News from workout, a look at tomorrow's intrasquad game

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - When I tweeted this morning that a major storm was plowing through the state of Florida and that the Nationals' workout might get washed out, a player pointed out to me that I should have included the phrase "pending physical." As we all did Tuesday with the Matt Wieters news, and as reporters across the sport do many times a player signs a new contract, we add the stipulation that the deal won't be official until the player passes a physical. Just in case it falls apart at the last minute.

Well, I should've heeded this player's advice. Because sure enough, the rain held off until early afternoon, giving the Nationals enough time to hold their full workout as scheduled outdoors.

The heavens did eventually open up, but not until everyone was comfortably back in the clubhouse and under cover.

"I was just glad we got the work in today, because they were talking rain," manager Dusty Baker said. "They told us 2 o'clock. Weatherman was almost right."

The workout featured another round of live batting practice, with the same pitchers who faced hitters Monday returning to the mound to do it again.

As was the case Monday, off to the side was Max Scherzer, who is not throwing off the mound yet while he waits for the stress fracture in his right ring finger knuckle to fully heal. Scherzer is making progress, though. He played long toss today and was throwing with his standard two-finger fastball grip, something he hadn't been able to do previously in camp without feeling discomfort.

"Max gave us a tremendous amount of health and relief ... when he was playing long toss," Baker said. "I was really shocked he was throwing as hard as he was and as well as he did."

It's still too early to know when Scherzer will begin throwing off a mound and whether he'll have enough time to build up and start opening day. But the recent signs have been encouraging.

Among the pitchers who did face hitters today was Enny Romero, a hard-throwing left-hander the Nationals recently acquired from the Rays. Romero is one of the more intriguing arms in camp, with an average fastball velocity last season of 96.1 mph that ranked behind only Aroldis Chapman among all lefty relievers in the majors.

The knock on Romero is a lack of consistent command, which led to the 28 walks he issued in only 45 2/3 innings last year and certainly contributed to his elevated 5.91 ERA.

But, at least at this early stage of camp, he has impressed the batters who have stepped into the box against him.

"He was the very first pitcher I faced this week," outfielder Chris Heisey said. "That was a wake-up call. He's got a very live arm. I would imagine his spin rate's pretty good, cause his ball really stays up, which is good. It's easy to swing underneath it, which I did a couple times. To be honest with you, I had read that the rap on him was control. But he seemed like he had very good control. For the most part, he was around the plate. And his breaking ball was good enough to keep you off the fastball. He looked good. I was impressed."

Hard throwers still perfecting the art of finding the strike zone are a dime a dozen. But the Nationals are intrigued by Romero, hoping pitching coach Mike Maddux and former staff ace Livan Hernandez (working this spring as a special instructor) can impart their wisdom on him.

"I've heard he's had some flashes of brilliance," Baker said. "I don't know him much. But the guys to a man have said we've got some big arms in this camp. Some of them are minor-league free agents. Some of them went to Japan. And most of the time, it's because of the inability to throw strikes. That's where Mike Maddux comes in. And I told Livan Hernandez to talk to some guys, too, about the importance of throwing strikes. Livo said most of that comes from their inability to relax. Tension is one of the worst things an athlete can have. So we're working on it."

With seven days of workouts now in the books, the Nationals are inching closer to Saturday's Grapefruit League opener against the Mets in Port St. Lucie. They'll take another step toward preparing for game action Thursday when they hold an intrasquad game of sorts on one of the practice fields.

Ideally, the team would like to scrimmage inside The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, but crews are still furiously putting the final touches on the stadium in advance of Tuesday's grand opening against the Astros. So the Nats will have to make do for now on a practice field outside the stadium.

Stephen Strasburg and Tanner Roark are scheduled to start the intrasquad game against each other, with a host of relievers set to follow.