The Washington Nationals are home at the CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches for an early afternoon game in West Palm Beach, Florida. With just 15-days remaining in Florida for Grapefruit League games, we will see if DJ Herz, who is pitching today, impresses enough to grab the No. 5 spot in the starting rotation.
Some players have emerged and we posted up the small sample size leaders in OPS and in WHIP yesterday, and it is incredible how quickly things change. Jorge Lopez is no longer the WHIP leader, and Luis Garcia Jr. is no longer the OPS leader. James Wood leads the team in OPS after he homered again last night on a tape measure oppo shot. Top batting average leaders have a tie between Andres Chaparro and Nasim Nunez at .429. Nunez hit the walk-off double to win last night’s game. What we try to look at is process over results because small sample sizes, as well as the strength of the competition, will skew numbers.
This will be a 12:05 pm start and the game will be available on MASN as well as Nationals Radio via the MLB App. This game is against the St. Louis Cardinals and they will start lefty Steven Matz.
The Nationals improved to 8-5 in Grapefruit League play with the walk-off win. Manager Dave Martinez obviously was pleased with his team. He talked about the value of doing work on the back fields instead of in Grapefruit League games.
“You can focus on what you really want to work on, as opposed to here, you’re worried about: ‘Can I really do this right now?’ That’s the big thing. When we play these games, you’re there to compete. We’ll work on things when we’re on the back fields, but when you play the game, you’re there to compete.”
— Martinez said
Much of Spring Training is about getting the reps in for the veteran players while working on new pitches and mechanics for the pitchers, and batters are working on increasing contact and power. For the players who are trying to make the roster, they are the players who have to impress.
As we know, the key is also staying healthy. Players will be ramped up in their workload as Spring Training continues.
“I woke up early like usual and was just staring at the clock like: ‘When can I go in the field?’ Being around for a while now, that’s a good thing to still be super excited to throw in a back field spring training game.”
— Kyle Finnegan said about pitching on the back field
“I was anxious to throw today, super excited. It’s that natural progression of taking that next step. No matter what you do in the offseason, nothing can prepare you for that first week of spring training, just how you body responds to it. Today was a big step forward.”
Here is the 40-man roster as well as a list of the NRI players you will be seeing. At some point, you might also see players from Minor League camp get some action.
There are 19-days until the Opening Day, and we get to see this lineup today:
