Austin Voth relishing first big league camp

Right-hander Austin Voth is getting acclimated to the Nationals spring training clubhouse, even if he can't hang close to the other pitchers.

Voth, 23, a non-roster invitee, is the only pitcher who's locker is not with the other hurlers. His belongings are on the same side of the clubhouse as all of the position players in Viera, Fla. But Voth doesn't care; he's just thrilled to be in a big league camp for the first time.

"I'm just happy to be here," Voth said in an interview with MASNsports.com's Mark Zuckerman. "I'm close to the kitchen that's a positive. I'm just glad I have a locker.

"It's exciting," he said. "It's something that I've been wanting for awhile, just being around all the big league guys and study them, see their habits, stuff like that, it's a cool thing."

Voth made a giant stride forward in 2015 by pitching an entire season with Double-A Harrisburg and accumulating 28 games, including 27 starts, with a 2.92 ERA over 157 1/3 innings. He had 148 strikeouts and 40 walks, finishing with a 6-7 record. His ERA is 2.70 in his minor league career.

During this past season, Voth gained confidence in his pitches by working on his basic mechanics to a point where he could repeat his delivery well.

"I've taken big steps with finding mechanics that I can throw all three of my pitches for strikes," Voth said. "My off-speed has improved a lot throughout the two years. I've grown in confidence I guess being able to throw at different levels, the Double-A level is a pretty high level and just being able to read hitters and have a familiarity of each level."

Voth doesn't feel much pressure in this initial major league spring training. He certainly wants to do well, however, and prove he belongs.

"I mean I'm not expecting to make the team or anything like that," Voth said. "I want to have fun. I want to impress the coaching staff and just go out and show them what I can do."

So Voth is soaking it all in this first couple of weeks, watching how the Max Scherzers and Stephen Strasburgs of the team go about their business and asking questions to the starters about how they managed their first few camps in the bigs.

"I've been told to just kind of watch what other guys do and study them," Voth said. "Be that fly in the wall. Just kind of absorb everything that's going on. I've been told I'm here to have fun type deal. So I'm just going to enjoy it mostly."

Voth will also take advantage of this time to work with the pitching coaches like Mike Maddux and Paul Menhart to get that precise advice of what it takes to succeed against major league hitters.

"Just sharpen my pitches," Voth said of his focus this month. "Maybe bring a better presence on the mound sometimes. Be more mature sometimes. I tend to get down on myself sometimes when things aren't going my way. Improve that."

Voth said controlling your emotions and staying true to his strengths on the mound are key in those highly pressurized moments when he's one-on-one against the hitter.

"Sometimes when you get so pumped up, you get emotional," Voth said. "You can't let your emotions dictate your feelings and how you portray yourself on the mound because people see that and they can sense things."

Voth has found ways to respond to less-than-ideal results by breaking down his outing pitch by pitch, scenario by scenario as he sits at his locker postgame.

"That would be kind of on my own and reflecting after each game and seeing how well I did each thing during the game," Voth said.

Voth could easily be an early-season spot starter if his upward trend continues. The Nationals have shown confidence with their Double-A pitchers in the past, bringing them up for a spot start when an opening occurs due to injury or a doubleheader.

Voth senses he is closer to this goal.

"I can taste it, yeah," Voth said. "I've just got to keep my head down and keep grinding and eventually, hopefully I'll get there."

MASNSports.com's Mark Zuckerman contributed to this report.

Programming Note: I will be on NBC Sports Radio today at 4 p.m. with host Chris Mannix and Sports Talk on News Channel 8 tonight at 9 p.m. with host Robert Burton talking Nats.