As alluded previously, when I’m at a loss for what to post, I take a look at what I did around this time last year and follow my digital footsteps. We can only hope that GM Mike Rizzo will hold at 30 trades for a few days and not require any more edits this week.
Thus, I present to you the fifth annual NationalsProspects.com Watchlist — this is a selection of Washington’s minor-leaguers that we’ve got our eye on. Most are prospects to some degree or another, be it by age, tool(s), or dexterity. Some have lost their luster, or have gotten hurt, but are talked or written about often enough to merit their own category.
Now, for the obligatory caveats…
• It’s not a depth chart — Players are listed primarily by the highest level at which they played significant time. This mostly applies to the pitchers and outfielders, but folks should not infer that the player at the top of the list is necessarily better than the guy at the bottom.
• It’s not a prediction of usage — In the early iterations, I was dumb bold enough to list starters and relievers. Now, I simply list them by their handedness. Some of the IFs could be listed elsewhere, but I’ve done my best to balance aesthetics against projections.
• It’s not fair — You may have noticed some names have been dropped and shuffled around since the preliminary list was unveiled. In the case of the former, it’s because the depth has increased. In the case of the latter, It’s because I’ve been influenced to change my mind (it happens).
Given the new world order, it’s a little daunting to think of the next steps, but my gut feeling is that I’ll do it, but I’ll stretch the work out over a longer period of time.
In the meantime, feel free to kvetch in the comments…
| C | 1B | 2B | SS | 3B | OF |
| Severino | Skole | Renda | S. Perez |
Ward | Taylor |
| Kieboom | Wooten | Bostick | Difo | Gunter | Goodwin |
| Read | Yezzo | Davidson | Turner* | Gutierrez | Vettleson |
| Reetz | Marmolejos-Diaz | T. Alvarez |
Lora | Aguero | Ballou |
| Bautista | |||||
| Carey | |||||
| Corredor | |||||
| RHPs | LHPs | DSL Bats | DSL Arms | M*A*S*H | Notables |
| Hill | Grace | Pimentel | Baez | Rosenbaum | Kobernus |
| Cole | Br. Harper |
Agustin | Fuentes | F. Rivero | Dykstra |
| Ross | Spann | Robles | Cespedes | Purke | Benincasa |
| Voth | Silvestre | Mota | Y. Ramirez |
Solis | Self |
| Simms | Thomas | A. Martinez |
Bermudez | J. Rodriguez |
Pleffner |
| Dickson | Walsh | Fedde | Turnbull | ||
| Mendez | Reynoso | Johansen | |||
| De Los Santos |
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| Suero |
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| Giolito | |||||
| Pivetta |
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| R. Lopez |
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| Dickey |
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| Je. Ramirez |
* Will not play for Washington until June 2015 due to MLB Draft rules