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!

Not a whole lot to report today.  Practice began a bit late, around 10:15 am.  The team started off again with their warm-ups and then broke into groups.   The pitchers weren’t running through drills today with Aponte – instead they sat together on a far field for awhile for a group discussion, strategy session or something that required no physical activity. 

We instead watched as the rest of the position players and the catchers practiced situational plays on the other fields.   Catchers practiced throwing out runners and position players practiced fielding grounders, bunts and pop-ups.  As always, Zimmerman looked spectacular scooping up the short bunts toward third base and beating the fictional runner out at first.

Fans were treated to another Jim segway appearance, with Jim even soaring out to the outfield for awhile.

We caught up with Charlie and Dave this morning too - Both are looking forward to getting back into their routine.

As far as bullpen sessions, Saul Rivera, Tim Redding and Jon Rauch all looked great.  Rivera immediately finished a bullpen session and took the field to throw batting practice.  We caught Chief, Bergmann and Smoker’s batting practice too.  Chief and Hill also worked on some extra conditioning with the trainer.

Johnson and Kearns had good BP today too.  Pena, Dukes and Milledge continue to impress – though Saul Rivera had some great pitches against the group of sluggers, prompting some friendly banter.

The practice came to a close with Zimmerman, Felipe, Aaron Boone, Young and Orr running extra sprints.

The routine will change tomorrow a bit as we are set for our first game and first road trip of the 2008 season against the Florida Marlins in Jupiter, FL.

Day Four Photo Gallery

 Today was Day 3 of our Spring Training trip and weather-wise it was the best. We enjoyed temperatures in the mid-upper 70s with a light breeze and beautiful sunshine all morning. The incredible weather seemed to rub off on the players as everyone was in an especially good mood for the start of practice. Wily Mo Pena, Ronnie Belliard, Jesus Colome and several other players got the morning started sharing some good laughs and stories.

After the full team warm up, which included some different exercises today, the boys split off into their respective groups. Stephanie, Kristen and I all went over to watch the group working with Bullpen Coach Rick Aponte. The mixed group of starters and relievers focused on fielding bunts today. They started with sacrifice bunts where the pitchers were supposed to scoop up the ball and make the out at first. After Ryan Wagner overthrew to first, Ray King was there with some inspirational words, encouraging Wagner, “Don’t get bitter, get better!” Next on the agenda was to practice fielding a short bunt by scooping the ball up bare handed and making plays at both first and home.

Even though there were some rough plays out there, Aponte kept encouraging the guys and joined in the fun. He joked that he had the best left and right handed starters and relievers, to which the guys responded they had the best bullpen coach in the league. Overall the guys looked great. They continue to work hard all while keeping the lighthearted attitude that makes them so much fun to watch.

When their session was finished, we split up to catch the action on all of the fields. Unlike previous days, all of the fields were focusing on similar drills – squeeze plays and outs at second. Over the weekend, the boys seemed to be working specifically on technique with these drills by running slower, but today they were going at 100%. Manny was really pushing them to make sure the boys finished all of the plays and called out players who gave less than all of their effort. To add some reality to the drill, Ryan Wagner reminded all of his teammates that Jose Reyes was the imaginary runner. Despite the intensity on the field, there were some funny moments. Saul Rivera wound up for the pitch but didn’t follow through. The runners ran anyways and several players were quick to call the play a “balk” and everyone both on and off the field joined in the laughter.

Batting practice with full pitching took place on two of the fields, with a slower pitched practice on another field. It was great to see the power sluggers really be able to just swing the bat and get big hits. Austin Kearns looked especially good at the bat all day. Among the pitchers who threw today were, John Lannan, Mike Bacsik, Chris Schroeder, Tristan Crawford, and Mike Hinckley. Crawford looked good on the mound, except for one pitch that just got away from him. Justin Maxwell was batting and pitch went wild, but Maxwell tried to get the ball to keep it from hitting catcher Jesu s Flores. The ball ended up bouncing off Maxwell’s bat and hitting Flores, leaving him hunched over in pain for a few moments. He returned to action though and continued catching, batting and even stayed after to run sprints.

