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'Hop' Gives Patterson Hope of Opening Night Start
John Patterson looks to return to his 2005 form.
(Haraz N. Ghanbari - AP)
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"What happened last year was unbelievable to me," he said. "I didn't see that coming at all. It was difficult, to say the least. Looking back on it now and knowing how I feel now, it's totally different. I have that . . . flexibility in my arm that I didn't have last year."
The injuries came at a high cost to Patterson: two of his prime years, at a point when he was perhaps one step away from becoming one of the elite pitchers in the National League. Now 30 years old, he is unwilling to dwell upon what he lost.
"I'm in the middle of my prime right now," he said. "It was very difficult to me to be hurt the last two years. It would be easy -- and you see it in a lot of guys -- to say, 'Man, enough of this.' . . . I could look at my numbers and say, 'I should be 60-30.' It would be easy to do that, but that would be focusing on the negative side of what has happened to me, and that's just not something I choose to focus on."
This is what Patterson is focusing on: March 30. On that night, the Nationals open the regular season at their new ballpark along the Anacostia riverfront against the Atlanta Braves, and Patterson has every intention of throwing the first pitch there. At this point, with his medical issues hopefully behind him for good, all that is left is building endurance. Already, he is throwing 100-plus pitches during his pre-camp bullpen sessions, and using every pitch in his arsenal.
"March 30 -- that's all I'm thinking about," Patterson said with a smile. "I have a one-track mind."
Nationals Note: A three-person panel of arbitrators sided with the Nationals in their salary arbitration case against infielder Felipe L¿pez, meaning L¿pez will earn the $4.9 million offered by the team in 2008 instead of the $5.2 million he was seeking.
Even with the loss, L¿pez receives a $1 million raise over the $3.9 million he made in 2007, when he batted .245 with nine homers and 50 RBI.
Bowden has won three of the four cases that have reached a hearing since joining the Nationals in 2005.
