Good morning DoD readers, start off your President’s Day Monday with some great Washington Nationals from around the web in today’s District Daily:
Spring fever: Nats ready to begin next chapter
WASHINGTON — The Nationals enter Spring Training as the team to beat in the National League East. It helps that they made their pitching staff even stronger by signing right-hander Max Scherzer to a seven-year, $210 million deal last month.
Opposing teams will not have any rest facing a pitching staff that includes Scherzer, Jordan Zimmermann, Doug Fister, Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez.
“We’ll compete against any pitching staff in baseball,” Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said.
However, the talk during Spring Training figures to center around whether the team will be able to sign four players — Zimmermann, Fister, Ian Desmond and Denard Span — to extensions after the 2015 season. Read full article here.
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Washington Nationals: Bryce Harper expected to succeed in 2015
If 2015 is going to be anyone’s year, it is Bryce Harper. Don’t let his absence last season fool you. Since his stellar performance in the NL Division Series, the Washington Nationals are hoping for a 2015 season that lives up to the noise he made in October.
Last season was an unfortunate one for Harper. He injured his left thumb in late April and ended up being out for much longer than anyone expected. When he was first injured he was placed on the 15- day disabled list but after learning the extent of the injury, it was announced that Harper would require surgery to repair the damage.
When he made it back, he was the star of the NL Division Series. While many of the other Nationals players disappointed during this series, Harper stood out from the rest and arguably carried his team through the games he played in. During this postseason he put up a .294 batting average and hit three home runs against the San Francisco Giants. Read full article here.