In other Nationals news, Bret Boone revealed he has successfully dealt with an alcohol issue.
MASN announced that they will show 20 home games and 20 away games in HDTV. Also, Matt Chico will be the starer for the Nats first Spring Training game on Wednesday.

Check out our photo album for the day!

We woke up bright and early this morning for day two of our spring training trip. It was pretty cloudy and a little chilly for practice today, but we arrived at the stadium to see the players take the field for the morning drills. Everyone seemed wide-awake and ready to train upon arrival. We were greeted with several good mornings and smiles. The biggest news of the day was the arrival of catcher Jesus Flores. He got in last night after dealing with a week of Visa issues. Turns out he didn’t get the correct form he needed for the Embassy in enough time to process the information before spring training started. Regardless, he is here and already working hard. Better yet, the Nats finally have a catcher on the roster who can catch full bullpen sessions.

Elijah Dukes arrived shortly before a majority of the team. He again continued to surpass off field expectations and was gracious with fans, taking pictures and signing autographs. Despite the initial concerns we’ve had about Dukes, we have been impressed with what we’ve seen thus far. We asked for a photo with him, and he willingly obliged.

We watched the group warm ups again and really felt the positive energy. After the full squad warm-up we separated again to watch the different fields. I watched the catchers throw long balls. Lo Duca and Flores played catch for quite a while. Estrada was throwing some simple tosses also.

Yesterday we realized that the fun group to watch were the guys working with Coach Aponte. Kristen and I headed over to check out their drills. The pitchers were working on fielding plays again this morning, focusing on covering first base, and receiving the throw from second. Again Ray King and Ryan Wagner were comical with their joking around. At one point Ryan Wagner was supposed to throw the ball to second, instead it landed in the outfield. His response, “Can I get some effort here, at least it had good movement.” During the drills if a guy messed up, they stayed put and did it again until they correctly executed the play. This proved a bit difficult for Chad Cordero this morning. The group was practicing a situational drill where the bases are loaded and the play is at home. The batter hits a short hop, which the pitcher is supposed to recover and make the play. Chad bobbled the first ball, so he had to remain on the mound and do it again. However, when he missed the second ball, Ryan Wagner, kidding and giving Chad some friendly grief exclaimed, “You’re a closer. This is a save situation; the bases are loaded. You just blew the game.” After Wagner was kidded for not making another play, he stated, “Hey we’re not first basemen.”

While Kristen and Stephanie were watching the bullpen crew, Lindsey went over to watch the infielders get some practice in. Manny and several other coaches were hitting grounders to the position players. After the initial warm up, they ran double play drills and a drill to practice the throw from short and third to first. Overall Zimmerman looked very aggressive, but when a ball got past him early on during the drill one coach yelled “base hit!” Zimmerman teased “That one was Felipe’s!” Later in the session the group worked on fly balls. I have to admit that I was a little nervous for Nick and Austin, but both looked great and very comfortable being back out on the field together. One of the first balls Manny hit went into shallow left with Pena, Zimmerman and Lopez all going for the ball. Manny joked around yelling, “It’s a triangle! It’s the Bermuda Triangle!” Manny was encouraging the guys to really call their ball, and no one was more excited about this drill than Ronnie Belliard and Dmiriti Young. They both dramatically waved off their teammates and screamed, “I got it!” loud enough for central Florida to hear them.

I was able to watch Chief, Patterson and King’s bullpen sessions. All three looked good, I noticed that Chad’s fastball looks very nice. Kristen watched both Bergmann and Rivera’s sessions. Bergmann was noticeably ready to get his session started, and Saul looked great.

