Rotation Spinning With Possibilities
Nationals Expect Nos. 3-5 Starters To Emerge Soon

By Dave Sheinin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 16, 2007

VIERA, Fla., March 15 -- Two and a half weeks from Opening Day, the Washington Nationals' quest to piece together a starting rotation out of the youngsters and journeymen in their spring training camp turned a corner and began heading for home. On Thursday night, on a pair of diamonds 51 miles apart, three candidates went to the mounds to state their cases. By Friday, when the team is expected to announce another round of cuts, the race could gain a new layer of clarity.

The Nationals' Grapefruit League schedule reached its midpoint Thursday night, with split-squad games at home against the Detroit Tigers and in Vero Beach, Fla., against the Los Angeles Dodgers. In a sense, the task of choosing a five-man starting rotation also is halfway finished -- as the Nationals now have identified precisely 2 1/2 starters.

On Thursday, Manager Manny Acta said definitively that right-hander Shawn Hill would be the team's No. 2 starter behind No. 1 John Patterson. Acta further acknowledged that veteran right-hander Jason Simontacchi is "pretty close" to securing the third spot, although the problem of adding Simontacchi to the 40-man roster -- and dropping someone else -- remains a concern.

Of Hill, Acta said: "The way Shawn pitched [in the majors] last year . . . if he was healthy, he was a lock from the beginning. But you can't just tell him that on Day One."

Indeed, the Nationals have cultivated a competitive atmosphere since the beginning of camp -- with as many as a dozen pitchers at one point vying for the four spots behind Patterson -- and on Thursday night, the competition reached another level.

"It's big," Acta said before the games began, "because time is running out."

At Viera's Space Coast Stadium, with Acta and his full major league coaching staff on hand, 23-year-old left-hander Matt Chico, a favorite of the field staff both for his talent and his tenacity, threw four scoreless innings against the defending American League champion Detroit Tigers in a 2-0 loss, allowing four hits and one walk while striking out three.

"I felt locked in from the beginning," Chico said, after stopping a lineup that included five regulars from the Tigers' pennant-winning 2006 squad.

"He pitches inside effectively," Acta said, "which shows a guy mature beyond his years."

Following Chico, veteran right-hander Tim Redding, an Acta favorite from their days together in the Houston Astros' farm system, had his best outing of the spring, giving up only two hits, one walk and one earned run in three innings.

"He needed it," Acta said of Redding.

Meantime, an hour down Interstate 95 in Vero Beach -- with General Manager Jim Bowden leading a Nationals contingent that also included Class AAA Manager John Stearns and his coaches -- right-hander Jason Bergmann had a far less auspicious outing, giving up his first runs of the spring and failing to make it out of the third inning. In all, he allowed five hits, four walks and four earned runs in 2 1/3 innings.

In the coming days, the rest of the candidates will take their next shots. Right-hander Jerome Williams will start for the Nationals on Friday in Winter Haven, Fla., and right-handers Joel Hanrahan, Colby Lewis and Levale Speigner also remain in the mix.

"There's a lot of baseball to play and there's a lot of competition left," Bowden said on Wednesday. "You really can't make any kind of conclusion. I think we have a lot of pitchers that are very similar in ability, and besides John Patterson and Shawn Hill, I think the rest are still up in the air."

Bowden further raised the possibility that one or more members of the Nationals' Opening Day rotation might not presently be in their camp -- but might instead be discovered off the waiver wire as other teams trim their rosters, or even from the Nationals' minor league camp.

"We've had some pitchers that we thought would do better that have pitched horribly," Bowden said. "There's some pitchers that have overachieved."

Acta, Bowden and their staffs planned to reconvene at Space Coast Stadium following Thursday night's games and work deep into the night -- comparing notes, debating cuts and pondering the question of how their rotation will look come April 2.

Staff writer Barry Svrluga contributed to this report.