John Sickels released his preliminary prospect list for the Washington Nationals this morning, and yours truly made the first comment.
All of the names Sickels listed are on the 2014 Watchlist, so as I’ve done for the past two years, it’s easier to note the omissions from the primary categories:
| Sandy Leon | Raudy Read | Matt Reistetter | Jose Marmolejos-Diaz | Shawn Pleffner |
| Ricky Hague | Bryan Mejia | Wilmer Difo | David Masters | Cutter Dykstra |
| J.C. Valdez | Estarlin Martinez | John Wooten | Bryan Lippincott | Greg Zebrack |
| Cody Davis | Gilberto Mendez | L.J. Hollins | John Simms | Wander Suero |
| Nick Lee | R.C. Orlan | David Napoli | Jake Walsh |
Not too hard to spot the pattern here: Sickels is looking for the Top 30-something guys, regardless of position, role, or usage, whereas I’ve got some built-in biases based on the how the list is constructed (Top 5’s from each affiliate) as well as the inescapable prejudice of fanhood, which isn’t necessarily inclusive.
As I put it a year ago, it doesn’t concern me that there are so many omissions; it’s just math. Sickels is looking at/for the top 15 percent of 30 organizations, my list covers the about third of one.
Hopefully, I’ll get home before Sickels releases his Top 20 list.