Batting practice today was good also. We watched Josh Smoker, Tyler Clippard, and Jon Rauch throw today. Clippard and Rauch both looked like they had good stuff. We watch the catchers hit today also. Flores seemed like he was trying to make up for lost time and hit for a while. He hit a couple would be home runs and looked pretty solid. Estrada hit also and looked seasoned.

After two days of watching practices one thing has really stuck out, and that is Felipe Lopez’s work ethic. He is always hustling and looks very focused during drills. He is in the group with Ryan Zimmerman, Dmitri Young, Ronnie Belliard and Aaron Boone. While Lopez is involved in the conversations, he never stops swinging a bat and working on the little things that will improve his hitting. It’s clear that he is energized, focused and ready for the 2008 season.

Check out our photo album from today.

 We arrived in Viera late Friday night and couldn’t wait to get to the practice fields on Saturday morning.   We arrived around 9:00 am and quickly scoped out the complex.  It’s a great, fan-friendly set up and easy to hop around from field to field to catch different players and drills.  Shortly after we arrived, the full team warmed up together before splitting into smaller groups. 

Stephanie and Lindsey started by watching the catchers group while I went to watch the middle infielders.  Injured catchers Lo Duca and Estrada threw the ball, while Ivany practiced throwing runners out at second base.  Ivany was working closely with Jose Cardenal, who was pumped to hear that we had traveled down from DC. Jose Rijo and Johnny Estrada were equally enthusiastic.

In the middle infielders group, the guys warmed up by playing catch at various intervals.  We paid some close attention to Felipe Lopez and Christian Guzman, who stood side by side during warm-ups.    Lopez looks alive and happy.  He patiently signed lots of autographs, looked happy on the field and displayed a heightened level of energy.   Bret Boone was brought up to major league camp today and stood next to Aaron during these warm-ups (Bob was patrolling the camp grounds, so all 3 Boones were on the fields at the same time). 

I then traveled over to watch some bullpen sessions, catching most of Odalis Perez’s first practice.  Randy moved back and forth monitoring the simulatenous bullpen sessions – which included Tristan Crawford and Luis Ayala.  Later, we would see Hill, Redding and Chico all complete their sessions for the day too.

I then moved down to watch a group of pitchers practice fielding with Coach Aponte.  This was definitely the group you’d want to be in.  Ray King, Ryan Wagner, Jason Bergmann and Chad Cordero seemed happy to be reunited.  King entertained everyone drawing lots of laughs.  He jumped for a grounder to his right, executed the play and told Aponte, “you can’t get nothin’ past me.”  This group was fun to watch.

We then watched a different group of pitchers practice covering first.  Everyone worked through the drills, but Jon Rauch executed every play with 100% effort.  He really impressed us with his energy and dedication today. 

Next, the guys practiced some squeeze play drills.  These were a lot of fun to watch too, as they always are entertaining in games.  Justin Maxwell was on hand to be the baserunner. 

After the drills, all four fields hosted batting practice sessions.  The first group we saw was Elijah Dukes, Lastings Milledge and Wily Mo Pena.  Tim Redding threw to the guys.  Tim asked if it was time to start, and Pena, in the batter’s box said, “I’m ready. Right here and waiting.” The sluggers were really impressive – a lot of power from these three.  We were a little nervous when Tim Redding nailed Dukes with an inside pitch.  A collected, calm Dukes took the hit without much of a reaction. 

As far as Dukes goes, we have to admit, we were impressed today.  His press conference a couple days ago was encouraging, but today Dukes talked to fans, signed autographs and really put himself out there.  He was patient with fans and generous with his time.  There might be some hope afterall.

 When this group took BP, GM Jim Bowden showed up via segway.  You have to see it to believe it, but Jim whips through the various practice fields at light speed with this contraption.  He seemed pretty pleased with himself, even taking questions from the press aboard the segway.   

