Top prospect lists are the filler essence of the offseason and today the folks at Bullpen Banter have released their latest estimation of the top of the Nats crop (last year’s ranking, where applicable, in parentheses):
| No. | Player | Pos. |
| 1. | Lucas Giolito (2) | RHP |
| 2. | A.J. Cole | RHP |
| 3. | Brian Goodwin (3) | CF |
| 4. | Jake Johansen | RHP |
| 5. | Nathan Karns | RHP |
| 6. | Steve Souza | OF |
| 7. | Matt Skole (5) | 1B/3B |
| 8. | Sammy Solis | LHP |
| 9. | Michael Taylor (11) | OF |
| 10. | Taylor Jordan | RHP |
This is the third time I’ve featured BB’s work because (A) I believe it’s important to see what folks outside our usual haunts have to say about the Nats (B) like fertilizer salesmen, they know their sh… stuff. As such, you should click through to see their commentary and check out the scouting video.
Al Skorupa (@alskor on Twitter) and Jeff Reese (@Ioffridus) maintain their position that the Nats have become a system of a few premiere prospects supplemented by bevy of projects, most of which are drawn from the collegiate ranks. This, of course, is old news to us, but bear in mind that they’re writing for a different audience, one that’s arguably more interested in the players themselves since their readers’ favorite team may actually be a composite (if you know what I mean).
Aside from including Taylor Jordan, which if you’re not using the 50IP limit is a fine selection, there aren’t a whole lot of surprises here. It does seem to me that the three “Other Prospects of Note” (Tony Renda, Brett Mooneyham, and Drew Ward) get the benefit from being scouts’ favorites, but as we saw a couple of weeks ago when I released the preliminary 2014 Watchlists, “notable” is often in the eye of the beholder.