Shifting Gears
With the Nationals optioning of four players to Syracuse and reassigning three more to minor-league camp, that’s my sign that it’s time to shift gears away from spring training coverage.
This is not to state that I won’t be watching with some interest to see if one of “our guys” will buck the odds and make the Opening Day roster for the final spot on the bench or the last reliever out of ‘pen. I just won’t necessarily be writing every day unless there’s a strong minor-league angle to it.
So we’re back to the offseason mode, but instead of months to while away, it’s just a couple of weeks. “Our” opening day is April 3rd, with the Chiefs and Suns opening at home, and the Sens and P-Nats opening on the road. The daily “News & Notes” begin the following day, with the goal of giving you a summary and highlights from the games with a little style and a little snark.
Potomac — where I’m a season-ticket holder — starts on the 8th, and with it, comes game coverage via “Last Night In Woodbridge.”
Later on in April, “Good, Bad, Interesting” returns — the weekly feature that lists the highs and lows and the unexpected for each affiliate.
So hold on, spring has begun (officially today) and the 2014 season is almost here.
The season hasn’t officially started until GBI makes its debut!
I’m waiting for it to become the good, bad, and indifferent.
but be nice if it were the good, the bad, and the bulldog. 😉
Apparently, Erik Komatsu is finally back. I’ll be interested to see what happens there and whether he makes the team in Syracuse.
But Bradley Meyers is still in a throwing program so he probably will end up on the DL to start the season.
“MLB.com’s Bill Ladson tweets that the Nationals have released minor leaguers Clay Hensley, Kyle Attl, Taylor Wrenn, Drew Rossi, Casey Selsor, Greg Holt and Martires Arias.”
Have to admit, I don’t know these guys at all.
Neither do I! Welcome to the club!
BTW, Walters numbers for the spring, now that he’s been sent down, was an OPS of 1,000+.
Looks like the non-hitting Espinosa has made the club.
But wait! Souldrummer is *not*shifting away from camp! He is in Viera and he’s on the loose. He will be interviewing (probably off the record sadly) members of the Nationals community for a narrative story to come out no later than Monday night on his experiences. So far,I’ve interviewed Johnny Holiday (informally he’s staying in our hotel) and Garrett Gordon’s grandfather (informally, he too is at our hotel). Don’t know who Garrett Gordon is? Google it! Anyways, if you follow me at @souldrummer25 and direct message me a reasonable question to a reasonable member of the Nats minors community in Viera, I’ll try to ask it! I plan to ask the players about their at bat music for a playlist I’m working for it. If you ask me to interview Giolito, I’ll probably veto it. But if you ask me a question about the 40th round pick from 2009 who is barely hanging on in baseball and could use any possible publicity, I’ll do my best! I should be camp from about 10am-12:30pm depending on whether my brother the trip leader decides whether he wants to see the Nats away at St. Louis today. He probably will because our Spring Training trip as been hijacked by the St. Louis Billikens and the [unnamed university] Club of Central Florida that just so happened to celebrate beating its foe yesterday.
For those who are not twitter inclined, I will try to answer questions posted in the comments on nationalsprospects.com as well. But come on! It’s worth following me on general principle!
Selsor and Holt pitched for affiliates last year, and both releases kind of surprise me. Selsor’s numbers weren’t great (0-6, 4.29 ERA) but his babip was high and thus his FIP was low; I figured he’d be in Hagerstown’s bullpen. Holt makes even less sense: 9-0 with a 3.71 ERA in 70+ innings for Potomac last year; is he hurt? I thought for sure he was in line for a promotion, not a release. Odd moves. Maybe just an indicator of the massive number of pitchers the team has on its payroll in the lower minors…
Its becoming harder for Rizzo to move pitcher for the premiums he expects. Last season they release Trevor Holder and he was due for a promotion? It’d be nice to get SoulDrummer and/or Byron Kerr to talk to Harris and Scialba about their criteria on what constitutes a hopeful prospect with a good ceiling and one that does not? But that’s probably too much to ask.
Still Tampa Bay seems very happy with Nate Karns based on what I’ve read. They optioned him to AAA but Maddon expects him to be of enormous help to the big club.