Well, here we are again for the sixth pass at the next season’s watchlist, which seems to get smaller every year as the big club continues to deal away guys and/or drafts lower. Now, for the obligatory explanation of its origin and tenets…
Prospect rankings to me are like listicles — yes, they are effective in generating pageviews, but they often lead to pointless arguments about whether [your favorite player] is better than [the other commenter’s favorite player].
So five years ago, I came up with this idea of listing the players that have shown some promise for one reason or another, listing them out by position. Guys that were worth watching a little more closely than the others.
Longtime readers know I do not care about draft position or how much a player’s bonus was. Both are a function of the game that’s played each June between the players, the clubs, the agents, and the rules. I am aware there are other factors; I understand higher-drafted player get more chances.
Now for the caveats…
• It’s not a depth chart. It’s ordered by the highest level played to date. The guys at the top of the column are not necessarily better than the guys at the bottom.
• It’s (mostly) based on 2015 usage. The Nats don’t have a lot of CI prospects and have a history of both rotating MIs between 2B and SS as well as trying to develop utility players.
• It’s preliminary. I can’t spend the time that I used to on this site, so I’m now relying on folks to call me out in the comments. That doesn’t mean that I’ll take every suggestion and/or accede to every complaint, but I’ll “listen.”
So without further ado, here’s the list, ready for your dissection discussion.
| C | 1B | 2B | SS | 3B | OF |
| Severino | Skole | Difo | Turner |
Ward | Ballou |
| Kieboom | Marmolejos-Diaz | Bostick | Abreu | Gutierrez | Bautista |
| Read | Kerian | Mejia | Lora | Franco | E. Martinez |
| Tillero | Ortiz | Dulin |
Schrock | Keller | |
| Stevenson | |||||
| Robles | |||||
| Agustin | |||||
| Florentino | |||||
| RHPs | LHPs | DSL Bats | DSL Arms | Notable Arms |
Notable Bats |
| Cole | Grace | Corredor | Avila | Br. Harper | Goodwin |
| Giolito | N. Lee |
Perdomo | Peguero | Bacus | Vettleson |
| Voth | Bach |
Ventura | Y. Ramirez | J. Rodriguez | Mesa |
| Simms |
Guilbeau | Medina | Chu |
Baez | Wiseman |
| De Los Santos | Borne | Evangelista |
Duran | Serrata |
Reetz |
| Mapes | |||||
| R. Lopez |
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| A. Williams |
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| P. Valdez |
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| A. Lee |
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| Fedde |
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| Rivera | |||||
| Peterson |
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| DeRosier |
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| Valerio |
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| Harmening |