Tag Archives: mlb draft

Baseball America’s No. 1 Draft: Your Washington Nationals

Posted on by
Reply

Baseball America is rolling out its draft report cards, and the Nationals report came out yesterday. It requires an online subscription (which I highly recommend anyways), but here are some of the highlights (without giving away everything because I really do respect the fine work that the folks over at BA do):

1. The Nationals did it big in 2011- According to BA, “The Nationals spent big—and it was worth it. They had baseball’s best draft, getting the top hitter (Rendon), an electric arm (Meyer) and a top athlete (Goodwin) in the top 34 picks, then signing Purke.” If that doesn’t get your juices going Nats fans, I don’t know what will. Couldn’t have said it better myself.

2. Anthony Rendon is a stud- According to BA, Rendon is the best pure hitter, the best power hitter and the best fielder out of all of the Nats picks. That’s a pretty impressive haul, and just gives more credence to the belief that Rendon was, in fact, the No. 1 player in this year’s draft and a future All-Star.

3. Alex Meyer has some serious upside- According to BA, Meyer has a fastball that sits mid-90s and a slider that, when thrown correctly, is a “plus-plus” pitch (scouting lingo for the best of the best. For reference, Strasburg has a plus-plus fastball and plus-plus breaking ball). This isn’t really a surprise as we knew that Meyer had the stuff to be a frontine starter, he just needs the control to go with it. It’s not a stretch to think that Meyer has top-five pick stuff, when he is on. But that’s always the problem for tall hurlers like Meyer, who checks in at 6-foot-9. The nice thing for the Nationals is that, with Jordan Zimmermann and Stephen Strasburg already entrenched at the top of the rotation, they merely need Meyer to be a No. 3 or No. 4 starter, something you would have to believe he is more than capable of.

Get excited Nats fans, the future is bright.

Trader Jim’s picks starting to emerge

Posted on by
Reply

Trader Jim

On Saturday night, the Nationals had a homegrown infield (with the exception of Wilson Ramos behind the plate). Ryan Zimmerman, the first-round pick in 2005, manned his usual post at third base. Ian Desmond, a hold-over from the Expo era of this franchise, and Danny Espinosa, a quick-to-the-bigs pick from the Rizzo era, manned shortstop and second base, respectively. And then a weird thing happened. Two players that Jim Bowden selected actually played important roles on this team. I know, I was as stunned as you are.

Look, it’s not like Bowden didn’t have his success stories. He rescued Dmitri Young off of the scrap-heap and let him resuscitate his career, eventually becoming an all-star for the Nationals. Unfortunately, Bowden followed that up by extending Young, who never came close to approaching the numbers he put up in his first season in Washington. Bowden gets credit for Adam Dunn and for not signing Alfonso Soriano to a long-term deal. But in the drafts, Bowden’s record is considerably less impressive (and that’s saying something).

Bowden wasted top picks on such stalwarts as Colton Willems, Jack McGeary, Josh Smoker and Michael Burgess. And then there was the entire Aaron Crow debacle. But Bowden also selected Detwiler and Marrero, who have now cracked the big leagues. Are they going to be stars? No. But they will be valuable contributors on this ball club. I continue to believe that Detwiler would be best used as a reliever, where he could keep his velocity in the upper-90s with sink, and also mixing in his curveball. Marrero looks to be a valuable bat off the bench, someone who can hit for average and power, but may never be the answer at first base. Or he could be a valuable trade chip for the Nats in the future. Point is, after five years of waiting, Bowden’s picks are starting to arrive. Continue reading →

Important week lies ahead for the Nats

Posted on by
Reply

Swag

And it has nothing to do with the series against the Cubs or the series against the Phillies. No, the deadline is approaching for the Nationals to sign their draft picks. The deadline is set for midnight on August 15th, and it seems the Nationals have made little progress to this point.

This isn’t a huge shocker, since, due to MLB’s arbitrary rules, no one really negotiates until they HAVE to (sort of like the NFL lockout negotiations). Teams push it up until the very edge, as the Nats have done the past two years with both Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper.

Both of those years, the Nats set records for investments in their draft picks (owed mainly to the large contracts of Harper and Strasburg). In addition, the Nats went over-budget on picks like Sammy Solis, A.J. Cole and Robbie Ray.

And the strategy has paid off with an increasingly potent farm system. With the Nationals making little headway in free agency (aside from, you know, this guy), their biggest improvements have to come through the draft. It’s a staple of the so-called “Plan,” which I believe is either in Phase 2, Part B or some other cliche-riddled stage.

And it’s a smart idea. If a team consistently just signed all of its draft picks (including those late-round gambles that you have to pay over-slot for), they would have a tremendous farm system, which, in today’s game, is becoming more and more a hallmark of a winning organization.

This year, the Nats have their work cut out for them signing the top four picks. They were blessed with an abundance of picks at the top of the draft, but with that comes increased expectations in terms of dollars spent in their draft budget. Anthony Rendon, Alex Meyer and Brian Goodwin were three of the top 34 picks in this year’s draft, and they will want to be paid accordingly. Continue reading →