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We recently upgraded our comment system to improve reliability, performance, and long-term control, and we’re currently running both systems during the transition. This shift moves us away from an external service to a system we run and control directly—meaning we own the content and can continue improving it over time. We’ve also reduced the comment refresh delay from about 30 seconds to 10 seconds, making it much closer to real-time.
We understand there have been frustrations and increased feedback, and we’re actively working to improve things. What we ask is simple: use the system and give it a fair shot. If you run into issues, please submit them through the support form so we can track and fix them properly. Repeated complaints without details don’t help us solve problems—we appreciate your patience as we continue refining the experience.
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The Nats head to Port St. Lucie for a 6:10pm start time on this televised game at Tradition Field as Lucas Giolito gets the start opposite Bartolo Colon who starts for the New York Mets.
The Nats travel roster has a few starters and most noticeably is Daniel Murphy and Ryan Zimmerman. Ex-Met Matt den Dekker will start as the DH and yesterday’s walk-off hero Chris Heisey moves up to the 5th spot in the starting line-up.
Of special note, David Wright will start his first game of the Spring as he deals with spinal stenosis.
Michael A. Taylor CF
Daniel Murphy 2B
Stephen Drew 3B
Ryan Zimmerman 1B
Chris Heisey RF
Danny Espinosa SS
Reed Johnson LF
Jose Lobaton C
Matt den Dekker DH
Lucas Giolito RHP
More details to follow:
The #Nats have optioned catcher Pedro Severino to Triple-A Syracuse.
The Nationals beat the Braves on St. Patrick’s Day on a 3 run Walk-Off Home Run by non-roster invitee Chris Heisey. There were lessons learned by the player hitting in front of Heisey who made this walk-off possible. Jason Martinson has never played in the Major Leagues as Matt den Dekker who was hitting in front of Martinson has and Heisey who was batting behind Martinson as Heisey played for the Cincinnati Reds when Dusty was his manager.
Last week Martinson was in a similar situation where a walk-off was possible and his aggression got the best of him, and Assistant Hitting Coach Jacque Jones and manager Dusty Baker took him aside for an education on key situations.
Martinson said, “Jacque and Dusty both spoke to me about the thought process going into these late inning situations with the game on the line. They said ‘the pitchers are more scared of you then you are of them. Don’t get too aggressive because a good pitcher will take advantage of your aggression.’ Their advice would prove to be useful today.”
Crawling out of bed at 4:10 AM this morning to head to Viera, we had to remind ourselves that the reward was Harp and Zim, JDub and Ant-knee, Stras and the Buffalo. OK, it was worth it.
There was baseball in Space Coast Stadium today! No one will care, and few will remember, that the Nats walked off the Braves 9-7 on a three run homer by Chris Heisey, with den Dekker and Martinson aboard. Bake had to have an extra bit of pride that another of his former Reds came through in winnin’ time. And no one was injured.
Zim, Werth, and Ramos all went deep. Harp walked three times and scored twice. No one got hurt…. although Ben Revere took a tumble on the warning track of each gap trying to chase down a ground rule double and one of the more unusual home runs we may see this year, getting a glove on the ball, only to see it bounce several feet off of his glove and over the wall.
Stras had the classic “working on things” day. He seemed to be working on fastball command and from our vantage he threw mostly fastballs, with predictable results. Petit and Shawn (why not “Sean” on St Paddy’s Day) Kelley were each roughed up for 2 runs. And no one was injured.
All in all, an ordinary March Thursday in Viera. And no one was injured.
With luck, we’ll get to minor league camp tomorrow afternoon before the evening game in Port St. Lucie.
Victus Bats has been in this competitive business of crafting baseball bats for Major Leaguers for 5 years now as they continue to grow their market share. Victus can now claim Bryce Harper as a client. Harper started swinging Victus bats in Spring Training games after Jared Smith of Victus Bats arrived at Space Coast Stadium in Viera, Florida to meet with Bryce and dropped off these real eye catching bat designs (pictured below).
Updated 11:10AM: Bronson Arroyo was scratched from this start with shoulder soreness and will be replaced by Blake Treinen. This puts a big halt to Arroyo’s efforts to become the Nats 5th starter.
The bus is on it’s way to Jupiter Florida for a matchup with the Miami Marlins and Dusty once again is taking a roster close to his Opening Day line-up with the exception of Trea Turner starting at 2nd base in place of Daniel Murphy who played yesterday and Michael Taylor in the outfield replacing Jayson Werth who also played yesterday.
Bronson Arroyo, RHP, gets the start against the Marlins and he is expected to go 4 innings. Ryan Zimmerman gets the start at 1st base for his first official Spring Training start in the field.
We all know the dangers of relying on Spring Training stats; however, they also can’t be totally ignored in some cases. Danny Espinosa for instance shows that he is struggling in a small sample size while Scott Sizemore looks like a Hall-of Famer in his small sample size.
