Washington Nationals baseball is back folks. After six long months, the boys are back in town. It will be a much different vibe from the last time we saw the Nats play though. At the end of September, they were at the end of a long and unsuccessful slog. Now, they are at the start of a new era.
Everyone will have chances to prove themselves and roster spots will be up for grabs. I cannot remember a Spring Training where so much is up in the air. That is only natural because there is a new POBO, a new GM
and a new manager. They are going to want to get close looks at these players.
Today, the new braintrust will have a chance to see a lot of different players, as the Nats are playing two games. There is a split-squad, with one group playing the Astros on Nationals TV, while the rest of the team is playing against the Cardinals in Jupiter.
Based on the lineups, the team in West Palm Beach is the stronger one. That team will feature the likes of CJ Abrams, Dylan Crews, Keibert Ruiz and Abimelec Ortiz. The Jupiter team has Harry Ford and other roster contenders like Joey Wiemer and Matt Mervis. Sam Petersen is an interesting prospect at the bottom of that lineup.
We are not going to see much in the way of well known pitching, at least to start. Jake Eder and Shinnosuke Ogasawara will be the starters today. Both are long shots to make the roster, but could get looks at some point this season. The reason they are the ones pitching today just has to do with their throwing schedules. I would not read much into that.
However, it is still fun to see the team back on the field. This is the first time we will see the boys back in action in the Paul Toboni era. I am curious to see if we will be able to see any notable changes today. It is much easier to spot changes in pitchers than hitters in Spring Training though.
It is easier to identify changes with pitchers right away. You can see the velocity on the radar gun and the shapes of the new pitches. Speaking of the radar gun, we will have a better read on that this year. Every Spring Training site now has statcast, so we will be able to see all of that data. That is very helpful and it will be something I will follow.
It allows us to track things like the progress of Cade Cavalli’s new sweeper and whether Robert Hassell’s added muscle is allowing him to hit the ball harder. Shoutout to the MLB for adding statcast to all the spring sites.
Another thing statcast allows for is the ABS challenge system. With the challenge system coming to the MLB this season, catchers are going to need to learn what to challenge. Spring Training will give the Nats catchers important reps. Since it is so early, there are no main strategies for challenging. Spring Training will give catchers trial and error opportunities.
Most importantly, baseball is back. I am so excited to watch the first Nats game on Nationals TV. Some people say Ground Hogs day can be the start of spring, but in my opinion, the first game of Spring Training is when spring truly gets underway.
