Souza, Taylor Win Weekly Honors
Steve Souza, Jr. and Michael Taylor have been named the Player of the Week for the Eastern and Carolina Leagues, respectively, for the week of July 15-21. It’s the second time Taylor has won the award for the Carolina League and the second time a Senator position player has been named (Anthony Rendon, May 6-12).
Souza went 10-for-27 for a .370 batting average and collected four doubles, a triple, and two home runs for an .815 slugging percentage. He drew three walks, scored eight runs and drove in six. For the season, the 24-year-old is posting a line of .282/.382/.560 with 14 home runs and 30 RBI in 62 games. He was a 2013 Eastern League All-Star despite having spent nearly six weeks on the DL. This is Souza’s seventh season in the Nationals organization, originally drafted in 2007 as a third-round pick out of Cascade HS in Everett, WA.
Last night’s 0-fer snapped an eight-game hit streak for Taylor, but the 22-year-old still batted .500 for the week (12-for-24) with five doubles, four runs scored, nine RBI, and three stolen bases. Taylor is currently 3rd in the Carolina League with 61 RBI, and second to teammate Billy Burns with 31 steals. Overall, he’s hitting .275/.343/.434 in 92 games. Taylor was originally drafted in 2009 as a shortstop out of Westminster Academy in Fort Lauderdale, FL but converted to outfield in 2011, where he’s become one of the organization’s best defensive prospects.
Hi Luke. What do you make of Souza? Combine those numbers with what he did last year and you can’t just say its a fluke any more. Is it safe to say his performance will only speed up the trade of Marrero? Or do you think he needs to spend the entire year at Harrisburg?
I’ve always thought Souza had the talent, but lacked the maturity. Now I worry that he can’t stay on the field in terms of injuries. I’m not sure there’s really any connection between him and Marrero aside from 40-man issues.
Funny how drafting high schoolers works…. they can not develop exactly as expected, even flounder for years and still turn out alright.
College seniors however…..
Too early to start speculating what happens to Taylor in the upcoming Rule 5 draft? I think he’s in the mix.
Not really. Trade deadline’s approaching and it doesn’t seem likely that the three CFs from A+ to AA to AAA will all be here next year (hey, that rhymes!)
Do you foresee some trades? It seems like it might be better to cut their losses, call it a season, and build something for next year. If that involves trading a CF, then so be it.
I don’t see how releasing Haren and acquiring a SP is going to turn this club into a contender. We need better offense from a team with no discernible places to upgrade on offense.
I’d like to think Rizzo has the guts to do something bold (e.g. trade Ryan Zimmerman or Adam LaRoche) but thus far hasn’t proven to be able to pull off such a trade during the season. I’d agree the solution to a team that’s pitching well but can’t hit water if they fell off a pier isn’t more pitching.
I just can’t see where there’s room the upgrade…
The line up is very good on paper. It’s why they were pegged to win the WS. But in practice, they stink.
You can’t move Werth; his contract is too big, and he’s actually one of the few having a very good season. Desmond is too valuable. He’s been the best offensive SS in baseball for over a year now. Rendon has been very good at 2B. Harper- no chance he’s moved.
So that leaves LaRoche, Zimmerman, Span and Suzuki/Ramos. 1B is remarkably thin. I don’t think we should have resigned LaRoche, but who’s available? Justin Smoak? Kendrys Morales?
We could shift Zimm to 1B, and get a 3B, but again, even in a down year, Zimm is a top 10 3B, and none of the better players would be available in a trade (they’re all on contenders or building blocks for the future).
Then in CF, Span has been bad offensively, but DeAza or DeJesus are marginally better offensively, but massively worse defensively.
Then at catcher, maybe McCann could be had (or Gattis), or the Brewers could be persuaded to trade Lucroy. But they’d both be expensive. And a healthy Ramos is only marginally worse than them.
The only area I can see for improvement is the bench, but that isn’t the difference maker.
So what can we do? Go hard after Cano this offseason and shift around the infield? I’d hope we not risk another reclamation project on someone like Halladay, Ubaldo Jimenez, or even Josh Johnson. Even the best option, Garza, isn’t a sure thing. And we don’t have the organizational talent to acquire a very good SP through a trade.
I see Leavengood basically just wrote the exact same thing: http://www.masnsports.com/nationals_buzz/2013/07/ted-leavengood-nats-need-to-find-a-straw-to-stir-the-drink.html
I don’t think they need to trade for anyone in the starting lineup. With the exception of Span and LaRoche we have above average hitters at every position on the field, and LaRoche is average. Now if you look at the FA 1B the best you can do is someone a lot like LaRoche(Napoli, Hart, Morse). I think the problem this year is just the players having bad timing with RiSP, they all get their hits with the bases empty. We know these guys can drive in runs, and if you look at them each individually they aren’t having bad years, so I think you give it at least one more year. Now if someone wants to give you a young almost MLB ready 1B in a trade I would consider giving up a lot for said 1B because it appears the only 2 guys who could be starting first basemen in the majors we have are Skole and Moore, and they each have their issues.