Prior to Thursday’s loss the Potomac Nationals were on a ten game winning streak. After attending Shawn Hill’s rehab start there a few weeks ago, we decided to make an effort to attend more games there this season. With the Nats in Miami, and as an attempt to look at some of the positives in the Nationals baseball organization, we decided to take a trip south to check out some of the Nats top prospects in action.

Every Friday is Ladies Night at Pfitzner Stadium. All ladies get in to the game for free and can also enter to win a bunch of great raffle prizes. They are doing things right at the single A club. Their energetic and helpful staff runs a lot of fun in game promotions. After tonight’s game they even had a band and a pitching machine. (Note – my fastball is not up to even high school standards, clocking in at a whopping 32 mph.)

We were treated to a great game. The Potomac guys beat the Wilmington Blue Rocks 6-1. Right handed 2007 draft pick Jordan Zimmermann was on the mound for the P-Nats. We had seen Jordan a bit during our spring training trip, but were excited to see some of his game stuff. So far this season, Jordan has allowed only one run in over 14 innings of work. He was impressive tonight also. Zimmermann threw five scoreless innings against the Blue Rocks. He allowed only three hits and recorded six strike outs. Jordan is currently 2-0 with a .061 ERA. Not too shabby. It was great to see him in action tonight.

Zimmermann was aided by his teammates’ offense. The P-Nats capitalized on an error in the first inning by Blue Rocks shortstop Chris McConnell, and had five consecutive hits, resulting in five unearned runs. Dee Brown added the final run with a solo homer in the third inning. We saw some great fielding also. First baseman Chris Marrero had some good plays, but also had an error in the 9th inning. Catcher Devin Ivany caught a few guys attempting to steal second.

We caught up with Jordan Zimmermann after the game and asked him a few questions about his pitches and his goals for this season…

Can you tell us a little bit about the pitches you like to throw? What are you working on?
Um I like to throw my fastball, and my slider, and I’m currently working on my curve-ball.

How was spring training? Did anything surprise you?
Actually I was down there for the instructional league last year, so I kinda knew what to expect, so when I went down there this year, it was pretty much the same thing.

Did you have fun?
Oh yeah, but it was a lot of work though, lots of early mornings.

Can you tell us a little bit about the day you were drafted?
Um actually me and my parents and my college coach, we watched the first round on TV at the school. We got to about number 50 and I knew I was getting pretty close, so I started getting nervous. I got up and started walking around the halls and hung out in one of the classroom areas. Then my agent called me and said hey you got picked up, number 67.

What did that feel like?
It was big relief. I was really excited. I just wanted to get going and start playing right away.

What are your goals this season? You said you were working on your curve-ball, anything else in particular?
I mean I kinda want to, well my main goal really is to end up at double A. So yeah that’s my biggest goal this season. Also while I’m here I just want to keep putting up zeros on the scoreboard.

Who did you look up to growing up did you have a favorite player or anything?
Um no not really…

Did you have a favorite team?
Yea a big Brewers fan, I love the Brewers. We used to go to lots of games.

Lastly, what worked for you tonight? You put up a lot of zeros. (Jordan pitched five shut out innings on Friday night)
Um my slider was pretty good tonight, I was locating it to the outside corners against the righties pretty well. Also kept the ball down to get the ground outs and the fly outs.

It was nice to see the up and comers in action. It also reminded us that there are some good things on the way, even if things look a little tough right now. Hey Barry told us to change up our routine. Friday’s game was the first we didn’t attend or watch on TV and they won! Hopefully that doesn’t mean we have to stay away all season.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 19th, 2008 at 1:17 pm and is filed under Game Recaps, Interviews, Prospects. 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.