Danny Espinosa is not in today’s starting line-up. Will start Tuesday.

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

There has been rumors lately that Danny Espinosa has been playing hurt, and these just seem to be rumors as some try to explain how Espi is hitless in the entire Spring with just 1 walk and today he is replaced by Brendan Ryan in the revised line-up and listed as a bench reserve.

espinosa bench
This Tweet is a little out-dated at Trea Turner has started to step it up and of course he had a hit taken away on an infield single later changed to an error that was mind-boggling as the 2nd baseman had to charge the ball and speed kills as Trea just beat the throw to 1st. There was no booting the ball or a bobble.

Officially Espinosa is 0 for 14 with 7 strikeouts and 1 walk. Trea Turner now has 3 hits going 3 for 17 with 4 walks and 4 stolen bases however we really want to make it right and say 4 for 17 but can’t.

Certainly there will be more news to follow on this….

The Astros will pitch Cy Young lefty Dallas Keuchel today versus Joe Ross.

Here is your Nats starting line-up:

  1. Ben Revere CF
  2. Anthony Rendon 3B
  3. Bryce Harper RF
  4. Ryan Zimmerman DH
  5. Daniel Murphy 2B
  6. Jayson Werth LF
  7. Clint Robinson 1B
  8. Wilson Ramos C
  9. Brendan Ryan SS

Joe Ross RHP

UPDATED: 11:40AM 3/14/16 Danny Espinosa is set to start tomorrow and lead-off vs Collin McHugh

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Book Report: 100 Things #Nats Fans Should Know

Posted on March 13, 2016 by Power Boater

Name the title, author, and the number of pages:
100 Things Nationals Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, Jake Russell, 270 pages

Identify the type of book:
Non-fiction

Identify the main characters:
Bryce Harper, Frank Howard, Alfonso Soriano, Mickey Vernon, Max Scherzer, Walter Johnson, Josh Gibson, Ryan Zimmerman, Clark Griffith, Jose Guillen, Harman Killebrew, Gio Gonzalez, Frank Robinson, and a couple dozen others. With 100 separate stories this book covers all of the major players in DC baseball history. Continue reading →

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Updated: Scherzer named Opening Day starter; Ryan Zimmerman in the line-up! #Nats Bryce Harper New Gatorade commercial

Posted on March 13, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

With the daylight savings time change, it feels like 7:30 and the clock has to change to 8:30 which makes that 1:05PM start feel like 12:05.

As Bryce Harper sort of spilled the beans in his interview on MLB Network on Friday, he said Werth, “This is the BEST I have seen JDub. He looks incredible” and Bryce also said that Ryan Zimmerman could play Sunday. Bryce must have known what others didn’t and he would be correct.

Max Scherzer should go 4 innings for the Nationals today against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Here’s the Nats starting line-up:

  1. Ben Revere CF
  2. Jayson Werth LF
  3. Bryce Harper RF
  4. Ryan Zimmerman DH
  5. Daniel Murphy 2B
  6. Anthony Rendon 3B
  7. Clint Robinson 1B
  8. Wilson Ramos C
  9. Danny Espinosa SS

Max Scherzer RHP Continue reading →

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Tanner Roark gets the start in Disney! 3/12/16

Posted on March 12, 2016 by Andrew Lang

The Nats will have a game under the lights at 6:05 at Champion Stadium in Disney World against the Braves. Tanner Roark will start against former Yankee top prospect Manny Banuelos.

The Nats will send a travel roster featuring a travel roster that includes the hottest hitter perhaps in the Grapefruit League, Scott Sizemore, who could easily have a few more Home Runs if not for that left field jet stream that has been blowing with some strong gusts into leftfield.
Continue reading →

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When Bryce Harper talks, even the Goose listens! We go behind the scenes.

Posted on March 12, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

It was like the shot heard ’round the world when ESPN The Magazine published on-line their interview with Bryce Harper. ‘Bryce Harper’ became the number 1 “trending” words on Twitter! His Google Trends soared! Bryce was being quoted as saying, “Baseball is tired.” It sure got Richard “Goose” Gossage’s underwear pulled too tight as he exploded on his own self-imagined images of ‘bat flips’ and verbally attacked Jose Bautista, and Goose Gossage had this to say about Bryce Harper “You’re going to let a young punk like Bryce Harper dictate this game. Are you serious?” ! Sports Talk Radio was monopolized with this subject.

Screenshot from Twitter

Screenshot from Twitter

Continue reading →

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Game Recap 3/11/16 As Charlie Slowes said, “Put a Curly W in the Books”

Posted on March 11, 2016 by ArVaFan aka Laura Peebles

March 11, 2016 Game:  Mets @ Nats, Space Coast Stadium

The game started with the National Anthem as usual—sung by a girl who looked about 6 years old with a great voice and a working microphone.

Strasberg may have been working on stuff today.  But whatever he was doing, he didn’t look as sharp as he has at other times.  So when he left after the 3rd inning, the Nats were behind 1-0. However, the Nats started hitting, and quickly took a 3-1 lead.  The N-A-T-S, N-A-T-S, N-A-T-S, WOO! Team went to work:  after all, fans need Spring Training, too.

There was also some cheering in our section unrelated to the game:  a peanut vendor promised a six-year-old free peanuts if he could catch the pack from seven rows below.  He did:  fan for life.

