National Record

Baseball Prospectus profiled Austin Kearns today.  Man, this guy has a pedigree.  Seventh overall pick and a top prospect for the Reds in the early part of the decade, Kearns then caught the injury bug and never got back on track.  He’d show flashes like he did in the first half of last year but never that top notch season people expected.  It’s just hard to believe that Kearns was the top prospect over a guy like Adam Dunn, that’s how much people thought of him.  This is a great column though and it gives you everything you need to know about Kearns.

In other news over at BP, they have the Nationals in dead last in their power rankings.  Sigh.

Not a lot of people are expecting much out of the Nationals this year, but what about their minor league system?  Stan Kasten has been preaching about a bottom-up approach but what’s the state of the minor league system right now?  These questions are answered in the MiLB.com Nationals minor league preview.  You get a bunch of profiles and analysis on each farm club and there’s also a recap of the 2006 draft.  They list Brian Peacock as under the radar and they project the cream of the crop being Kory Castro and Collin Balester.  This column was full of information and it gives a great overall analysis of everything and anything minor leagues for the Nationals.

Richard Barbieri at the Hardball Times previewed the Nationals today.  In a format where five questions are asked, the author has some fun with the column and has it as if he interviewed the McLaughlin Group.  Good stuff and he touches on the Nationals lineup to which pitchers might find RFK to their liking.  He closes with a look at whether the Nationals will lose 100 games, which looks like a definite possibility.  Good read though.

Nationals Rule Five pickup, Lavale Speigner, was profiled earlier this week at Beyond the Boxscore.  You get a look at his full minor league career as well as some analysis.  Because of his solid spring, he should make the team and with the Nationals being the odds on favorite for a last place finish, this is the year to carry a Rule Five guy.

This is slanted more towards the minor league players in camp, but MiLB.com reviewed what’s been going on this spring in the Nationals camp.  Their “burning question” is what player development guru Mike Rizzo will bring to the Nationals and there’s also a Q&A with Kory Casto.  It’s a solid read if you’re into the minor leagues.

We all knew the Nationals rotation was pretty wide open but even with a little more then a week left in the spring, the Nationals rotation isn’t set. In an interesting column at Baseball America, Todd Jacobson evaluates all of the players in the mix for starting jobs.  There’s even some good stuff on John Patterson, who’s the only sure thing in the Nationals rotation.

Matt Chico had another nice outing today, throwing four shutout innings.  He gave up two hits, two walks and he struck out two in the win.  Saul Rivera threw two shutout innings while Chad Cordero got into trouble in the eighth but pitched out of it.

There were no real hitting stars in the game.  Robert Fick singled and drove in a run while Jesus Flores’ double was the only extra base hit of the game.  The Nationals have a night game tomorrow against their divison rival, the Atlanta Braves.  Tim Redding will get the start.

Yeah, it was a split squad game but the Nationals had a lot of the regulars going against the Tigers yesterday.  Austin Kearns had the lone hit in the 2-0 loss in what was a pretty pathetic offensive display.  The pitchers did a bit better though.  Matt Chico threw four shutout frames and while Tim Redding took the loss, he gave up only a single run on two hits and a walk in three innings of work.

In their other game, the Nats got doubled up by the Dodgers.  Dmitri Young hit his first homerun of the spring and he finished with two hits and two RBIs.  Jason Bergmann was roughed up and he gave up four runs in 2 1/3 innings.

Today’s game against the Indians was rained out so the Nationals will have to wait until Saturday to improve on their 4-10 spring record.

The Nationals continued their unimpressive spring campaign with a ten inning win over the Mets.  The win puts them at 3-7 on the year.  Not that great, but these early games don’t mean squat so as long as the new managers are getting what they want out of it, it’s all good.

The Nationals were down 6-1 before mounting an impressive comeback.  The big hit was a three run shot by Darnell McDonald that made it a one run game in the eighth.  The Nats then tied it in the ninth and won it in the tenth.

Tim Redding had a rough start.  He gave up four early runs in two innings while Jerome Williams gave up a single run in three innings of relief.  Things continue this afternoon when the Nats take on the Dodgers.  Chris Michalek gets the start.

The Nationals were recently previewed over at Baseball Prospectus.  It touches on the Nick Johnson injury, the patchwork starting rotation, the bullpen and more.  Of course the premise of the previews at BP are how the team can win the world series and the article concludes with some, well, unrealistic ways that can happen for the Nationals.  Good read though.