Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Saunders is slated to take the mound Wednesday, three days after being traded to Baltimore by Arizona.
West Springfield High School graduate Joe Saunders will debut with the Baltimore Orioles Wednesday night, as they continue their four-game series against the Chicago White Sox. Saunders was traded on Sunday by the Diamondbacks, in return for reliever Matt Lindstrom. The Orioles are making a run for the playoffs, something they have not reached since 1997, and the team wanted a veteran pitcher who can help them get there. “We’ve liked Joe Saunders for quite awhile,” said Baltimore general manager Dan Duquette. “He’s pitched in the American League. He’s pitched in the playoffs. He’s pitched in a tough ballpark in Arizona. And we just like his experience," he said. "I also like the fact that he’s left-handed," added Duquette. "I think that …
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
The Diamondbacks pitcher says he's not getting caught-up in the Bryce Harper hype.
Bryce Harper, 19, the rookie slugger for the Washington Nationals, will most likely face some tough left-handed pitchers during his career in the Major Leagues. And among the first may be Joe Saunders, who is no stranger to baseball fans in Northern Virginia. Saunders is a former standout pitcher at West Springfield High School who played at Virginia Tech before he was a first-round draft pick of the Angels in 2002. Now a left-handed starter for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Saunders is slated to take the mound against Washington at Nationals Park on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. "You want to go out and pitch well. You want to go out there and keep them in check," Saunders told Patch, sitting in front of his locker before Tuesday's game in which the …
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West Springfield High School
6100 Rolling Rd, Springfield, VA
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Thursday, August 25, 2011
Former prep standout returns home to face the Nationals - and experience the earthquake in his grandmother's Springfield home.
Joe Saunders, as a freshman at West Springfield High in the late 1990s, remembers meeting with his guidance counselor. She asked what he wanted to do in life and Saunders replied that he wanted to be a Major League baseball player. "Let us think of something more realistic," was her reply, according to Saunders, standing in the visiting clubhouse at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Springfield native Saunders can laugh at that memory now, as the 30-year-old is a left-handed starting pitcher with the Arizona Diamondbacks of the National League. He broke into the Major Leagues in 2005 with the Angels, and is now in his first season with the Arizona Diamondbacks. A former Virginia Tech standout, Saunders was the losing …
38.78737
-77.2394
West Springfield High School
6100 Rolling Rd, Springfield, VA
/articles/saunders-knew-his-calling-while-at-west-springfield
1300854
/locations/6945990
