Fresh off Carolina League title, P-Nats will be good again with new cast

The high Single-A Potomac Nationals roster for 2015 has not been officially announced, but there is a very good chance that a lot of the top players from low Single-A Hagerstown will move up as they do each season. Pitchers Reynaldo Lopez and Lucas Giolito and center fielder Rafael Bautista are likely to be alongside players such as infielders Drew Ward and Wilmer Difo, and catcher Spencer Kieboom. The Suns put up gaudy offensive numbers and featured a pitching staff that stopped opponents from big innings. That group of Nationals prospects can do the same thing up a level. "That group is exciting and they have had a lot of success," Potomac manager Tripp Keister said. "Two years ago, they won the GCL and set the record. Then most of those kids came within five or six outs of winning the (South Atlantic League championship) series last year. It's exciting for me and the staff as well because a lot of those kids I've only heard about or seen in instructional league." Keister's P-Nats won the Carolina League title last season, and having managed with Hagerstown, knows the step up prospects must make to be successful at the next level, which is the goal of each player in the minors. "I think it's a little quicker league, a little better league," Keister said recently about the Carolina League. "The part that really gets overlooked in this league is there's only eight teams and you play the seven teams so many times. You need to learn to make judgments. "If you have a weakness, it will get exploited. This league can humble you in a hurry. But if you are smart and you keep working as a hitter, if you recognize how pitchers are trying to get you out and what they are trying to do to you, you can make your adjustments and have success." Low minor leagues are known for brutal road trips. The prospects cheer when they find out they will get a "sleeper" bus that has beds built in so they can stretch out. Keister said the trips out of Woodbridge, Va., up and down the I-95 corridor will be a bit easier. "I do think that (the Carolina League) is a little bit better travel-wise than some of the leagues that they have been in, too," Keister said. "From having coached in the (South Atlantic) League, there's some 10-, 13-hour bus rides you don't have in this league. That's a little bit better. Just learning how to take care of yourself, and being ready to play and getting your routine. Usually the players in this league, it's not their first year. They've been through the rigors of a long season, so they know how to approach each day and how to prepare each day. That's something that I just help with them." Keister guided the P-Nats to the title last season and this year will be a totally different roster, but he knows what to tell the troops down the stretch to figure out how to get three wins in September. "I felt last year we almost had two separate teams as it was because we sent eight or nine guys up at the break," he said. "So we got another group. That's why I really felt what those kids did last year was pretty special. They won both halves and I thought there was a little bit of a different team from first half to second half, too." Potomac opens the 2015 campaign with a seven-game homestand beginning April 9 against the Lynchburg Hillcats.