The Nationals have trimmed the Spring roster to 44. Some moves were expected like re-assigning Collin Balester, Ian Desmond, and Bobby Brownlie to minor league camp. Looks like Tyler Clippard, Garrett Mock, and Josh Whitesell are headed to Columbus to start the year, while Justin Maxwell will start in Harrisburg. Nats rising star Ross Detwiler will start the season in Potomac. I think we will have to take some more trips down that way when the Nats are away this year. In addition, after hitting four monster home runs in the past week, Luis Jimenez was also assigned to minor league camp. I liked watching him take BP in Florida, maybe he will make an appearance in DC this year.

I was surprised to read that catcher Chad Moeller was released unconditionally, while Javier Herrera was re-assigned to minor league camp. That leaves only Nieves, Cota and Flores competing for a back-up position right? Although, it sounds like Flores will definitely start the season in the minors. Apparently Lo Duca is making progress, he took full batting practice today and thinks he will be able to play on the 15th (less than a week away). Meanwhile the other catcher Estrada, played catch today from 60 feet after receiving a cortisone shot on Friday, his status is still unknown.

John Lannan got a taste of that nasty Detroit lineup today. He did ok, pitched 3 innings and seemed to calm down a bit after giving up two home runs early. He said he has to work on throwing first pitch strikes, and that Randy St. Claire knows what he’s talking about. Matt Whitney hit a 3 run homer to tie the game, but the Nats eventually lost 4-3.

Nats take on the Braves tomorrow at 7. Oh and go vote for which hairstyle you think Nick Johnson should start sporting!

This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 5:56 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.