Four Honored with 2018 Organizational Awards
Carter Kieboom, Wil Crowe, Ben Braymer, and Jake Noll were the winners of the Washington Nationals 2018 Organizational Awards for Player, co-pitchers, and coaches’ favorite the Bob Boone Award.
Kieboom split time between Potomac and Harrisburg, posting an .880 OPS in 61 games at High-A and a .721 OPS in 62 games at AA. He was third in the minors with 16 HR, trailing 24-y.o. Rhett Wiseman (21) and 30-y.o. Yadiel Hernandez (18). Kieboom turned 21 on the final day of the minor-league season.
Wil Crowe also split time between High-A and AA, but with decidedly different results. At High-A he won 11 games with a 3.63 FIP. At AA he lost all five starts and posted an FIP of 6.10 but pitched into the 8th for the first (and only) time in his final outing. Crowe tied with Sterling Sharp for the most wins but posted just six quality starts to Sharp’s twelve.
Braymer started 2018 in Low-A and won three of seven appearances in long relief before getting the bump to Potomac. He remained in the bullpen until June when he joined the P-Nats rotation for two months and won five of 11 starts with seven quality starts and no starts where he gave up more than three runs. He returned to relief in mid-August in what would appear to be an effort to keep his innings down before pitching next month in the Arizona Fall League.
Noll, like Kieboom, split time between the Carolina League and the Eastern League but saw his power numbers drop (.460 SLG% to .359). Unlike Kieboom, he still hit for average (.302 vs. .278). After 150-plus games at 2B prior to 2018, Noll spent most of the season at 3B where he committed 17 errors.
Jake Noll truly a surprise to surface in Senators Isle .
He truly mentally elevated himself up a few pegs becoming more of a factor than two years ago
Tonight on business in Fresno , Ca with some time to check out the acreage
Luke, tell us how you really feel about Crowe! 😉
Also, it’s great to see what the Nats youngsters can do when they’re actually put in a position to succeed! Last night was a perfect example.
McGowin finally gets a start, and thrives with a scoreless outing. Albeit, shortened due to a blister.
Robles gets a rare start and takes full advantage. Robles has now started 10 of 18 games this year.
In starts, he’s hitting .302/.340/.605
As a substitute, he’s hitting .125/.222/.125
Let them both start!
It’s not that Crowe is bad, it’s that everyone seems to be blind to that aside from one statistical category, he was not outstanding. He didn’t pitch deep into starts, he didn’t strike out a ton of batters, he didn’t dominate very often (three starts with one or no runs allowed and more than 6IP).
As others have noted, there are other more deserving candidates. This just smacks of ham-handed PR.
Agree! This is similar to the Cy Young with deGrom. He’s been great in every category except wins, which should be meaningless.
Luke what you are saying us about Crowe they paid number one pick money for a guy to reach Harrisburg in a think depth chart when some minor league free agents achieved the same thing . Spot on?
Think means thin
To us means us
Austen Williams was robbed. If you’re going to give an award for perseverance, yaddah yaddah, there’s no better example. I also thought Williams and McGowin should have gotten strong consideration for the pitching award.
We all know that the hitter of the year was Soto, even though he didn’t last two months in the minors. I’ve got no beef with Kieboom getting the award. It was probably between him and Garcia.
There’s strong arguments for Yadiel Hernandez, Rhett Wiseman and Austin Davidson too.
I think there’s also an argument for Davidson for the Boone Award. He’s been in the organization longer than Noll, waited longer to advance, and played significantly better at AA than Noll did (.846 OPS vs. .687).
I’m curious to see if Hernandez figures in the plans of the big club at all going forward.
Good call on Davidson since he played good faithful soldier longer than Noll.
Interesting to see how brass uses KJ Willliams and G. Lara within the A levels along with Franco and Meregildo. Post Zimm11 projection @ 1b bench role…
the home finale is past. the club is in Denver.
we can begin speculating. Harper walks? Even if he does, then does Soto learn the 1b skillswith Zimm11 career winding down? Or if Harper stays do both Soto and Harp learn 1b? Hernandez could be worth a look iiiffff Nats see harp walk and dont add a veteran bat to join Kendrick on the bench who could play some left and provide Lind/Adams numbers off the pine.
This reboot will be very interesting especially in the bullpen. Trevor Rosenthal a possible addition along with Greg Holland re-sign? Time will tell.
Harper’s future is at 1b. Sabremetrically, he was the 2nd worst defensive outfielder in all of baseball with -25 runs saved.
To quote the famous songwriter, “The kids are alright”.
Daltry, Townsend , Enwhistle and a couple Mi6 agents ..
Anyone have any idea what time instructs are?
Best guess: 10 a.m. or 12 p.m. just like it would be in the GCL on a Saturday.
Luke. I had a dream last night that I was talking baseball with somebody discussing Eric Fedde to the Dodgers….sometimes dreamscape is more real than daily reality???