The Potomac Nationals unveiled its 2014 Opening Day this afternoon, which as per usual, will return quite a few familiar names. Without further ado, here’s the rundown (watchlist players in bold, notables in italics):
| PITCHERS | INFIELDERS | OUTFIELDERS | CATCHERS |
| Dakota Bacus | Kevin Keyes | Brandon Miller | Cole Leonida |
| Robert Benincasa |
Mike McQuillan | Justin Miller | Pedro Severino |
| Ian Dickson | Stephen Perez |
Randolph Oduber | |
| Brian Dupra | Tony Renda |
Piwnica-Worms | |
| Pedro Encarnacion | Adrian Sanchez | ||
| Bryan Harper | Oscar Tejeda | ||
| Travis Henke |
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| Nick Lee |
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| Gilberto Mendez | |||
| Brett Mooneyham |
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| Ronald Pena |
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| Brian Rauh |
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| Derek Self |
This more in line with past Potomac rosters, where there are some prospects, but not many high-profile ones (two Top 20 guys per BA in Renda and Severino) and a sizable chunk of guys repeating or returning — nine by my quick count here, with three (Keyes, Oduber, and Sanchez) coming back for their third season.
Eyeballing it, we’re looking at a (alphabetically) rotation of Bacus-Dickson-Encarnacion-Lee-Mooneyham unless Rauh and Pena are returned to a starting role, which is entirely possible since Bacus and Dickson have switched between starting and relieving.
As is always the case, if the Hagerstown core can pick up where they left off last season, the High-A veterans should offset any hiccups and make for a contender. If they can win the first half — a big IF, as it’s only happened twice in the last six seasons — a wave of callups from Western Maryland (especially the pitchers) could make for another fun summer and perhaps another title run.