Checking In…
Some news and notes on the Nats' minors
As you imagine, things are in a lull right now as we wait for the parent club to finish out the string. A few items of interest…
…Thankfully, we’re not in a mode of worrying whether or not the #1 overall pick is ours, which was the subject of discussion last year and the year before. That battle is between Baltimore and Seattle (hey, that rhymes!). Currently, Washington is in line for the 8th overall pick, two games “behind” Cleveland in the reverse standings, three games “behind” Kansas City, and four games “ahead” of the Chicago Cubs. Most of the teams in the #3 through #6 spots face winning clubs the rest of the way (#7 is a compensatory pick for the Diamondbacks failing to sign Barret Loux), the Nats and Cubs play contenders for some, also-rans on the final weekend. Thus, the order is not likely to change all that much.
…Former scout and current AOL Fanhouse writer Frankie Piliere has good things to say about Bryce Harper but what was more interesting was his take on A.J. Morris:
Nationals right-handed pitching prospect A.J. Morris was among the more impressive arms in camp for Washington, showing off a lively 91-94 mph fastball and a feel for a sharp slider at 82-84 mph. He has the look of an effective late-inning arm for Nationals in the near future.
….Baseball America’s been churning out its Top 20 lists for each league. Thus far, they’ve done the Arizona Fall League, the Gulf Coast League, and the Appalachian League and no Nationals have appeared. The New York-Penn League is on the docket for tomorrow, the Sally League on Thursday. If/when any Nationals are named or discussed, I’ll pass along what they have to say.
…Finally, as frequent commenter Mark L noted, the Washington Nationals have yet to name its Minor-League Batter and Pitcher of the Year, but it appears that Tyler Moore will be the former. The latter may be a little less of a slam-dunk. Danny Rosenbaum makes the case with the lowest ERA in the system, but our money is on Tom Milone, the leader in wins (12) and strikeouts (155) and innings pitched (158).
I woulda thunk the Pirates were a lock for #1.
Pitcher of the year’s gotta be Milone. Seems like tie should go to the pitcher at a higher level closer to DC and Milone was the main force behind Harrisburg’s playoff appearance.
Let me add one more voice to the chorus for Milone. For the last two years, all he’s done is get batters out; This year, he found a strikout pitch to add to the arsenal.
BinM would that pitch be his cutter perhaps…
For those who missed it, the Nats hitting coordinator, Rick Schu, weighed in on a lot of the prospects in the FIL. I put it under Sue’s FIL final thoughts.
Hmmm, I might pick up the FBML (from some books) and see if I can wrangle Brian’s spreadsheet with hot links to players, teams, blogs like this etc. into facebook. Mostly non-narrative but hopefully informative. I don’t want to host a web site like Brian did.
Plus he might just come back and dust off his prospects mantle?
Regarding AJ Morris: One of the commenters on Nats Insider dropped a hint that more than one scout was ‘drooling’ over Morris early in FIL action. Color me somewhat suprised; His numbers from the regular season certainly don’t jump off the page. Sue – You saw him for most of the 2nd half of the year; Anything to offer?
When he came back from the GCL, his velocity was up significantly and he’d abandoned his offspeed stuff. His regular-season numbers are skewed by an ass-kicking he got by Winston-Salem on August 20, and I assure you that was not a matter of poor defense. Folks might remember that game as the night they gave up eight runs in the 8th after leading 6-1.
But Toast is right: More of his outings were good than bad and that last one was exactly what was described: five runs on five hits, only two of which went to the outfield. I’m not so sure about “near future” unless that means 2012 as an MRP.
AJ does induce alot of grounders and his defense did fail him at times. Sometimes numbers do not tell the whole story.