The Nationals first spring training game is this evening against the Florida Marlins. We are traveling to Jupiter for the game, and will have a recap up later.  This morning we headed over to the practice fields to see if anything was going on before the game tonight. It’s significantly colder today and the crowds were few.  We walked in and watched Luis Ayala and John Patterson throw batting practice.  Ayala’s bullpen session looked good, but he gave up a few would-be base hits off the minor leaguers Michael Burgess and Jake Smolinski during batting practice, even though he was shaking off pitches left and right. He also seemed to be suffering from a nasty cold. Patterson looked energetic and seemed to have good stuff.

I watched some minor league pitchers practice pick offs at third base. Because it was so quiet today I was able to hear the coaches instructions. The coaches consistently reminded the guys to keep their throws square, and that it’s the basemans’ job to get the runner out, not the pitchers. The minor league pitchers worked on bunting today also. They worked on mechanics all morning and all seemed excited and eager to learn.

That’s its for now, we are off to see Nick Johnson make his 2008 debut at first base and see Lasting Milledge in center field. Lets hope Matt Chico can reach his goal and cut down on his walks tonight. More after the game!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 2:24 pm and is filed under Spring Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.