Vote for Your Favorite Bats
Who will be next year’s “I informed you thusly” in the comments?
At the risk of jeopardizing folks’ Cyber Monday plans, I present the annual exercise of determining who will the Nats trade away the ten most viable position players in the Washington farm system.
This is the dealio… Send me your Top 10 list of minor-league position players (40-man guys are eligible as long as they have rookie status; four this year!) to enfieldmass-top10bats[at]yahoo[dot]com (link will open your preferred email client) or post them in the comments below.
I’ll tally the votes and rank them in reverse order (#1 = 10 points, #2 = 9 points… #9 = 2 points, #10 = 1 point). When it feels like I’ve got a decent number of submissions, I’ll update this post.
Now for the annual reminder that “bat” is a catch-all for position players. While conventional wisdom has it that the N.L. will join the 20th century with the next CBA and abandon the chimera that pitchers can hit, until then, try to factor in whether a guy is a liability with the glove or seems to get an awful lot of time at DH. Call it the Austin Davidson test, if you like.
Later on this week, we’ll have the 10th NationalsProspects.com Top 10 Bats list.
Tonight is the non-tender deadline for MLB, which only matters to us from the minor-league perspective insofar as guys who get non-tendered are—in theory—fewer roadblocks to “our guys.” In practice, though, it’s like so many other things that turn off some fans (and fascinate others) it’s about cost-cutting. I defer to Mr. Boss by virtue of the links because I fall into the camp of folks whose eyes glaze over when it comes to refinancing.
Finally, the boys in Durham finally weighed in on the MiLB contraction crisis on Let’s Bury The Bad News day (e.g. the NFL suspending Josh Shaw for gambling) or as everyone knows it: Black Friday.
For me, the real upshot comes late in the article:
[T]here are some MiLB owners who wonder if decreasing the value of MiLB franchises is part of the point. MLB owners have purchased more and more MiLB teams in recent years. If the valuation of the clubs is cut dramatically by MLB’s proposal, it would make it easier for MLB to purchase now less-expensive minor league franchises and eliminate the middlemen.
This is of interest to us because it’s fairly obvious that the Nationals aren’t going to solve their AAA problem without this plan and/or the purchase of a team, which has been the trend for about 10 years now (see: Salem, Red Sox; Syracuse, Mets; Carolina, Milwaukee). Indeed, this potential devaluation is something that Maury Brown wrote about in Forbes, noting how this has already happened with the NBA.
Welcome to December…
POLLS ARE NOW CLOSED
We got enough votes now to make a post.
Very interesting that Mario Sanchez re- signed so quick to the fold. Significant
Luke nice link to BA piece. My mind had drifted back to Mike Lansing ( Witchita State Shocker ) to Mike Veek Miracle to Montreal ( enabling Expos to acquire Pedro Martinez with DeShields)…..makes one wonder how fan turn out would be if players played in back lots of clubs training camps then buses around Arizona and Florida.
Sanfler is tops on my Nats list since he turned the corner @ Auburn .
Happy trails to the rest of life , Koda
Feel bad for him…he was someone who looked like he had a great career ahead him – he was perfect for the late inning role. God knows the Nats could have used him when healthy. Best of luck Koda!
Shall we read into the Angels content with Bundy so SS won’t be heading west??
Happy trails Jose M- aka Orange . You might drink some MLB coffee in Seattle.
It will be good to see Jose get an opportunity, all he does is hit
I missed the Mario Sanchez news. Do we know if he is still Rule 5-exposed since he isn’t on the 40-man? I think there would be more risk of losing him in Rule 5 than there would be of losing Sharp.
As for this current process, I’ve said before that I really don’t know who the #4 hitting prospect in the Nat organization is. It’s hard to see a lot of real MLB potential, particularly starting potential, beyond Kieboom, Garcia, and (maybe) Mendoza.
This was actually easier than expected. Mostly because of how few options there were.
1. Carter Kieboom
2. Luis Garcia
3. Leandro Emiliani
4. Drew Mendoza
5. Tres Barrera
6. Jeremy de la Rosa
7. Viandel Pena
8. Jakson Reetz
9. Justin Connell
10. Nick Banks
HM: Junior Martina, Geraldi Diaz, Jorge Hurtado, Cole Freeman, Jacob Rhinesmith
The way I see it, there’s a decent gulf between Kieboom and Garcia. Then a huge one between Garcia and Emiliani. IMO, Mendoza and Emiliani are pretty comparable, but I deferred to Emiliani. A small but distinctive gap between Mendoza and Barrera. Then 5-10 there isn’t much difference. After the five honorable mentions, in my opinion, that’s the entirety of the “prospects” in the system. There’s other players, but none of them are noteworthy to me.
