Happy Columbus Day Eve
OK, so I haven’t come up with a name for this post yet. “This Week In The Nats Minors” or “The Washington Farm Report” seem a little too been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. “Next-Gen Nats?” Um, sure, but I’ll have to change my site’s color scheme to teal, purple, and black. I’m open to suggestions… In the meantime, let’s do this weekly thing again.
ARIZONA FALL LEAGUE
Thanks to a rainout — the first since 2011 — the Mesa Solar Sox have played just four games, losing the first three by a collective score of 30-9 before finally getting a win with a 6-3 decision last night. As you might imagine, the stats thus far aren’t pretty, so let’s hold on posting them. I am thinking another picture-gallery post midweek might be in order.
BA TOP 20 PROSPECT LISTS
As noted in the comments, Pedro Severino edged into BA’s Carolina League Top 20 at #18, which is actually a mild surprise given the size and talent of the league, but not undeserved. Severino’s ballyhooed defense actually fell short of the hype during last offseason, but that’s not to say he’s not a good defender. Perhaps not at the level of Sandy Leon at the same (st)age, but not far off either. Like Leon in 2011, the 21-year-old Severino’s bat came alive in 2014, particularly in the second half, and that’s what caught the attention of scouts. The hope/unknown is whether that’ll continue in 2015.
TRANSACTION STUFF
Greg Dobbs, we hardly knew ye, as the 36-y.o. who stapled a .483 OPS in 13 games with the big club and thumbtacked AAA pitchers for a .635 mark in 36 games has declared free agency.
WINTER LEAGUE
Folks are hungry to know who’s playing winter ball. The Mexican Pacific League and the Venezuelan Winter League started up this weekend, and a scan of the rosters has turned up three pitchers:
Rafael Martin (Hermosillo, MWL)
Paolo Espino (Anzoategui, VWL)
David Ramos (Aragua, VWL)
The Dominican Winter League starts on this Friday, while the Puerto Rican and Australian winter leagues both start up on the 30th.
THE AUBURN DOUBLEDAYS
The Doubledays couldn’t help but improve on 2013, which won the fewest games (26) since the ’06 Lake Monsters (23) and was dead last in pitching and third-worst in hitting. The 2014 crew, which included a sizable contingent from the ’13 GCL squad, broke the 30-win mark and performed to its pythagorean projection of 34-41 with 299 runs scored (3.99/G) and 332 allowed (4.43) with the league averaging 4.15 runs per game. After years of being among the league’s oldest teams [insert college-senior drafting remark here], the Doubledays hitters were slightly older (21.2 vs. 21.0) while the pitchers were the fourth-youngest crew in the league (20.9)
And with that I’ll leave you with the Top 5’s…
| TOP 5 BATS | TOP 5 ARMS |
| 1. Raudy Read, C, .265 GPA, .462 SLG% | 1. Reynaldo Lopez, RHP, 0.75/3.14/0.83, .124 OBA |
| 2. Jose Marmolejos-Diaz, 1B, .250 GPA, .996FA | 2. Robbie Dickey, RHP, 2.25/2.74/1.05, 1.35BB/9 allowed in 20IP |
| 3. D.K. Carey, CF, .248 GPA, .353 OBP | 3. Travis Ott, LHP, 3.05/3.98/1.24, 6.7 H/9 |
| 4. Cody Gunter, 3B, .239 GPA, 23BB in 54G | 4. Mario Sanchez, RHP, 4.11/3.50/1.17, 2.8 BB/9 |
| 5. Austin Davidson, IF, .231 GPA, 4.89 RF/G (2B) | 5. Chase McDowell, RHP, 4.50/3.16/1.54, 0.98 BB/9 |
Honorable mentions go to Matthew Page and Austen Williams, but like the GCL crew, it was not easy after the first two or three names — especially in a year where the Nats had several multiple-level pitchers. As always, folks who want to see the numbers for the full team, can find them here.
Some people unlike myself may get a four day
Weekend .
Luke, interesting you place Gunther ahead of
Austin Davidson who if he reaches the big club
Fits a need the big club has this winter .
Something has to be good in a guy like paige who lead
JUCO racks in HRs
Hagerstown mix should be interesting .
Anybody have other ideas of a guy for next spring
Filling the role zach Walters would have if not for
Trade to Cleveland.
Back to my John Keegan book
Thanks Luke. Article up on Steven Sousa Jr on the BA website (behind the paywall):
http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/rededicated-souza-reaches-pinnacle/
I’m expecting the Eastern League top 20 to be out tomorrow.
Toolz!
Baseball America’s Eastern league top 20 is now out: Michael Taylor coming in at the #1 prospect in the league. AJ Cole comes in at number 15 – a bit lower than I would have expected (although I’d forgotten he’d be eligible for this one; I was only expecting him to appear in the International League one).
Chat will be later today (and behind the paywall, by the looks of it) – I’d be very interested in the scouting reports and chat.
And the AAA International league is up. Of note:
– Steven Souza Jr is #5;
– AJ Cole is #7;
– Former Nat Robbie Ray is #9.
Quite a nice haul!
Don’t forget former Nat Alex Meyer at #8 … interesting tight grouping there for the Nats draftees.
Has anyone here with a BA account looked at the IL and Eastern league chats to see if there were any interesting comments on the Nats?
Luke, maybe we should cue Pablo cruise
Every time we mention Pablo Espino since his K
Ratio is so cool.
Good to see Rafael Martin getting winter work
After a good Cuse campaign
David Ramos still has faith from brass?
Proves teams never have enough arms in pen .
Interesting to see how many kids who were
In viera camp a month ago land winter spots .
Luke. A name for winter?
Nats B – field winter nest
Or B- field Cracker Barrel ?
Luke. A name for winter?
Nats B – field winter nest
Or B- field Cracker Barrel ?
As expected, our AFL players are looking distinctly underwhelming. Rivero, Holland, Renda, Severino, and Grace have all been terrible. Self has looked decent, and Kieboom is looking really good.
His injury was really unfortunate, as it’s basically set him two years back, and is now blocked developmentally. He deserved a promotion at the All Star break, but unfortunately Severino was blocking him in Potomac. It’s particularly frustrating because Kieboom’s development is being stalled by Severino’s stalled development. Catching in Harrisburg was horrendous this season, and I suspect if Severino wasn’t terrible for the first half of the season, we’d have seen a complete reshuffling of our catchers.
I would hesitate to call Severino’s development “stalled” — yes, he did repeat the GCL (2011-2012), but few 17-y.o.’s who never played in the DSL are able to make the leap to Low-A at 18. He’s been moved steadily up since (Low-A, 2013; High-A, 2014; most likely AA, 2015).
Baseball America has Severino rated as the #18 prospect in the Carolina League, FWIW.
It’s an interesting question, though….if Kieboom (far) outclasses Severino, what happens? It’s a nice problem to have, but one that the organization has already thought about by assigning both to the AFL. It’s clearly it’s own depth chart competition and for me, one reason to keep an eye on the AFL this year.