Pitching depth emerging for Nationals

MIAMI -- Since joining the Nationals/Expos in 2003, pitching coach Randy St. Claire has been known for resuscitating baseball careers. This year, his job is to make his young pitching staff better.

With Opening Day less than 24 hours away, St. Claire loves the starting pitchers and relievers he has to work with. The starting staff, led by John Lannan, has an average age of 24, while the bullpen will feature three left-handed relievers -- Joe Beimel, Michael Hinckley and Wil Ledezma -- a total unheard of since the Nationals came to Washington.

In the past, the club usually had only one left-handed reliever. The Nationals are carrying the extra lefties to stop National League East sluggers such as Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Carlos Delgado.

"I really like the pitching staff," St. Claire said. "I think it has a lot of potential. It's young, so there is a lot of work to do. I think it has a lot of ability. I think we are going to have a good staff this year.

"I like the camaraderie between the guys. I think it's going to be a nice tight group pulling for each other. I'm really looking forward to it. It's going to be a good year."

Washington is also showing how far its pitching depth has come. If any of the Nats' pitchers go down with an injury, they can go to their farm system to get quality young pitchers. They have the likes of right-handers Collin Balester, Jason Bergmann, Garrett Mock and Craig Stammen to choose from.

Gone are the days where the team hoped to catch lighting in the bottle with journeyman veterans.

"I think we have the best depth that we ever had at the Minor League side -- I feel really good about the situation," St. Claire said. "We could call up a Mock or Bergmann. Ryan Wagner was throwing the ball good. We have a lot of options down there we can go to.

"With an injury or two, it's not going to kill us. We have strength down there. We have quality down there, not just a body that could say, 'He'll come up a throw the ball across the plate. You have to take your lumps with it.' There is some quality there that can do a good job for us. I'm real excited about the season."