - We have reached, believe it or not, just about the halfway point of spring training. (Time flies when you're having fun, huh?) Which means there has been ample time to start to get to know both the complex at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches and the entire area.
I knew very little previously about this part of South Florida, aside from having driven through it on a few occasions over the years. And there's still plenty more to learn. But given the fact I'm heading...
JUPITER, Fla. - This was shaping up to be an entirely positive afternoon for the Nationals, who got three scoreless (and efficient) innings from Gio González and then five more scoreless innings from a parade of relievers to carry a 1-0 lead over the Cardinals into the bottom of the ninth at Roger Dean Stadium.
And then things took a decided turn for the worse.
St. Louis' Patrick Wisdom launched a game-tying home run to left to lead off the inning, leaving the game suddenly tied 1-1. Then...