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Opening Day!


Poor field conditions and cold weather has cancelled the opening, four-game series for the Chiefs, and there’s a threat of rain at all three sites tonight, as the Senators open on the road against the Curve, the P-Nats visit the Blue Rocks, and the Suns host the Shorebirds (believe it or not, only 19 head-to-head games this year).

Team Today’s Game Pitching Matchup (’15 Stats at Level)
Syracuse Postponed N/A
Harrisburg @ Altoona,
6:00 p.m.		 TBD vs.
A. Sanchez (12-8, 4.41)
Potomac @ Wilmington,
6:35 p.m.		 P. Valdez (3-2, 3.77) vs.
Lovvorn (4-5, 3.93)
Hagerstown vs. Delmarva,
6:05 p.m.		 TBD vs.
Long (3-9, 5.26)


Now for the annual reminder: These pitchers are not necessarily the team’s #1 starter. They are, within a spot or so, how the Nationals would like the starters to align from Low-A to MLB in the event of promotions or injuries.

Syracuse will make up two of the games on Friday morning at 11 a.m. before a packed crowd of Trump supporters with Ph.D’s an empty ballpark as the games will not be open to the open to the public. No word on the starters yet. Likewise for Hagerstown, but perhaps our colleague Zach Spedden will have something today.

Harrisburg’s rotation is probably going to be Giolito-Lopez-Mapes-Simms-Williams, but probably not in that alphabetical order. For more on the Senators, read the estimable Mick Reinhard.

Byron Kerr’s feature focuses on team speed, and has the rotation as Valdez-Estevez-Fedde-Whiting*-Reyes.
* That’s Boone, not Boomer. Sorry.
So settle in, kids. We’re in for our favorite five months of the year.

4 Commments

  1. Happy Opening Day/Nats Home Opener (possibly) to all! It still looks pretty ominous out there.

    No one has yet commented about Giolito. I pretty much get why they sent him to AA instead of AAA. It’s more age-appropriate “prospect” competition, plus he didn’t have a lot of AA time in 2015. I’m more curious about why they’re starting him off now at all. If I’m remembering correctly, he’s previously stayed in XST every year, and I thought he might this year as well, partly because of his likely innings limit, partly because they might not want to expose their prospective nine-figure arm to sub-freezing “spring” in Central PA.

    Since he is there, will he be starting on a regular five-day rotation, or more like once a week, like he did last season? Will they fully stretch him out right away, or keep him around 4-5 innings a start early on? Based on what the Nats have done with everyone else, including Stras in a pennant race, you can bet they’re shutting Giolito down at around 140-150 innings. With all the buzz about him potentially being a difference-maker for the big club late in the season, how are they going to manage his innings to get him there? It will be interesting to see what they do.

    1. My thoughts exactly. He still will be on an innings limit so why is he up here already. Plus Ross will still be on one as well, so it made perfect sense to wait until May.

      Hilarious line about the crowd for the Chiefs game.

  2. Looks like the Chiefs will get a morning double header against Lehigh in Allentown PA on Friday, according to Byron.
    No public attendance.

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