But this is a minors site, so let’s delve into what we can for today…
ORGANIZATIONAL AWARDS
It’s a bit of mystery why the team waited so long to announce its 2016 Organizational Awards, but then again, I wouldn’t put much money on the front office PR folks knowing the difference between Ed Bernays and Ed Walsh, never mind who they were.
Once Max Schrock was traded, the odds of Jose “Orange” Marmolejos repeating as Player of the Year went up tremendously, but I think he would have won anyway due to his performance at AA. Reynaldo Lopez winning Pitcher of the Year is also a, um, minor upset if you consider that the odds of a reliever getting named are very slim if he doesn’t rack up a garbage statistic. The fourth annual Bob Boone Award went to Rafael Bautista.
BA TOP PROSPECT LISTS
Nats 2016 1st Rd. pick Dane Dunning made Baseball America’s NYPL Top 20 at #6 while Victor Robles was tagged as the #1 prospect of the Sally League. Neither prospect was mentioned in the chats. For what it’s worth, former farmhand Schrock was #16 on the latter list. Given BA’s history of double-dipping, I’m expecting Robles to make the Carolina League list as well.
TRANSACTION STUFF
Nothing new here, thanks to my going “off cycle” with the previous post.
THE 2016 GCL NATIONALS
The team finished second with a 30-23 mark – the first winning season since 2013 when the team ran the table and won the GCL Championship. Thanks in part to 17-y.o. phenom Juan Soto, the team was nearly a full run above the league average (5.06 R/G vs. 4.12) on offense, which enabled them to overcome slightly subpar pitching (4.17) and defense (.962FA vs. .965). Thanks to the influx from the DSL, the team’s hitters were close to the league average. Thanks to the practice of using the GCL to rehab, the team’s pitchers were the oldest in the league, though the cohort of 21 and younger (13 total) weren’t bad: 11-11, 8SV, 3.18/3.28/1.31 in 217⅔ IP over 80 appearances.
After the obligatory reminder that short-season = small sample size (and that very, very few of these guys will rise above Low-A)…
| TOP 5 BATS | TOP 5 ARMS |
| 1. Juan Soto, RF .322 GPA, .550 SLG% |
1. Francys Peguero, RHSP 2.20/2.59/1.10, 6.80 K:BB ratio |
| 2. Connor Simonetti, 1B .261 GPA, 6HR |
2. Jeremy McDonald, LHRP 3.24/1.85/1.22, 9.23 K/9 |
| 3. Carter Kieboom, SS .258 GPA, .452 SLG% |
3. Sterling Sharp, RHSP 3.24/2.85/1.27, 1.3 BB/9 |
| 4. Joey Harris, C .269 GPA, .414 OBP |
4. Carlos Pena, RHSP 2.95/3.50/1.29, 0HR in 39⅔ IP |
| 5. Darryl Florentino, CF .267 GPA, .340 BA |
5. Ben Braymer, LHRP 4.12/3.02/1.32, 10.98 K/9 |
After the first three pitchers, I may as well have taken a dartboard to pick the last two. Honorable mentions go to Aldrem Corredor and Michael Rishwain for batter and pitcher, respectively. Folks interested in seeing the full team stats, can see them here.