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Vote for Your Favorite Arms


Well, the Shohei Otani sweepstakes are over (read—if you can—Lt. Dans: It wasn’t the highest bidder) and the Giancarlo Stanton drama continues, but otherwise the hot stove remains unlit.

Perhaps that will change when the Winter Meetings convene tomorrow in Orlando, but in the meantime, let’s use this downtime to vote on Washington’s minor-league pitchers and find out who will be #2. (If you don’t know who #1 will be, please do not operate machinery – heavy or light).

As always, send your Top 10 list to enfieldmass-top10arms[at]yahoo[dot]com (link will open your preferred email client) or post them in the comments.

The votes will tallied with weighting in reverse order (#1 = 10 points, #2 = 9 points… #9 = 2 points, #10 = 1 point). Once I feel like I’ve gotten enough votes, I’ll post the results along with the usual commentary and snark.

Thankfully, the Nats don’t have anyone on the 40-man who’s both on the cusp of exhausting his rookie eligibility and good enough to be considered, but for future reference, I’m cool with using BA’s simpler limits of 130AB, 50IP and/or 30 appearances for something like this.

29 Commments

  1. Let’s see, there’s Giolito, Lopez, Dunning, Luzardo, Mills, Watson, Avila, . . . and that’s the attrition in just one year.

    1. Fedde
    2. Suero
    3. Crowe
    4. Romero
    5. A. Adams
    6. Raquet
    7. Tetreault
    8. Troop
    9. Bogucki
    10. Klobosits

    After the top five, I’m just throwing darts. Six of the ten were drafted in 2017, and only three of the ten have pitched above Hags.

    Crowe needs to make rapid advancement in 2018 because of age. He’s a hoss, though, and I like his “makeup” a heck of a lot better than Romero’s. I think Troop is a real sleeper, a great athlete who was a two-way player through college and is just focusing on pitching exclusively for the first time.

    My near misses were Hill, Johnston, and Sharp. I think Weston Davis is a good bounce-back candidate, but he didn’t do enough this season after injury to warrant list consideration.

    1. And yes, I ignored the entire Potomac Latin brigade. Rodriguez was the best of the bunch, but also the oldest, and he blew whatever advancement chance he had on the PED suspension. He’ll turn 25 at AA next year.

      If you want to know why the Nats felt like they had to invest nine of their top ten picks in the 2017 draft in college arms who could advance rapidly, you’ll find the reasons in Woodbridge.

      2. Jefry Rodriguez, Joan Baez singing 50-50 walks and strikeouts?
        I guess I always have to be different.

        1. Tetreault
        2. Austin Adams (best overall stuff; bad case of nerves)
        3. Fedde
        4. Crowe
        5. Romero
        6. Raquet
        7. Rodriguez (best fastball in system and I guess FO must see something? Right?)
        8. Matthew Crownover
        9. Mathew DeRosier (seems to have that attitude and a chip on shoulder drafted in the 24th in 2013)
        10. Alex Troop / Kyle Johnston

    3. Something to consider in history
      The expos would have rolled the Yankees in four in 94 and this was after trading Big Unit in Langston deal 198…..moral? You can piece together a nice staff even after a mistake .

  2. Well, needless to say, this is all like throwing darts. I know how much Luke hates draft position and signing pedigree; but had to consider that for a lot of these guys since there’s not much else to go on yet for the 2017 draftees and most of the guys who have been around for a while are hard to look at as top prospects.
    1. E. Fedde
    2. S. Romero
    3. W. Crowe
    4. B. Hill
    5. J. Tetreault
    6. N. Raquet
    7. W. Davis
    8. W. Suero
    9. T. Alastre
    10. K. Johnston

    Honorable Mention to J. Baez, N. Galindez, A. Troop and G. Klobosits in case of trades.

