Tuesday’s News & Notes; Day 2 Draft Results/Discussion
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| DSL Nationals | Lost, 6-4 | vs DSL Giants Black, 11 a.m. |
DSL Brewers2 6 DSL Nationals 4
• Farias 3IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, 2BB, 1K, WP
• Familia (BS, 1; L, 0-3) 1⅔ IP, 3H, 2R, 2ER, 1BB, 3K, HR, 1-1 IR-S
• Batista 1-3, 2R, BB, HR, RBI, 2K, 2SB(13)
• Maricuto 1-3, RBI
After erasing a 2-1 deficit with a three-run top of the 7th, the D-Nats ‘pen followed the usual script and gave the lead right back with four runs in the bottom of the 7th. The killshot was a three-run HR off the arm of 17-y.o. Jeffrey Familia, who lost for the third time and registered his first blown save. 20-y.o. Victor Farias made his seventh start and gave up a run on two hits and two walks over three innings. He struck out one. 17-y.o. Carlos Batista connected for this 1st career HR and also drew a walk while 17-y.o. Jermaine Maricuto went 1-for-3 with an RBI to lead offense, which took advantage of three wild pitches and four stolen bases to score four runs on just four hits and two walks.
NATS GO ALL IN FOR BATS ON DAY 2
OK, maybe not all in (five of eight), but given the shift towards gambling in sports coverage sometimes its influence is inescapable. Without further ado…
| Round | Player | Position | Dimensions | School |
| 3 (71) | Travis Sykora | RHP | 6’6″, 232 | Round Rock HS (TX) |
| 4 (102) | Andrew Pinckney | OF | 6’3″, 215 | Univ. of Alabama (Sr.) |
| 5 (138) | Marcus Brown | SS | 6′, 187 | Okla. St. (Jr.) |
| 6 (165) | Gavin Dugas | 2B | 5’10”, 205 | LSU (5Y Sr.) |
| 7 (195) | Ryan Snell | C | 5’10”, 206 | Lamar Univ. (5Y Sr.) |
| 8 (225) | Jared Simpson | LHP | 6’4″, 205 | Univ. of IA (5Y Sr.) |
| 9 (255) | Thomas Schultz | RHP | 6’6″, 243 | Vanderbilt (Sr.) |
| 10 (285) | Phillip Glasser | SS | 6′, 200 | Univ. of Indiana (Sr.) |
After dabbling with HSers the past two drafts, the Nats reverted to the mean and went back to their usual m.o. of college seniors – including three fifth-year guys, which means they’re already 23 y.o.
KW’s assertion that this a draft light on collegiate pitching certainly bears out with these picks, which is disappointing. Yes, the Nats minors needs hitting – # of affiliates scoring more than the lg. avg = 1 (Fredericksburg) – but the organization needs pitching even more.
Washington’s top pitching prospect is… wait for it… coming off Tommy John surgery, the second-best has zero starts of more than 5 innings, and the third-best has made three (3) starts at High-A. And if you think Jackson Rutledge will be anything more than a #4SP in MLB, well, great – who’s coming back in the trade with Oakland?
As always, feel free to discuss in the comments…
Let’s nail down Sykora and welcome all the other guys with very quick signings. It will be see what picks 4 through 10 sign for.
I think ‘bag of balls’ is about right.
They seem to have gone all in on coming up with money for Crews, Morales, and Sykora by drafting a lot of older college players who’ll sign for a couple of bags of balls. The only problem I have with this strategy is their recent utter inability to develop young high school/Latin pitchers. (And please don’t point to Adon, who they too-rapidly promoted and may have ruined.) Sykora — who Eric Longenhagen at FanGraphs says can better be remembered as “Sequoia,” due to his massive build — certainly looks good on paper, but he’s also already 19, so the clock is ticking.
Of the underslot guys they drafted, Pinckney (2d team all-SEC), Dugas, Snell, and Glasser all hit well in college and we hope can provide some mid-level organizational depth that’s fairly hollow at the moment. Simpson and Schultz didn’t have inspiring collegiate numbers at all but of course struck out a lot of guys so apparently throw hard. (I wonder if they’ve ever considered drafting guys with good numbers who don’t throw that hard. Hmm.)
if you review the MLB draft tracker you’ll see this is the case with most every team, allowing for a (very) few exceptions. you win with stars, sign the top three and the potential is there for them to be ones.
today will be the day that a serviceable player or two may be found. lower end high schoolers that can be bought out or a Jake Alu that nobody expected.
Gavin Adams round 11
Definitely from the Florida scouting turf .
Will he bypass Tallahassee experience ??
Seems like years since Expos drafted Richie Lewis FSU
I don’t want to sound too pessimistic, as I’m really excited to be adding a star-level talent to the organization in Crews. It’s a huge moment for the team’s future, even if they have to punt a few picks to be able to pay him. I also don’t begrudge these top three draftees getting all that they can get. We’ve discussed here many times how the minor-league system, and subsequently team control once they’re brought up, really constrains earning opportunities.
Morales was really highly rated on most boards, and I suspect that his availability surprised the Nats. Let’s hope he truly is that masher bat that the organization has been trying to develop for a while. There are good ratings on his arm, so it will be interesting to see who they decide is better defensively at 3B between House and him. I suspect they’ll prefer to keep him on the dirt rather than try him in LF, particularly since they’re well stocked in OF prospects (and just added two more with their top four picks).
My understanding is that guys drafted today in rounds 11 through 20 can be paid up to $150,000 without it counting against the team’s bonus-pool money. Anything above $150K counts against the bonus pool, which they’re already squeezing pretty tightly. Most of the guys drafted today will actually get more than the Nats’ last three or four picks yesterday.
Would have liked to see a lot more pitchers drafted.
