Early Spring Thoughts

We are now three games into the 2012 Grapefruit League and the Nats are now 1-2 after losses to the Astros and a win over the Mets. It's still way too early to put any judgements out there that have any chance of standing up to a full season, but we are going to do it anyway.

- Ian Desmond sure is struggling - has yet to get a hit in 9 ABs and has recorded 3 E6's in extremely limited time.

- Man, does Bryce Harper hustle or what? He is an extraordinary player to watch, and we haven't even seen his power yet.

- Jhonatan Solano, a 26 year-old catcher in the Nats system, sure has a hell of an arm.

- Mark DeRosa has shown somewhat of a resurgance (once again, only Spring Training) and it could benefit the Nats greatly. He has hit the ball hard and hit his first Home Run at any level in about a year. o

- Tom Gorzelanny is terrible. He currently holds a 63.00 ERA after his 1 inning of work - that's 7 runs allowed to go along with 2 homers and 4 walks. He could very well pitch himself out of a job, as Sean wrote on Monday.

- Jesus Flores has looked a bit shaky behind the plate, allowing 4 steals while catching none of them, but his offense looks to be in mid-season form with two doubles in his four at-bats.

- Eury Perez is fast.

- Jason Michaels and Roger Bernadina are in a battle to make the team as a 4th or 5th outfielder - both are 3 for 5. Keep an eye on this battle for the next few weeks.

- Rick Ankiel has been working on his opposite field stroke and it showed in his opposite field bomb against the Mets on Monday night.

- Zach Walters wearing #11 is weird.

- I don't like hearing "lat strain" when referring to Michael Morse. Especially with the Nats training staff...

- Are we going to see LaRoche anytime soon?

- I'm happy to see Rendon get his first (of many) hit in a Curly W - now that the monkey is off his back he should start to rake.

What are your thoughts after the first few Spring Training games? Are you ready to see some cuts? Who has surprised you?