Baker on cuts, González's goals and more

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Nationals made their first cuts of the spring today, sending five pitchers to minor league camp so they could get more frequent work.

Right-handers Michael Broadway, Derek Eitel, Kyle McGowin and Wander Suero, and left-hander Tim Collins were all non-roster invitees to camp. They've been reassigned to minor league camp (players on the 40-man roster are optioned, others are reassigned).

"We were getting to a point where guys are either backing up, especially the pitchers, or getting one inning, and you got to stretch them out at some point of time," manager Dusty Baker said.

There were no huge surprises in the group. Eitel had the most appearances with four, though McGowin, acquired from the Angels in the Danny Espinosa trade in December, made a March 2 start against Houston and picked up a win with two scoreless innings of three-hit ball.

Collins, 27, has yet to throw a pitch in a game this spring. He's attempting a comeback from his second Tommy John ligament replacement surgery, performed last March, after his original elbow graft failed.

Additionally, Baker said he would today begin sending some hitters over to minor league camp to get in some additional work that isn't available on the major league side.

"Minor league games don't start until the 16th and I'm going to send a couple of guys over today that I think either need at-bats or need to get their stroke together," Baker said.

* Baker likes that left-hander Gio González is setting some lofty goals this season, like wanting to make the All-Star team.

"He's set the bar kind of high already for himself because he wants to make the All-Star team, but it's not that high because he's already made one, correct?" Baker said. "I like guys to have goals and to set goals for themselves."

González has been one of the most durable pitchers in his five seasons with the Nationals, never starting fewer than 27 games and four times exceeding 30 starts. Last year, he went 11-11 with a 4.57 ERA in 32 starts.

"I know Gio is better than a .500 pitcher. He's won ... (21) games once. Well, you win 21 and you can win 22. Everybody talks about career years. Well, I don't really believe that. The hard part is doing it the first time. We got to get him back to that confidence because he had to have supreme confidence when he won 21. He's worked hard, he wants it. And we need him. We need him badly."

Though González's name was frequently mentioned in offseason trade rumors, Baker said there was no momentum to move the southpaw.

"Everybody was hollering, 'Trade Gio! Trade Gio!' but there's something there we haven't tapped in a while," the manager said.

* According to a story in the Miami Herald, the Marlins are taking a unique approach with submarining reliever Brad Ziegler, one of the many guys with ninth-inning experience who was connected to the closer-poor Nationals this winter.

Ziegler, who signed a two-year, $16 million deal with the Marlins in mid-December, has yet to pitch in a Grapefruit League game, and Miami skipper Don Mattingly says he won't show the right-hander's pronounced down-under delivery in games against the Nationals and Mets - National League East foes - in spring training.

"I've faced submarine guys," Baker said. "You've got to have a theory and philosophy on how to hit them. I faced Gene Garber and Kent Tekulve, and those guys are nasty. But you've got to have an idea. Some of our guys have already faced him ... when he was in Arizona. We haven't faced in him in a couple of years."

There are few sidearming or submarine pitchers in the major leagues and Mattingly wants to keep Ziegler under wraps. Hitters have often said that video does little to prepare you for facing such a pitcher because the deception in their delivery makes it difficult to pick up the pitch.

"If everybody threw from down under, it wouldn't be no big deal," Baker said. "You know what I mean? Because you'd get used to facing down under. But the fact that you don't face many down unders ... You're not used to picking up the ball down here, you're used to picking the ball up up here. I just urge my guys that you've got to learn to pick it up down there."

Ultimately, said Baker, it's up to the hitter to make the adjustment.

"If you can hit, you can figure out a way," he said.