The Nationals have finalized their 25-man roster, which includes Daryle Ward and Wiki Gonzalez, and cuts Michael Tucker, Alberto Castillo and relievers Travis Hughes and Kevin Gryboski.

I'm happy Ward will be on the team; he's a player that I think will perform very well this year for DC. Apparently, Frank Robinson agrees and will look to Ward as a bat off the bench when he needs that clutch hit.

I wasn't so certain about who would get the backup catchers job with the Nats. Alberto Castillo is very strong defensively and has the experience to call a game well, but Wiki has a stronger bat. While it was a close call, Wiki's work in camp this spring impressed Robinson, who didn't have the opportunity to watch Castillo as much since he was off playing for the Dominican Republic in the WBC. I'm not to familiar with Wiki Gonzalez, but I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do.

This post was added on Friday, March 31st, 2006 at 2:05 pm and is filed under The Dugout . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.