  3. I listed the all-traded team, but I’ll add the all-wounded-wing list of Mapes, Nick Lee, Andrew Lee, Bryan Harper, and Ryan Williamson. I feel like I’m forgetting one or two here. Williamson had a sub-3 ERA in the ACC as a junior and some big K/9 numbers in college, but he’s yet to pitch in a pro game and will turn 23 in April. Both the Lees made token GCL appearances. Andrew, who is coming off his second TJ, just turned 24, while Nick will turn 27 in January and is really fighting the clock. Bryce’s bro will turn 28 at the end of this month.

    So these are five quality arms here plus the seven I listed as traded.

    1. Did anyone ever hear a reasonable explanation of what happened to Voth? Underlying injury? Issue with his mechanics that festered? Upset at not getting a real look by the big club last spring? He really struggled at Syracuse and wasn’t much better after demotion.

      More disturbingly, Voth is just the latest higher-grade pitching prospect to completely lose his mojo after success at every level, including AAA. Taylor Jordan, Taylor Hill, and A. J. Cole spring immediately to mind. Cole really hasn’t been good since 2015. I’m surprised at how many folks think he’s an option for the MLB rotation. His Syracuse numbers were gruesome in 2017, including a 1.75 WHIP and a .322 average against. He’s also out of options.

      2. I have to believe this is why we have new leadership at AAA. That place seems to have been a prospect shredder (especially for pitchers) the past few years. I can’t believe that Voth was so good for years and then was downright awful for no reason in 2017. I wanted to rank Voth higher, but he was really bad this past year…

  5. Okay, I can do this. 1. Romero 2. Crowe 3. Fedde 4. Troop 5. Raquet 6. Tetreault 7. Hill 8. Johnson 9. Suero 10. Klobosits
    Yeah. Right.

  6. If Romero matures, he should get all ten spots. The talent is legit. Does he have the desire and brains though? I hear Tetreault has big upside too.

    I would definitely lean towards pitching in the ’18 draft. Perhaps not as heavily as ’17, but there is still work to be done in my opinion.

    1. If there was a ever a player who needed to sign and get on the field and prove something, it was Romero. Instead, he held out to the last minute, then he took a month beyond that to get on the field, giving a lot of credence to the rumors of conditioning issues. He only threw 20 pro innings. Several of his fellow draftees posted around twice that many.

      Yes, Romero has a lot of talent. But all the stories about him sure smack of a situation where talent has been his free pass to get him around playing by the rules of life.

      Minor-league baseball is a multi-year grind, a massive mental challenge as well as a physical one. Only the strong survive, and a lot of talented guys wash out. I’m not wishing the worst for Romero at all, but at this point, I haven’t seen anything to indicate that he has the “makeup” to hold it all together. Honestly, if he’s got trade value, I’d like to see it used, even though the organization is desperate for quality starters beyond Fedde.

      1. Hey, Spicoli became a surfing champ, so maybe the talent will win out in the end . . . as long as Romero finds his Mr. Hand in the Nats’ organization to sorta rein him in!

  7. Let’s do a post draft June list
    Nats sure keep their FA signings close to the vest or save announcements for prime time in winter meetings
    I need to go buy my tuxedo dude dog
    Some treats…Luke, the force , Luke…

  8. 1. Fedde
    2. Romero
    3. Suero
    4. Borne
    5. Crowe
    6. Klobosits
    7. Hill
    8. Fuentes
    9. Tetreault
    10. Pantoja
    HM: Andrew Lee

  10. Tough list, but here goes:

    1). Erick Fedde
    2). Seth Romero
    3). Wander Suero
    4). Wil Crowe
    5). Austin Voth
    6). Tomas Alastre
    7). Jackson Tetreault
    8). Joan Baez
    9). Nick Raquet
    10). Brigham Hill

      1. Will voted for Borne at #4. You’ll have to explain your Braymer fascination, as it escapes me. He’s never pitched above Hags, where he had a 5.26 ERA, and he’ll be 24 in April. At some point “big arms” have to move up the organization, no matter how many they K along the way.

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