Clearly Danny Espinosa won’t bat .000 in the regular season just like Michael A. Taylor won’t bat .435 in the regular season.
#Nationals manager Dusty Baker said yesterday there will be open competition between Turner, Espinosa, & Drew for the Nats starting SS.
Gio Gonzalez and the Washington Nationals travel this morning to face the Houston Astros and catch the 9AM bus to Kissimmee, Florida.
Danny Espinosa is back in the line-up and a few starters will also be in this line-up like Daniel Murphy and Jayson Werth. Lucas Giolito is scheduled to pitch today also. Dusty and Rizzo will also get to look at a few potential bench players who will start like Scott Sizemore, Matt den Dekker and Tony Campana. It’s also a big opportunity for Pedro Severino who will catch Gio Gonzalez.
Here’s your starting line-up:
Danny Espinosa SS
Daniel Murphy 1st Base
Jayson Werth DH
Michael A. Taylor CF
Matt den Dekker RF
Stephen Drew 3B
Scott Sizemore 2B
Pedro Severino C
Tony Campana LF
Gio Gonzalez LHP
This game will be televised on the ROOT Network and MLB.TV App at 1:05. Radio will also be through the Houston feed on a delay. A h/t to NatsFan1a for letting us know that the game will also be televised live in MLB Network.
It took exactly a dozen games into the Spring Training schedule for the January 8th line-up to debut. Why January 8th you may ask? That was the date when Mike Rizzo traded for Ben Revere as the speedy lead-off man that his manager Dusty Baker had coveted to complete his vision for this 2016 team.
This was the Nats starting line-up on Sunday:
Ben Revere CF
Jayson Werth LF
Bryce Harper RF
Ryan Zimmerman DH
Daniel Murphy 2B
Anthony Rendon 3B
Clint Robinson 1B
Wilson Ramos C
Danny Espinosa SS
Max Scherzer RHP
The line-up before was only missing Ryan Zimmerman who was the designated hitter on Sunday, thus making this January 8th line-up, a reality.
Here is how the Sunday game got started, Revere – Single, Werth – Single, Harper – Double, Zimmerman – Single, Murphy – Out, Rendon – Single, Robinson – Out, Ramos – Single, Espinosa – Out. That is how the first 9 batters did in their 1st at-bats. This was all accomplished against a very good pitcher as Michael Wacha was hit hard and often.
With this line-up, the bench seems to also be close to set as Dusty seems to have tipped his hand that Michael A. Taylor will be his 4th outfielder or as Dusty likened him to the 6th man in basketball while also saying he expects him to get a lot of playing time.
The bench almost certainly will include these 4 players:
Jose Lobaton
Clint Robinson
Stephen Drew
Michael A. Taylor
That leaves one spot remaining that will probably come down to either Matt den Dekker or Tyler Moore or a long-shot from the non-roster invitees. There is always a chance Rizzo could pull off a trade to free up a spot.
The starting line-up will include these 3 players:
Max Scherzer
Stephen Strasburg
Gio Gonzalez
The last 3 remaining spots will be taken by 2 pitchers out of Tanner Roark, Joe Ross, and Bronson Arroyo.
The bullpen will have 5 spots sewn up:
Jonathan Papelbon RHP
Felipe Rivero LHP
Oliver Perez LHP
Shawn Kelley RHP
Yusmeiro Petit RHP
The 2 spots that will remain could come from Sean Burnett LHP, Trevor Gott RHP, Blake Treinen RHP, and Rafael Martin RHP.
That leaves 5 spots on the 25-man roster that are still up for grabs if there are no trades and no other surprises. A surprise could certainly come from a shocking move based on these remaining 20 days before Opening Day.
What would happen if Danny Espinosa does not pull out of this offensive funk he is in? What happens if another player steps up and impresses Mike Rizzo and Dusty Baker?
Here is the latest FanGraphs projections:
FanGraphs has added notes about each player when you hover over the pen and paper icon. Worth a read.
We recently upgraded our comment system to improve reliability, performance, and long-term control, and we’re currently running both systems during the transition. This shift moves us away from an external service to a system we run and control directly—meaning we own the content and can continue improving it over time. We’ve also reduced the comment refresh delay from about 30 seconds to 10 seconds, making it much closer to real-time.
We understand there have been frustrations and increased feedback, and we’re actively working to improve things. What we ask is simple: use the system and give it a fair shot. If you run into issues, please submit them through the support form so we can track and fix them properly. Repeated complaints without details don’t help us solve problems—we appreciate your patience as we continue refining the experience.
If you’d like a full side-by-side comparison of the platforms and the reasons behind this decision, please refer to the chart below. This change is being made with the long-term benefit of the entire community in mind.