2010 Top 20 Pre-Season Washington Nationals Prospects in Review

too certainly doesn’t hurt matters…

Isn’t he having a spendid second half of the season? What do you think of Steve Lombardozzi? Yes, he’s not a german chocolate cake more of a pound cake but this kids got lots of it. What ever it is?

What is Flores’s status?

can he? I understand liking him, but he should have to perform to get THAT high of a grade/

Meyers injuries have been significant setbacks as well. Didn’t realize Tom Milone wasn’t on last year’s list. Would he make it this year? Lombardozzi seems to also be someone who would make it. He had a .771 OPS at Hagerstown and has followed that up with a .779OPS at Potomac and earning a Harrisburg callup.

To me there’s a gaping Bowden sized chasm in the Nats system. They’ve got the top draft pick guys and Ramos at the top of the system plus Espinosa and Norris. At the bottom of the system, they’ve got the Rizzo college kind of guys who are likely to give the system depth. But the middle, the high schoolers and Bowden hail merry picks is where all the “blah” seems to come from.

Baseball America’s Jim Callis reporting that the Nats have signed Sammy Solis and A.J. Cole. Both almost certainly crack next year’s top twenty. Reports still sound good that they may lock up Robbie Ray, who was apparently in for a visit today and wearing a Nats watching batting practice. Like SD, I’m not going to mention the other guy’s name until he signs…. worked with Strasburg last year, so why change that superstition?

I’m often told to bring a little more sunshine at Federal Baseball. It’s difficult at times.

In truth, compared to the system that we’ve seen in recent years, there’s a lot to get excited about. During the Bowden years, there was little to get excited about throughout the entire system. Perhaps the biggest problem at this point is that there’s just not a whole lot to get excited about in the high minors. Espinosa and Ramos both look like guys who probably turn into regulars on the big league club, though there’s certainly some question whether they’ll even be above average in those roles. Both certainly have their fair share of warts (Espinosa’s contact rate and Ramos’ lack of patience being the most prevalent), but there’s a lot to like as well. Perhaps most importantly, there’s a lot to like from reports on both of them defensively.

The problem is that there’s not a lot of depth in the high minors beyond them. The AAA rotation (save for the temporary Jordan Zimmermann appearance there) is bogged down with a bunch of AAAA guys who have been pushed into duty with the big club due to injuries. Meyers’ performance last year certainly showed that he could be a guy who could develop to be a decent mid-to-back end starter, but his injuries have all but made this a lost year. Thompson’s obviously regressed. Millone’s taken a big step forward, showing that he can sustain last year’s breakout as he’s been equally as dominant (if not more so) upon jumping a level.

We can get excited with the signings of Solis (figures to move a bit quickly) and Cole (probably a bigger upside arm than anyone in the organization outside of Strasburg and Zimmermann), but both are also guys who end up in the same predicament as the position players. Locking up Robbie Ray, which sounds quite possible, works to restock the low minors with some nice upside as well. If Solis works out, maybe he’s up some time in 2012 (?). Ray and Cole still aren’t guys we’re likely to see for about four years, though (assuming a lot of things break right).

I still feel that they missed a terrific opportunity with Dunn at the deadline, though. We’ll see how it all pans out. I viewed it as an opportunity for the Nats to get a young big-league ready starter (based on speculation, would likely have been Dan Hudson, though I’m sure there were plenty of GMs who preferred to keep the media out of negotiations a lot more than Kenny Williams does) and a quality hitting prospect in the high minors who would contribute pretty quickly. Given what the White Sox gave up for Jackson (presumably to use to get Dunn, though it didn’t work that way), they probably could have gotten a mid-level prospect to stock the low minors a bit more as well. It just didn’t make sense to me to not capitalize.

I understand the process, and (to be honest) like most of what I’ve seen here. Everyone’s obviously going to start (with few exceptions) in the low minors, and that’s where Rizzo’s draftees are, based on the fact that he’s been the GM for less than two years. Better depth down below will hopefully lead to a terrific farm system within the next few years. Rizzo has (perhaps wisely) taken the notion that Stan Kasten wanted to build this team from the farm system up to an even further level. He just needs time at this point.

While I like that approach, they need some options who are going to be ready to contribute a bit quicker. Zimmerman’s contract is up after 2013, and (improving farm system or not) if they’re not competing by then, he’s gone…. If Zimm goes, the potential domino effect begins. If the team starts to contend (consistently), the attendance goes up and the money to try and keep some of the high end players from the past couple of drafts down the road (starting with Strasburg in 2016) is a lot more likely to be there.