1. Carter Kieboom
2. Luis Garcia
3. Jeremy De La Rosa
4. Drew Mendoza
5. Justin Connell
6. Yasel Antuna
7. Israel Pineda
8. Jacob Rhinesmith
9. Jackson Cluff
10. Eric Senior
This is giving me indigestion trying to do it at lunch! I could keep fiddling with it, but after #3, I’m just rearranging lottery tickets, or deck chairs on the Titanic, or something. Like the others thus far, I’m resisting the temptation to include 32-year-old Yadiel Hernandez, even though he may be the best hitter in the organization. Here’s hoping he at least gets a look in the spring.
1. Kieboom
2. Garcia
3. Mendoza
4. Antuna
5. Harrison
6. Emiliani
7. G. Lara
8. Banks
9. V. Pena
10. de la Rosa
I will avoid making a list. Can’t go wrong with any of these lists. Cluff could be the real advancer. My hopes for some real advancement in Sanfler and Arias
Some of these players we are waiting on for maturity in the hitting skill sets is like awaiting your mother’s cherry pie to bake in the oven.
Anticipating Carly Simon – cue it…
Jeremy DeLaRosa has had so much trumpet fare yet we cannot see the process with him down south along with Leo E…Arias toooo
I had better start earlier on the Arms list, as there are A LOT more legitimate contenders for that one. For worse or better, the organization is completely tilted in the direction of pitching.
1. C. Kieboom
2. L. Garcia
3. D. Mendoza
4. V. Pena
5. Y. Antuna
6. T. Barrera
7. I. Pineda
8. J. De La Rosa
9. L. Emiliani
10. J. Reetz
HM in the unlikely event of trades before you tabulate the results: R. Read, T. Gushue, N. Banks.
1. Carter Kieboom
2. Luis Garcia
3. Drew Mendoza
4. Cole Freeman
5. Junior Martina
6. Viandel Peña
7. Leandro Emiliani
8. Jakson Reetz
9. Tres Barrera
10. Jackson Cluff
HM: Taylor Gushue, Nick Banks, K.J. Harrison, Jacob Rhinesmith, Daniel Marte
I debated whether to include Yadiel Hernandez, but my conclusion was that if we’re rating based on viability, he’s not a factor, even though he had the best offensive year of any minor leaguer in the system and it’s not close.
I wasn’t impressed at all with Kieboom, Garcia, or Mendoza’s performances this season, but they’re clearly our best position player prospects and no one else is that close. (Note that I didn’t rank Yasel Antuna because he can’t stay healthy and barely played this season; I won’t rank Seth Romero on my list of pitchers for the same reason.)
Most Pleasant Surprise Award goes to juco umpteenth-rounder Junior Martina, who outhit practically the entire GCL while getting looks at three infield positions. Honorable mention in this category to Jakson Reetz, who finally put together a breakout year, maybe too late for it to matter.
Biggest Crash-and-Burn Award goes to Israel Pineda, who followed up a very promising 2018 with an appallingly wretched 2019. Honorable mention in this category to the much-hyped Jeremy De La Rosa, who flopped hard in his first taste of pro ball. Both are, to their credit, still young enough they could avoid Anderson Francoization by rebounding in 2020.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Award goes to Carter Kieboom. It would have been enough that he homered in his first major league game, then struck out a bajillion times and played shortstop as though he were one of us, before being exiled to Fresno for the rest of the season. But he also turned into Ben Revere at the plate in the second half, with just a handful of extra-base hits despite the crazy offensive environment of the PCL, barely keeping his OPS over .900 after mashing in the first half. I have no idea how you evaluate Kieboom’s readiness heading into 2020. Flip a coin, I guess? Honorable mention to Rhett Wiseman, who absolutely freaking demolished every pitch he saw for a month, then stopped hitting for basically the rest of the season.
You might want to have a second look at de la Rosa’s season. He did indeed flop to start his shortened season, but he was on-fire to end the season. Maybe an honorable mention for your Jekyll and Hyde award…
In July, he hit .132/.283/.132 in 13 G.
In August, he hit .318/.396/.568 in 13 G.
Altogether, his 2019 slash of .232/.343/.366 doesn’t pop, but it’s still well above league average (.238/.334/.345), and he was the 3rd youngest batter in the entire Gulf Coast League. 2.5 whole years younger than league average.
That’s still awfully disappointing given the hype. As I said, he’s still young. The expectations will surely be tempered going forward.