We then watched Zimmerman, Lopez and Belliard take BP.  They looked pretty good.  Nearby, Shawn Hill worked out on a stationary bike while Zimmerman poked fun at him.  He told everyone to call him Shawn Webb, a tribute, we assumed, to Brandon. 

We didn’t watch too much of Johnson and Kearns today, but we’ll try to focus on them more this week.  No sign of Jesus Flores yet. Ryan Zimmerman reports that his wrist “feels real good.”

Camp wrapped up today around 12:45pm and in case you are wondering, the last guys off the field were Zimmerman (no long-term contract yet), Young, Lopez, Estrada and Orr.  Justin Maxwell was still in the batting cages when most everyone had already returned to the clubhouse.

Here’s the photo album — Enjoy!
 

In just a few hours, we’ll be in Viera, FL where the weather is a cloudy 83. Check back over the next ten days for lots of Spring Training updates and photos. Feel free to send us your questions too! We’ll do our best to get you answers.

With a little over a month before Opening Day, everybody is growing anxious to see our new summer home. Two new Nationals Park tours are available and worth your time: MLB.com’s Ed Randall and WUSA9’s Dan Guzman.

In other news, it appears that Luis Ayala will finally be arriving at camp today. Jesus Flores will likely report on Saturday. Jesus Colome and Arnie Munoz are still having Visa problems.

Reunited and it feels so good:
Bret Boone joins brother Aaron and father Bob in the Nationals organization. The team offered the second baseman an invitation to the Accelerated Development Program and a non guaranteed minor-league contract. He has appeared in 3 All Star games and has won a pair of AL Silver Slugger Awards, as well as 4 Gold Gloves throughout his career. Boone hasn’t played since 2005.

A Lefty Joins the battle for rotation spots:
After a day of rumors, the Nats agree to terms on a minor league contract with Odalis Perez at a reported 800,000.

Position players report:
A fully recovered Ryan Zimmerman, a re-energized Felipe Lopez, a healthy Nick Johnson and a lighter Dmitri Young have all been spotted starting their spring training early.

Here’s a great quote from the “face of the franchise” with no long-term contract (yet):

We are tired of losing. We are good enough to win. The way we played the last month of the season — the last two weeks against teams that were competing for a playoff spot — we played them tough. So that shows we are not scared. We were scared before, but we know we can win. We have a little quiet confidence about us. That’s how it’s going to be this year. .. Competing isn’t good enough. We want to win and we want to win now.” — Zimmerman

Pitchers and catchers report today, baseball season is finally here! The optimism for the 2008 season is everywhere. Check out articles in the Washington Post, Times, and the Examiner. The long quiet winter is over and we can really start talking about baseball again.

The Nationals organization enters spring training this year with significantly less unknowns. We have a general idea of what the starting rotation will look like, who will make up the infield, and what kind of power our bench will have. There still are some questions though, like who will be the starting first baseman? Who will be at short and second? Will our new catcher LoDuca* show up to spring training? We look forward to getting answers to these questions in the coming weeks.

Those Nats fans heading down to Viera for games this spring will be greeted with some upgrades to Space Coast Stadium. A new PA system, more food options, and updates to the Carl Barger Complex are just a few things to look forward to.

Can you hear the crack of the bat yet? We are so ready to have baseball back! For us it really does mean, “The end of football. It means the start of spring. And for those yearning for the pop of a glove or the crack of a bat, it means all is right with the world.”

Sure, we’ve waited all off season for today — the day pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training. The Nats don’t report until Friday, but nonetheless, baseball season is here. A clean slate, a lot of fresh faces — It’s a day for celebrating a new season. Congratulations, baseball fan. You surivived 4 1/2 months without baseball.

Unfortunantely, steroids continue to tarnish the game we all love — even on this day of fresh starts. The topic strikes again today as Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee travel to Capitol Hill to discuss steroid use.

The hearing begins in just a few minutes (10 AM EST). You can watch on tv or online on CSPAN3.