Vote for Your Favorite Arms
Two years ago, folks were itching to get to this. But in the wake of (yet another) Hall of Fame Veterans vote that has somehow managed to simultaneously correct some oversights while lowering the bar Forrest Gump pause again, and the lockout in which MLB has gone pretty damn close to full Pravda, this feels a bit forced.
You know the drill: 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.
Once we have enough votes, I’ll weight ’em in reverse order (#1 = 10 points, #2 = 9 points … #9 = 2 points, #10 = 1 point) and post the results along with any comments and/or (mostly and) snark.
If last week’s exercise is any clue, I suspect we’ll have consensus on The Big Three and some arms picked up at the trade deadline, and then a whole lot of “well, he’s XX years old, but…”
But I could be wrong about that, too. It has happened before. That’s the point (and the fun) of this exercise to kill mark time until late February…
Any word on Brandon Snyder’s
Post playing career plans ? Coaching ? Instructing ?
Talk about purging the top two levels of everyday players .
Watson will have to be elementary in stocking the big board . Minor league free agents . Maybe a clever AAA/ AA December draft purchase or two or deal with another clubs top tier depth pool .
This was actually a lot harder than I expected, and can be broken down into essentially 2 groups:
Group 1: Prospects
1. Cade Cavalli
2. Cole Henry
3. Andry Lara
4. Jackson Rutledge
5. Mitchell Parker
6. Matt Cronin
7. Alfonso Hernandez
8. Gerardo Carrillo
9. Aldo Ramirez
Group 2: Potentially useful relievers (and if anyone shouldn’t dismiss the value of these guys, it’s the Washington Nationals!!)
10. Gabe Klobosits
Honorable mention (but honestly any of these guys could’ve been #10, but the Klob got the nod due to his proximity to the majors):
Carson Teel
Evan Lee
Jhon Romero
Frankie Bartow
Todd Peterson
Jose Ferrer
Special mention goes to the fantastic DSL Arms (Agostino, Atencio, Cedeno, Leon, Perez), who I’ll be keeping a close eye on next year in the FCL.
Todd likes the word gravy so it will be gravy with any elevation of progress with guys like Irwin , Dyson , Seiijas , Cuevas ( GOLD with the Steely Dan keyboard work ),
Time will only tell how the musical chairs of progress in guys shifts the list order god many .
Which recent additions in trades stay reliever potential or realize starter stuff .
1. Cavali
2. Henry
3. Rutledge
4. Lara
5. Carillo
6. Cronin
7. Adon
8. Dyson
9. Tetreault
10. A. Hernandez
HM: 11. A. Ramirez. 12. Cate.
I listed almost 40 names to consider, but the only ones I have higher confidence in are the first two. Even there, I considered putting Henry #1, as he may have more overall stuff to be able to stick as a starter, while Cavalli may end up in the ‘pen. But Cavalli had a lot more of a body of work in 2021 than Henry did.
I’m going to hope that Rutledge wasn’t healthy all year, that the whole season was an aberration, not a trend. And of course we’re all ranking Lara mostly on hype. It will be fun if both he and Denaburg are in the FredNat rotation next year.
There were a lot of contenders for the second half of the list. Folks thought highly of Carrillo and Ramirez at the time of the trades. Parker right now is Nuke LaLoosh, but his stuff seems to be electric. Dyson once was thought to have a high ceiling, and he quietly was good last year before injury. No one talks about Troop, but he’s been consistently effective.
1. Cade Cavalli
2. Cole Henry
3. Jackson Rutledge
4. Andry Lara
5. Matt Cronin
6. Gerardo Carrillo
7. Aldo Ramirez
8. Mitchell Parker
9. Tyler Dyson
10. Alex Troop
The Nats obviously think highly of Joan Adon, Evan Lee, and Todd Peterson, so those would seem to be guys to watch, but their results haven’t caught up with the hype yet.
Aldo Ramirez was highly thought of when traded but we saw so little of him that his prospect status is still a mystery.
If he starts the year in Wilmington we’ll know he’s going well.
Carillo was unimpressive after the trade.
Carrillo wasn’t impressive when you just look at his stats, but once you factor in that he performed as well as he did in AA at age 22 (2.7 years younger than average), it becomes a lot more impressive.
It’s the exact same story with Andry Lara, just 4 years younger/3 levels lower. Lara’s numbers weren’t especially good, but the fact that at 18 (3.9 years below average), he wasn’t obviously overmatched by A ball batters is highly impressive.
Good point.
Carillo had to adjust from the Texas League to the EL too.
Aldo Ramirez apparently was recovering from an injury when he was traded, as he had not pitched since mid-June. I guess that’s why they sent him to the complex instead of Fredericksburg. His FCL performance was indicative of someone coming off an injury. Since he doesn’t turn 21 until May, I wouldn’t be surprised if they start him at Fredericksburg just to set him up to succeed. Could be quite and interesting rotation if he’s there along with Denaburg, Lara, and Saenz.
A couple of old friends have signed in Japan this week.
‘Orange’ Marmolejos and A.J. Cole are heading overseas to the NPB.
Good for them.
1. Cavalli 2. Henry 3. Rutledge 4. Lara 5. Adon 6. Ramirez 7. Carrillo 8. A. Hernandez 9. Cronin 10. Thompson (if he is still eligible). Otherwise, a healthy Denanberg.
And like Mark did, a special shout-out to Agostini, Atencio, and Rivas.
Thompson did exceed the rookie limit during 2021.
The thing that got me when the Nats traded for Thompson was how quickly the Padres had made the call to switch him from being a starter to a reliever. They apparently made the move during 2020. I don’t know whether he was part of their alt-site camp. He was in A+ in 2019, started in AAA in 2021, and spent most of the year in the majors.
In contrast, the Nats are SO resistance to moving guys off of starting leaving some floundering for years. Then every year, they go and trade for relievers . . .
Will and Jackson are right, there was something special going on for the Nats in the DSL with their pitching.
Looking forward to see if they all make it to the states in 2021.
What in the world happened to Cate? He went from being a draft steal to an afterthought. Poor development? Injuries? He was decent last year and they made it sound like he was on the verge of breaking out this year.
The Nats will select three players in minor league portion of Rule 5 draft ?