:The top part of the list is pretty easy. After that, flip a coin:
1). Carter Kieboom
2). Luis Garcia
3). Jeremy de la Rosa
4). Drew Mendoza
5). Jakson Reetz
6). Israel Pineda
7). Tres Barrera
8). Jake Noll
9). Yasel Antuna
10). Cole Freeman
For what it’s worth, here are my top bats:
1. Carter Kieboom (FRE)
2. Luis Garcia (HAR)
3. Viandel Pena (GCL)
4. Junior Martina (AUB)
5. Leandro Emiliani (GCL)
6. Cole Freeman (POT)
7. Drew Mendoza (HAG)
8. Kevin Strohschein (GCL)
9. Jakson Reetz (POT)
10. KJ Harrison (POT)
Honorable Mentions: Nick Banks, Taylor Gushue, Geraldi Diaz, Jorge Hurtado, Jeremy de la Rosa, Mason Doolittle
A Strohs beer for Erocks to remember a bat who may come out of the WPB batting cages on fire.
Are Nats fans prepared for the Lerner group to allow Rendon and Stras both to walk?! Complete retool / rebuild ??
M Franco must be smiling knowing he is in demand around the league. Milwaukee Mikael ??
I shuffled and shuffled and ultimately voted for Antuna at #4 because he was the only one I could come up with beyond the top three who might have the talent to be an MLB regular one day (although who knows about de la Rosa since was the age of a high school junior). Kieboom likely will (with Sao’s concerns about his second half duly noted). We’re hoping on Garcia, who generally struggled with his very advanced-for-age elevation. We’re voting on Mendoza based on his college pedigree, although he fell considerably from his once-expected draft level, similar to Banks. Mendoza’s lack of power at Hags was disappointing. Maybe he’ll put on a show to christen the new park for the FredNats.
It feels like the Nats are really lacking in the minors on the hitter front, and they are in many respects, . . . and yet they’ve still managed to “graduate” a starting player in 2016 (Turner, acquired via trade), 2018 (Soto), 2019 (Robles), and presumably 2020 (Kieboom), all with the talent to potentially be above-average major leaguers. So they will have turned over half their lineup in five years with cheap, controllable talent . . . while STILL not managing to develop a starting pitcher who can stick since Strasburg, despite HEAVILY weighting their drafting toward pitching. Hmm.
I’ll be interested to see who places higher: Yasel Antuna or Viandel Pena. To me, they’re pretty similar players. Both had excellent age 18 seasons in GCL. Antuna hitting .301/.382/.399, but Pena hit even better at .359/.455/.481. Both had good plate discipline (Antuna 29 K, 23 BB, Pena 31 K, 21 BB). Decent power for middle infielders (Antuna .098 ISO, Pena .122).
But the huge glaring difference is that since Antuna’s very good 2017 season, he’s completely stalled out. He had a dreadful 2018 in Hagerstown, and lost the entirety of 2019 (and part of ’18) to injury. Will we still be talking so highly of Viandel Pena in 2021 after two disastrous seasons?
Maybe this a reach but Carter was moving around the states much in 2019 plus that late summer dry heat in Fresno might have fatigued the youngster ??
Sao — Although I did vote for Antuna, I won’t be voting for S. Romero (or J. Romero) for Arms, or Denaburg. There is plenty of actually producing talent on that side of the ledger, and in the mid/upper minors. With the hitters, goodness, we’re mostly just making hopeful guesses about teenagers, underperforming recent draftees, or guys who are already 24/25.
True, and I don’t begrudge any votes for Antuna. Maybe I’m just gun-shy about putting projections on oft-injured players who haven’t lived up to the hype, given Koda Glover’s retirement yesterday. Hopefully he has a memorable comeback season in 2020.
Crossed fingers on Big Tuna and STROH bats active healthy and hammering
Speaking of young guys, can I get a little love for Daniel Marte? He’s 17 and had a respectable .758 OPS in the DSL, crushing left-handed pitching at a .960 clip. Plus 10/11 SB. K rate is a little high, but you look for promising numbers with these kids, and they’re there.
Yes São. Good point. Too bad Daniel Hernandez did not play in DSL or GCL in 2019 to exhibit his wares
I wonder about the Nats’ hard push forward with Garcia and Antuna, not to mention Pineda, Sanchez, and some others still-youngsters. And don’t forget to glance ruefully at the ruins of Anderson Franco lying alongside the road. Did they do it because they thought these kids had the talent to “play up” and excel at levels above their age group, because of the general lack of talent in the uppers of levels of the organization, or both? And will they do the same with guys like Emiliani (who is actually the same age as Garcia), Pena, and de la Rosa? I guess we won’t know until we see the Hagerstown roster.
Luke. Have you ever done a special Christmas stocking stuffer special blog where you list Santa’s Rizzo shopping cart needs ?? This year would be fun after many fans fail in the “ plate discipline “ catagory.
MLB licensing question. I was picking up a script @ Target so I passed by the WS Nats champs clothing SWAG eyeing a red tee with old Senators logos on the back categorized by decades . One would think the Rangers and Twins could monkey around with the nostalgia link to WASH / Griffith Stadium. Right ??