Watching The Wires
ST coverage is over, now we wait for minors news
As mentioned in yesterday’s post, our Spring Training coverage has ended and now we’re watching the wires, hoping for some transaction news to help us divine who’s going and where. I’ve reached out to each of the full-season affiliates and again to the folks in DC and have had some feedback (and some success) already.
In the next couple of days, we should start getting some information. As we saw yesterday, the parent club’s 25-man roster has been set and with only Danny Espinosa, Wilson Ramos and Brian Broderick making the cut, the Syracuse roster is going to be laden with “veterans,” creating a ripple effect — we may only see a handful of guys from Harrisburg getting the bump, for example, and (as usual) the Potomac roster is likely to have more carryover than we’d prefer.
Of course, as we mentioned last week with Oliver Perez, that means that some guys are going to get cut that might not have otherwise. I can understand the “no tears for these guys that have had their chances,” but lost on the folks that espouse that view is that some younger guys are going to have to wait longer for theirs.
As always, keep an eye on the site, put us in your RSS feed, or follow us on Twitter. It’s now a waiting game for the minors to start up.
Thankfuly, we can stop talking about Nyger Morgan and get back to stories about Tyler Moore, Chris Manno, Eury Perez, etc.
I am curious about where Erik Davis goes. He had success at AA, and a mere taste of AAA. He just adds to the AA logjam, which is good when it is a prospect you are adding. It seems that the players most likely to be squeezed could be people like Garrett Mock and Matt Chico – how many chances do they get?
On another note, I guess JD Martin still is a free agent? I don’t think the Nats should sign him, but he didn’t do so badly in the majors that some team couldn’t sign him to a minor league deal.
Martin was released outright, resigned, became an NRI, and the sent to minor-league camp. He’s not currently listed on the Syracuse roster on MiLB.com, which means… well, not much because it’s not finalized, but it might mean that he asked for his release and received it.
I suppose the Nationals will make the MRI signings (Gaudin, Stairs, Cora, Nix) official tomorrow, setting the big-show roster at 25, with four on the DL (and 43 on the 40-man). Meanwhile, the tea-leaves are showing me nothing but roster bloat at SYR, POT, & HAG.
Syracuse is 12 over their roster cap, Potomac is +nine, Hagerstown is +seven, and Harrisburg is only two over. To quote Tom Petty, “The wa-ai-ting is the hardest part”.
It wasn’t until I sat down to guess at Harrisburg’s roster that the immense AAA-AA glut of pitchers hit me. Holy hell there’s a lot of players for two pitching staffs.
I can’t believe it bodes well for the Mocks and Chicos of the world.
Is there any rule against launching a second AA team?
@Kevin Rusch. That’s some funny junk. Branch Rickey smiles at you for your comment.
Well, i’m being serious. Different teams appear to have different numbers of minor-league affiliates (albeit much further down in the minors) — is there any rule dictating the number and classification of the affiliated teams in your organization?
Not per organization, but it’s frozen at 160 across the minors. Most of the “action” is going to be in the ‘tween leagues like the Appalachian and Pioneer league when an organization decides it wants to shift its efforts. A few years ago, the Pulaski affiliate went dark for a season when the Blue Jays pulled out, then the Mariners decided to fill out the league. Baltmore bailed on Bluefield this past offseason but the Blue Jays decided they wanted to come back.
The decision to cap it at 160 as part of the 1990 NAPBL was done in part to create competition between teams for affiliated ball and get new facilities built. Ironically, the old facilities that were vacated helped create the environment for the independent leagues to set up shop and in some places (especially in the Atlantic League), they were able to leverage the excitement from the stadium boom of the 1990s to get *better* facilities.
Hi Everybody, some prospect news while we wait for some news releases.
Byron Kerr @ Masn talked to Nats Hitting Coordinator Rick Schu and he said the prospects making the biggest impression this spring were —
Rick Hague
Tyler Moore
Stephen Lombardozzi
Randolph Oduber
Derek Norris
Also, Michael Taylor is officially now a center fielder and has been making big waves in camp AND he’s still only 20 years old.
With Taylor changing positions, this makes Dykstra playing 2B at Potomac a little more likely.
Of course, none of those other names are any shock to any of us here…
Sue, you’ve touched on this many times, but I think the interest in Tyler Moore is so keen because we all want to see (and hope) if he can keep up his firepower in Harrisburg. I’m certainly rooting for him.
I don’t really know much about Hague, hope he goes to Potomac so your scout’s eye can take a look.
Hey guys ask Byron Kerr to speak to spin Williams and ask him who he has been impressed with. That would be a great conversation
Just a note Love the comment about Odebur and Hague
Taylor (a young, skittish SS) moves to CF & starts to impress Organizational staff. That has a familiar ring to it… Mantle (NYY 1950, converted in minors), Yount (MIL 1984, converted in 10th year in MLB), Desmond (WSH 2012?, 3rd year in MLB).
It could turn a gaping hole since 2005 into a plus, both offensively & defensively. Espinosa could shift to his natural SS position, and Lombardozzi should be ready to step into the 2B slot by then (defensively, at least).
Stepping down off soapbox now, end rant.
BinM, I don’t consider that a rant, just an astute observation of some knucklehead positioning by the F.O.
Thanks – Let it be understood that I’m not trying to say Desmond could be a HOF-caliber player if the front office made the switch; Rather that his skittish behaviour on ground balls would be eliminated by a move to the OF. That, and a possible OF alignment of Harper-Desmond-Werth, an IF of LaRoche/Morse-Lombardozzi-Espinosa-RZim, and a catching corps of Ramos/Flores/Norris could look pretty sweet moving into 2012 & beyond.
One of those catchers is going to be gone by 2012 let’s hope.
As Sue predicted (according to Ben Goessling) some veterans have been released … probably at their behest as much as the organization’s.
Jonathan Van Every, Joe Bisensius, Tim Wood.