Ran into a number of Nats fans from DC, both in the park and on the beach afterwards. Nice to be jogging through the sand and hear “Go Nats!”

Also, I now have photographic evidence that “Sendley” does have a stop sign.

laura Sendly

The game continued with Nats minor leaguers and bench players vs. Mets minor leaguers and bench players. The pitch clock was in use, but no one seemed to be paying much attention to it. Then in the eighth inning, a hit-and-error-and-run episode (not to be confused with a hit-and-run) allowed the Nats to score five more runs. The Nats batted around, and the inning finally ended with a play at second that probably would have been overturned on replay.  But I suspect Joe West was ready for the inning to be over, and since the Mets weren’t helping, he decided to take matters into his own hand.

That left matters in Jonathan Papelbon’s hands, who entered to mostly cheers to do something he is unlikely to ever be called upon to do again: protect an 8-run lead. I’m guessing due to recovering from yesterday’s virus, he wasn’t sharp, either.  Let’s face it:  if you’re Jonathan Papelbon, and you can’t get these guys out, when “these guys” are wearing jerseys without names, you’re probably not feeling like yourself. That’s kind of what the look below looks like to me.

laura dusty pulls PAP

 

Dusty did speak with Pap and pat him on the back before sending him to the showers. Dusty got the cheers when he went out to get him.
We did collect a curly W, but remember that it’s Spring Training and the score doesn’t matter.

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The Washington Nationals host the Mets in Viera 3/10/16 Wilson Ramos scheduled to return!

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

At 1:05PM today, Wilson Ramos is penciled in to catch Stephen Strasburg with a line-up that looks to be very close to what’s projected for Opening Day! Blake Treinen should also pitch today and go 2 innings with Michael Brady, Oliver Perez, Nick Lee and Felipe Rivero all scheduled to pitch today. Both Tyler Moore and Clint Robinson will start the game as CRob will be the DH. Rendon will bat 2nd as Dusty won’t be stacking his lefties.

  1. Ben Revere CF
  2. Anthony Rendon 3B
  3. Bryce Harper RF
  4. Daniel Murphy 2B
  5. Jayson Werth LF
  6. Clint Robinson DH
  7. Tyler Moore 1B
  8. Wilson Ramos C
  9. Danny Espinosa SS

Stephen Strasburg RHP
Continue reading →

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Post-game report of #Nats and #Astros 4-3

Posted on March 10, 2016 by ArVaFan aka Laura Peebles

Here’s tonight’s report:  a sequence of random observations.

Not an auspicious start to the game:  no one realized that the National Anthem singer’s mike wasn’t on.  But the fans gradually began to sing along with her, starting with the ones closest, and by the end, the whole stadium was singing.  So that turned out well in the end.

Jones (Jacques Jones–I don’t think there are any other Jones’ on our roster?) had a long chat and a lot of hugs and handshakes from the Astros manager and coaches before the game.

Arroyo looked good, but I’m glad he didn’t have to go more than 3 innings, as I suspect he was tiring at the end of the 3rd inning. Continue reading →

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Insights from a Major League Umpire

Posted on March 10, 2016 by ArVaFan aka Laura Peebles

They’ve said, “If an umpire does his job right, no one notices that they’re there.”  That doesn’t mean that umpires don’t have a unique perspective on the game of baseball.  I’ve had the opportunity to meet with a couple of MLB umps over the last few years, and have always come away with new insights about the game of baseball and the people (including the people in blue) who make it possible.

First, to the questions.  Yes, the players and umpires do chat about their families, what they did on an off day, etc. Gary Cederstrom, like many umpires, lives in Florida (or Arizona) to maximize the amount of time they can spend with their families.  Given that they only get a couple of home breaks during the season, that extra month with the family is really valuable.  Remember, the players are “home” half the time:  the umpires spend pretty much the whole season in hotels.  So Gary trimmed some trees during an off day, and later he’ll be hearing players ask him “hey, have you gotten back to trim those trees yet?” Or maybe an umpire’s and player’s kids have played together, and he’d definitely ask about the other kid. Sometimes players will say something about how badly they’re playing (‘ball’s not carrying today” when they’ve just popped up to the pitcher), but never about how well they’re playing.

Gary Cederstrom

Speaking of players, Gary seemed surprised at Trea’s home run last week.  He says, “Yeah, he might have added a little weight, so now he looks like a junior bat boy instead of a freshman bat boy.” He confirmed that Jayson has a sense of humor—not that I really had any doubts after some of those pranks on the Phanatic.

Can he tell if a HBP is deliberate?  Sometimes.  Sometimes, he’ll think it looked deliberate but wonder where it came from.  In one case, it came out later that a player, back in the minors, had borrowed another player’s car and didn’t fill it up with gas as he had promised.  Eventually that led to a HPB in the majors. (Note:  if you want some stories with really long tails on them, read “The Unwritten Rules of Baseball.  There are several documented stories like that.)

Continue reading →

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Bronson Arroyo gets the start in the 1st Nats home TV game of the Spring

Posted on March 10, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nats have their 1st MASN broadcast of the Spring for this 5:05PM start time. The line-up features mostly players who we expect to be in the starting line-up on Opening Day with just Wilson Ramos and Ryan Zimmerman absent from the line-up and Danny Espinosa does get the start at SS and Bronson Arroyo gets the start!

Nats lineup 3 10 16

Continue reading →

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