Washington Nationals

A potentially new-and-improved Ross Detwiler took the mound in Viera, Florida yesterday and pitched two scoreless innings against the New York Mets. He allowed just two weak singles, struck out three and didn’t walk a batter.

According to legend, when he was 15-years old, Bryce Harper bombed a home run that went over the right field fence, two trees, a second fence, a sidewalk, crossed five lanes of traffic, a second sidewalk, and landed in the middle of a deserted area in the Nevada desert. The shot was estimated to have landed some 570-feet away from home plate.

By the time the 2009 baseball amateur draft finally came to an end, the Washington Nationals had added 50 players to their minor league system.

But really, other than the first two—Stephen Strasburg and Drew Storen—the other 48 were either minor league "inventory" or relative unknowns who would probably slip into the anonymity of the low minor leagues, likely never to be heard from again.

What a difference one week makes. Last week at this time, I knew everyone by name walking around the Nationals Spring Training complex in Viera, Florida. Today, I hardly knew anyone. The Washington Nationals' first official day of full roster workouts were met with hoards of media and many fans.

The National media, the local DC media and everything else in between were there for basically one reason: to see the spring training debut of the 18-year-old baseball phenom known as Bryce Harper.

Last week I received an intriguing e-mail from an avid reader of the site. Essentially, he asked me to choose between Nationals’ right fielder Bryce Harper and Angels’ center fielder Mike Trout in a keeper/dynasty format.

My initial reaction was Harper, without question. After a few days of thought, however, my answer became much more complicated…

Since the first day they arrived in town, the Washington Nationals promised that restocking the team's depleted farm system would be their top priority.

And since that first draft back in 2005, the team has been stocking their farm system with talented young pitchers. Then general manager Jim Bowden said that was the way to do it.

If the good Lord picked one weather day to represent spring training for every baseball team spread out over Florida and Arizona, he would have chosen today.

With clear blue skies and temperatures hovering around 80 degrees, the Washington Nationals picked up the pace on the fourth day of workouts for pitchers and catchers.

Yesterday’s big story was no doubt Stephen Strasburg's pain free throwing session.

It was 60 degrees in DC Monday, and on Tuesday Washington Nationals pitchers and catchers reported for Spring Training.

It’s official: Baseball’s back.

We have already covered a bunch of fantasy player projections for the upcoming 2011 season, and now I want to talk about one guy who I am a big fan of—Jordan Zimmermann.

(Yes, that’s TWO N’s at the end of his last name. Get it right, guys!)

If you have been following the Washington Nationals’ offseason, you are aware that the team has now entered Phase Two.