Yesterday, the BA Prospect Book arrived, earlier than when I expected when I placed the order, but thanks to modern e-commerce, on time according to the notifications. Alas, I did not order early enough to find out the #31 guy.
No doubt in large part because Victor Robles’s departure was delayed, combined with the ascents of Carter Kieboom and Luis Garcia, the Nats dropped just one spot in the overall organization ranking to #16 from #15. Robles was ranked as the #1 CF prospect while Kieboom and Garcia were nos. 9 and 10 respectively.
Perhaps unsurprising to everyone but commenters to MASN and WaPo (and F.P. Santangelo, natch), the Nats had no pitchers among the Top 40 for RHPS, 15 for LHPs.
As we typically do, a look at how last year’s Top 30 did:
| GRADUATED | Juan Soto, Erick Fedde, Andrew Stevenson, Pedro Severino, Jefry Rodriguez |
| TRADED | Daniel Johnson, Blake Perkins, Kelvin Gutierrez |
| DROPPED OUT | Rafael Bautista, Jose Marmolejos, Taylor Gushue, Austin Voth, Joan Baez, Anderson Franco, Jakson Reetz, Osvaldo Abreu |
That’s a churn of 16 names, which is more than usual (about 9-11). The boys in Durham are still high on recently drafted pitchers, with 11 of the 19 pitchers on the list being 2017 or 2018 picks. The list still skews old with eight players (same as last year) who are or will be 25 or older by the end of 2019, including one who turns 28 in September.
Finally, here’s the top 15 for 2018, with last year’s ranking (if applicable) in parentheses:
| 1. Victor Robles (1) | 6. Tim Cate | 11. Reid Schaller |
| 2. Carter Kieboom (4) | 7. Seth Romero (5) | 12. Gage Canning |
| 3. Luis Garcia (6) | 8. Sterling Sharp | 13. Raudy Read (9) |
| 4. Mason Denaburg | 9. Yasel Antuna (10) | 14. Telmito Agustin (25) |
| 5. Wil Crowe (7) | 10. Jake Irvin | 15. Israel Pineda |
Next post, nos. 16 to 30.