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Instead of traveling to San Francisco to potentially pitch for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic's Championship Round, 26-year-old Washington Nationals' lefty Ross Detwiler is in Lakeland, Florida's Joker Marchant Stadium today with a traveling Nats' lineup that's a mix of starters and bench options to take on the Detroit Tigers in Grapefruit League action. Detwiler will be making his third Grapefruit League start of the Spring and his fourth outing overall including the four scoreless innings he threw in last weekend's WBC matchup with Italy. In 4.2 IP with the Nationals so far this Spring, the '07 1st Round pick has given up nine hits and three earned runs, walking no one and striking out six. Detwiler will have to settle for pitching for the defending NL East Champs against the defending American League Champs today instead of representing his country and he'll have to adjust to what will likely be a slightly less raucous crowd in Lakeland than the one he pitched in front of last week in Arizona's Chase Field. Here's the Nationals' lineup for today's Spring Training game with the Tigers:
Today's lineup at DET: Espinosa 4, Lombardozzi 5, Harper 8, Moore 9, Desmond 6, Suzuki 2, Tracy DH, Marrero 3, Owings 7. Detwiler P
— Nationals PR (@NationalsPR) March 17, 2013
Note: In slightly interesting news this morning. FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal is reporting that there is interest around the league in veteran backstop Chris Snyder, who signed on with the Nationals in February as another layer of redundancy should anything stall the return to form of 25-year-old catcher Wilson Ramos. With Ramos seemingly healthy and close to returning to full-time duty (once he goes nine innings a few times), the 32-year-old Snyder might be expendable, since the Nationals have Ramos, Kurt Suzuki and behind them capable catchers like Sandy Leon, Jhonathan Solano and Carlos Maldonado. There's some depth there. Here's what Mr. Rosenthal had to say this morning on the Twitter:
#Nationals catcher Chris Snyder drawing teams with interest in backup, including #Angels. Likely to be moved; Nats deep at position.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) March 17, 2013
Snyder's 4 for 18 with a home run so far this Spring. Just something to keep an eye on as Opening Day approaches. Before it does, however, there's more Spring Training action on the way including today's game with the Tigers which starts at 1:05 pm EST. It's available on Gameday Audio, but no Charlie and Dave, it's the Tigers feed if you're listening in. Detwiler returns to the mound for the Nats. Who's listening to the Nationals?
