We’ve talked about this before, but with the greatness of Jordan Zimmermann this spring, and without any information being released from the Nats themselves, I’m assuming that Shairon Martis and Collin Balester are still auditioning for a starter role. Zimmermann has a job, the only question is whether the Nats want to send him to the minors to keep the arbitration clock from ticking on him. Balester’s spring has been as bad as Martis’ has been good. Both are young, and it wouldn’t be a disaster if either needed more time in the minors. But the way Martis has been throwing, he may be in.

Today, he pitched 5 innings against the O’s. While you may have heard that the Nats didn’t bring a full complement of players, the O’s sure did. Here was their lineup:

Ryan Freel, 3B
Adam Jones, CF
Nick Markakis, RF
Aubrey Huff, 1B
Ty Wigginton, LF
Matt Weiters, DH
Justin Turner, 2B
Gregg Zaun, C
Chris Gomez, SS

So they’re missing WBC participants Melvin Mora and Brian Roberts, but other than that, it’s a pretty normal sounding O’s starting lineup. He pitched well, and even had a pickoff in the first inning. In 6 IP, he had 0 ER, 3 H, 4 K, 1 BB, and 1 HBP. Throwing in this start, throughout the entire spring season, he’s done this:

22 IP, 3 ER, 12 H, 5 BB and 13 K with a 1.42 ERA

Not a bad spring, not bad at all.

By Charlie