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Vote for Your Favorite Arms

As threat…er, promised we’re moving on to what used to be the more interesting of the two offseason votes. That was back when the Nats had as many pitchers as position players in a given Top XX list.

Don’t believe me? Take a look at the current MLB Pipeline Top 30. Just 10 of them are pitchers.

Theoretically, you could pluck those 10 and list ’em in the same order and call it day. I hope you don’t, but wouldn’t blame you if you did.

Like the bats, you can 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 or it appears that we won’t get any more, I’ll weight them in reverse order (#1 = 10 points, #2 = 9 points … #9 = 2 points, #10 = 1 point) and post the results, along with my comments and obligatory snark.

In a not-unrelated story, I need to go find my dartboard…

P.S. I updated the 2023 Watchlist to account for guys who exceeded rookie limits of 50 innings or 45 days on the active roster.

12 Commments

  1. Man, this list was much harder than the bats. With so many top arms out with long term injuries, it’s really hard to place them with any confidence. But here goes nothing:

    1. Cavalli
    2. Herz
    3. Sykora
    4. Rutledge

    5. Henry
    6. Bennett

    7. Susana
    8. Alvarez
    9. Parker
    10. Marlon Perez

    HM SPs (approximately in this order): Young, Lara, Saenz, Luckham, Atencio, Agostini, Lord

    HM Relief (approximately in this order): Brzykcy, Schoff, Ribalta, Grissom, Collins

    The highlight on this list is Marlon Perez. The guy has been nothing short of dominent in his shortened career. Seriously fantastic strikeout ability, and great control. But he seems to be getting the Yadiel Hernandez treatment: an older, IFA signing that seemingly gets forgotten and gets promoted irrationally slowly for his advanced age. I don’t get why Perez played an entire season in Wilmington, when statistically he had the best season among all Nationals MILB relievers… I am slightly worried that his dominant stats are a product of his advanced age, but I can only fault the Nats’ brass for that and not Perez.

    I’m excited to see what he can do next year!

  2. 1. Cavalli
    2. Bennett
    3. Sykora
    4. Hertz
    5. Rutledge
    6. Susana
    7. Alvarez
    9. Parker
    10. Saenz/Ward
    I think Cronin and especially Henry would be near the top except for serious injury status.

  3. 1. Cavalli
    2. Herz
    3. Bennett
    4. Rutledge
    5. Sykora
    6. Susana
    7. Henry
    8. Alvarez
    9. Parker
    10. Saenz

    Very hard to rank among 2/3, 5/6 and 8/9. And I think I could have been persuaded to rank Henry anywhere, even off the list (well, not 1st, but anywhere else).

    Honorable mentions to Perez and Brzykcy, both of whom have a decent case to be 10th despite their relief-only ceilings.

    And additional shoutouts to Robert Garcia and Jose A Ferrer, who I think have exhausted their rookie status but look like adequate pieces of the big league bullpen. If included, they’d be in the same tier for me as Parker and Alvarez.

  4. Yikes. What an exercise in Titanic deck-chair arrangement. I started making a traditional list — Cavalli, Henry, Bennett, et al. — and felt guilty. I got curious what I could come up with if I didn’t include injured guys, didn’t include hyped guys who weren’t good (Susana; I did include Lara, who was less bad and a level higher), and folks not in their age-25 season or older in 2023. I did cheat a little by including a couple of 2023 draft picks. So . . .

    1. Herz
    2. Rutledge
    3. Parker
    4. Sykora
    5. Alvarez
    6. Young
    7. Lara
    8. Sullivan
    9. Saenz
    10. Grissom

    (The less justification I try to make, the less it will come back to haunt me.)

    1. Interesting list and there’s a lot to be said for this approach. Although I must admit I didn’t even consider Sullivan. Any particular reason you included him?

      1. Not much beyond the vague reasoning that Sullivan intrigues me and so many of the others don’t. He’s massive, gets a lot of K’s (24 in 15.1 IP at F’burg), and is still pretty young (doesn’t turn 22 until May 2024). In filling out the bottom of this list, it was hard to find guys for whom I could envision much of a ceiling. He could have one. Or he might never get beyond A+. After all, Brett Mooneyham filled a uniform quite nicely.

  7. Well, here goes nothing.

    1. Cavalli
    2. Rutledge
    3. Bennett
    4. Sykora
    5. Herz
    6. Alvarez
    7. Saenz
    8. Parker
    9. Henry
    10. Susana
    HM: Brzykcy, Lara, Willingham, Cronin, Knowles

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