The Washington Nationals were playing the Marlins in Jupiter yesterday, but that was not where I wanted to be. I learned that the Nats prospects were playing in some backfield games against the Astros prospects. This allowed me to see some players I had never seen before.
There were four games going on, two on the Astros side of the facility and two on the Nats side. The more experienced prospects were playing on the Astros side, so that is where I started. Luis Perales and Sean Linan were throwing for the Nats in those two games.
Both of them looked fairly sharp. As the higher ranked prospect that was closer to the big leagues, I was paying more attention to Perales. He threw two innings and was mostly solid. Perales gave up one monster home run, but was good besides that. Here is a video I took of him fielding a ground ball.
Perales was mostly in the zone, which was good to see for a guy with control questions. He was getting hit harder than you would expect for a guy with his stuff, so the quality of the strikes still needs to improve. However, he has such amazing stuff. Perales threw a 100 MPH fastball with almost 20 inches of carry to get a strikeout. That is really rare stuff because fastballs that hard do not tend to have that kind of movement.
The contrast between Perales and Sean Linan was also fun to see. Linan is a very different type of pitcher. He is reliant on a very unique changeup that can totally befuddle hitters. Linan had mixed results, but it was good to see him throw the ball.
The whole scene on that side felt very professional. Nats and Astros coaches were all around the complex and locked in on the games. There were also some Astros players watching the games. One cool thing I saw was Astros prospect AJ Blubaugh interacting with his family after he threw a pair of scoreless innings in the game.
When I went to the other side of the field, things felt more laid back. These games were mostly filled with the team’s younger prospects. I saw the likes of Eli Willits, Gavin Fien, Coy James, Ronny Cruz and Luke Dickerson among others.
There was one game with a lot of the younger Dominican prospects. In that crowd were a bunch of middle aged men wearing Dominican Republic hats. I figured they were the parents of some of the players, but I was not sure. They looked like they were having a blast watching the game.
One player that stood out yet again was Ronny Cruz. I wrote about him after he hit a home run in a Spring Training game the other day. He was playing in one of the games and ripped a single between the shortstop and third baseman. Then, the youngster stole a base. I am going to be watching him very closely this spring.
The Nats were aggressive on the basepaths in all the games I saw. I got a video of prospect Angel Feliz stealing a base while Luke Dickerson was hitting. Feliz is not known for his speed, but he got a great jump and swiped the bag.
Interestingly, the games with mostly younger players had some big league players getting work in as well. Miles Mikolas was throwing to Riley Adams in one of the games. This must be a replacement for Mikolas’ between-start bullpen. He shut down the young Astros hitters.
After his outing was over, I saw him chatting with his wife and playing with his three young kids. That was a really cool thing to see, and humanized a guy who I have been watching perform in the big leagues for nearly a decade. At that moment, he was just a dad and a husband.
Overall, seeing the backfields was a really cool experience. It was a hot afternoon, but this was worth sweating over. While fans mostly just see the Spring Training games, there is so much other stuff that goes on during the spring. I got to see some of that yesterday, and it was a fun experience.
