The Home for Washington Nationals Game Talk

We’ve all heard some variation on the theme: “Spring Training games don’t matter” and  it actually was brought up today in the in-game post in the variation, “You do realize that this game doesn’t count, right?”. This attitude is understandable:  the Win/Loss record is irrelevant in the final standings.  And the contrast with regular season games is obvious, once you’ve been to a couple of ST games.  In case you haven’t, read on.

For TalkNats.com courtesy of Hugh Kaufman aka “The Chicken Man”

In the regular season games, everyone from the manager to the bat boy is aligned towards one purpose:  winning the game.  (OK, there are a few exceptions:  the Black Sox and a few teams (Philly, is that you?) that might be tanking in hopes of better draft picks, but the exceptions are indeed few).

But a Spring Training game has a different purpose for practically every person on the field, with the possible exception of the bat boy. ST games are played with the same rules as regular season games with one exception:  ties are allowed, since many times the visiting team would run out of pitchers who hadn’t maxed out their pitch count if the game would go beyond 9 or 10 innings. Oh, and one time I saw a bottom of the ninth with the home team already leading because the visiting manager wanted his pitcher to pitch another inning, and the home manager accommodated him. Continue reading →

As the Nats bus travels en route to Lakeland Florida, you have to wonder if they pass any Presidential candidates on this road trip. Today, 2 heavyweights duke it out as Verlander and Gio get the mound to start this 1:05 game at Joker Marchant Stadium.

Most people who aren’t from the Lakeland Florida area call it Joker Merchant Stadium and think the naming rights were for a jester character, but it was actually named after a politician of sorts as Marcus “Joker” Marchant was the Director of the Lakeland Parks and Recreation department, and they named the stadium after him.

Continue reading →

There are many objectives of Spring Training. One of the objectives every Spring Training is to evaluate players for the roster.

Some of the roster spots are spoken for prior to the calendar turning to February; however, there are spots for the taking every year if the evaluators are impressed enough by a player and the right situation avails itself.

This Spring Training, Rizzo has hinted that centerfield, shortstop, and the 5th starter are open for competition. We know there will be 8 starting position players and 5 starting pitchers and 7 relievers and 5 bench players making up the 25 man Opening Day roster. Continue reading →

As the Nats bus arrives in Kissimmee Florida today, there is a political buzz right down the street off of Heritage Park Way as Marco Rubio is campaigning near Osceola County Stadium and currently in a diner.

Things could seem a little political for the Nats as well as they face Doug Fister who is wearing a new uniform and will start for the Houston Astros against Max Scherzer who is going 3 innings today with a travel squad type of roster.

Of special interest, Dusty has already penciled up and posted tomorrow’s travel roster going to Joker Marchant against Justin Verlander, and almost the entire starting line-up for that game looks to be the projected Opening Day starters with the exception of catcher (Kieboom) and possibly 1st base (Clint Robinson) as Gio starts that game. Batting order for Wednesday’s game stacks 3 lefties at the top, Revere, Murphy, Harper, Rendon, Werth, CRob, Espi, (Solano DH), and Kieboom batting 9th.

When was the last time you can remember a full roster like this traveling a couple of hours for a Spring Training game this early in March? The reserves are MAT, Turner, Tyler Moore, Sizemore, Bostick, Martinson, Brendan Ryan, Severino, Read, Heisey, Campana and Brian Goodwin.  Continue reading →

The Nats middle infield is crowded in Spring Training as there are only 3 to 4 spots that could be available on the Opening Day roster, and there are 9 players in the mix not counting Rendon who will be the Nats 3rd baseman. The favorite to win the Opening Day spot for shortstop is Danny Espinosa with Daniel Murphy already penciled in for 2nd base. The Danny & Daniel 6-4 combo could be backed up by Drew with an outside chance that Trea Turner could figure into the Opening Day roster. The others vying for a spot are Wilmer Difo, Chris Bostick, and veterans Brendan Ryan and Scott Sizemore. Jason Martinson is another non-roster invitee who is an internal candidate and a Nats player at Triple-A Syracuse.

In a Simon Pond type of way, we have Scott Sizemore with the 2.125 Herculean OPS, and he is just a mere mortal with ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♭ Strangers waiting, Up and down the boulevard, Their shadows searching in the night, Streetlights, people, Living just to find emotion, Hiding somewhere in the night, Don’t Stop Believin’ , Hold onto to that Feelin’!

What song was Papelbon blaring on his boombox on Friday? Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey and what a journey it has been for some of these players and we are only 3 weeks into Spring Training.

Scott Sizemore is a local of sorts. He grew up in Chesapeake, Virginia near Ryan Zimmerman and attended VCU in Richmond and was drafted by the Tigers in the 5th round in a string of college signings of local players in the area with Verlander, Mark Reynolds, Ryan Zimmerman, and then Sizemore, and that doesn’t include all of the High School kids like the Upton brothers, David Wright and Cuddyer. At 29 years old, Sizemore has played in parts of 4 MLB seasons and finally eclipsed 162 career games.

Continue reading →

The Nationals had a surprise waiting for them today as Joe “Willie” Namath, aka “Broadway Joe” greeted Dusty Baker and Nats players today. Unfortunately it meant little to Michael Taylor as he had no idea who this football legend is. In related QB news, Peyton Manning is set to retire, and that will give him time to visit some more baseball games.

The Nats-Cardinals game today is broadcast by the Cardinals TV announcers, and the game will be shown on the MLB Network as well as on Cardinals radio. Continue reading →