The pitching just wasn’t there when they were picking and/or they didn’t believe in it. Ty Floyd went at #38 with the Nats picking at 40. (They may have had a higher grade on Morales anyway.) Sproat went at #56 which was right between where the Nats were picking. They passed on a lot of probably mediocre college arms to take Sykora in the 3d. Hunter Owen, who some had linked them to, fell into the 4th round, and they may not have had the money for his asking price at that point. Tanner Witt didn’t get drafted at all and likely has indicated that he’s staying at Texas for another year.
It’s instructive in general that the stats of the college hitters they drafted were a lot better than those of the college pitchers. It’s just not a good pitching crop.
Luke you’re right . Oakland and Wash need a timely deal to mark this time frame in rebuild
By chance is Jimmy Gonzo the scout with the eyes on Texas
Fence post Sykora ??
Nats should find some higher ceiling Seth Shuman sleepers in day 3
Not seems to be a strategy of pay the top 3 and go cheap on the rest that’s exactly what they did. Sykora is the key. They have to buy him out of his commitment to Texas and that will take more than slot. If they can do that, they will have gotten 3 of the top 40 prospects on MLB.com’s list and that’s a decent draft.
Fred MD : yes College arms look like strip steak from Brazil in college then come pro ball in the lower minors looks like the steak you get at Waffle house on the blue plate special
Young Sykora you are on a Rizzo time clock whereby Nats stab into the prime cut of the best veteran arm to slice up the young rotation charted on Bossmans big board
Alabama get away : Grateful Dead
Pinckney and Mr Hood on the FCL coaching development staff
Play away , Jerry Garcia !!
Let’s see if Pinkney ascends more than
Swing and miss Stud at Fred.
Let’s see the infamous NDFA list
After this draft
I’m sure there are kids who want to latch onto the Nats farm treadmill
Cardinals May have really scored with three arms .
Update update
You guys pretty much nailed my thoughts on this draft. Would’ve liked to see more bullpen arms and there were some seemingly good fast-track reliever specialists available when they were picking like half of Wake Forest (I guess that would be Forest) and the kid from Oral Roberts. Hopefully they can snag a couple of those today.
But I can’t really fault their going all in for the Top 3 strategy and understand their need to create savings later in the Top 10.
Seth Bynum … Phillip Glasse
Hoosier alums
Where did you go , Alex Smith ??!
It’s hard to argue with the Nats’ return on the top three picks. Passing on the best player available to stretch for mediocre pitching is not a good strategy IMHO. But as fans DOOOOOOM is our default position, so let’s lament the fact that with the #2 pick the Nats got the player that most (not all) think was the best player in the draft. With their #2 pick (#40 overall) was a player that I saw ranked as high as #13 (Fangraphs), generally in the teens/low 20’s, and the lowest ranking that I saw for him was #32. With their #3 pick (#71 overall) they got a pitcher who was ranked much higher than the pick (#34 by Fangraphs, #40 by MLB Pipeline). It’s hard to complain about that, but we’ll manage.
As for pitching, not only (h/t to KW) did Ty Floyd go just before the Nats picked, but the guy that I was just starting to hope would fall to the Nats (Joe Witman from Kent State) got taken at #69 when the Nats had pick #71. It happens. But when it does happen, the answer isn’t to stretch to draft a mediocre pitcher, it’s to get the best player available.
Picks #6th round thru # 10 have already signed.
The kid from Lamar very interesting in a cradle of catchers in org with various pros and cons .
Tee shirt for Nats : Get Schmidt ( Nicholson movie )
Crossed fingers he turns out to be a real hoss boss in the bullpen crop surging up .
Jared Simpson very interesting depth piece on the Nats way of using bullpen swing arms .
The influence of this thread at work:
Nats take college pitchers with the first 3 picks of Draft Day 3.
12th rounder Travis Sthele, a slightly undersized (6-0) RHP from Texas. a redshirt sophomore so they may have to give him some extra coin to get him to give up his final 2 seasons. (I assume the scouts have already worked that out.) In two seasons in Austin, 98Ks, 50 BBs, in 95.1 IP with an ERA of almost 6.
13th rounder Liam Sullivan, a 6-6 Jr. LHP from Georgia (SEC!) – a pretty high ERA but 178 strikeouts in 151 innings over 3 college seasons. Also 73 BBs.
Almost on cue, Rizzo takes a JuCo pitcher with his 11th rounder. Gavin Adams, right-handed hurler with hard stuff and iffy control. He was rated by MLB.com as the 242nd player in the draft and he has an FSU commit so A) it’s good value in the 11th round and B) likely gonna cost a little bit over slot to get him.
In the 19th round, Nats take a flyer on James Ellwanger, who MLB had as top 4 round talent (#107 overall). 6-5 athletic HS RHP from Texas who throws in the mid-90s. Nats will need to buy him out of his commitment to Dallas Baptist. Dominated the TX HS playoffs. He also played basketball in HS. Nats have a strong scouting presence in TX as 6 of their draft picks are from the Lone Star state.
Jimmy Gonzalez
That kid to D Baptist looks interesting
Looks like they’ll have around $1.7m to throw around to Sykora, Crews, Morales. Maybe $1m to Sykora and the rest? Looks like the Ellwanger pick is one of those end of the day High School selections that are more “Hey how are you, maybe in 3 years!”
Some better known Nat double draftees:
Jake Bennett – 2019 39th round pick by Nats
2022 2nd round – signed
Darren Baker – 2017 27th round
2021 10th rounder – signed
And the king of the late round flyers:
Tyler Moore – 2005 41st round
2006 – 33rd round
2008 – 16th round – signed
When will we find out how little the senior signed for and, thus, how much slot money has been saved?