NationalsProspects.com

The 2014 NationalsProspects.com Watchlist

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With the completion of the Rule 5 draft, what we hope to be a break in the trades, it’s time to unveil the fourth edition of our look at the Nationals prospects that we’re keeping an eye on, a.k.a. watching. This is my alternative to doing a large mixed list, which, like cable news, may generate a lot of viewers and discussion but serves little purpose otherwise.

My apologies to the longtime readers, but a few caveats for the folks who are unfamiliar with how this works…

• It’s not a depth chart — Players are listed first by the highest level at which they played significant time, then alphabetically. This mostly applies to the pitchers and outfielder nowadays, but folks should not infer that the player at the top of the list is necessarily better than the guy at the bottom.

• It’s not a prediction of usage — As noted during the preliminary posts, there are players that have played multiple positions and could be easily placed in more than one column. Naturally, I’m exploiting that for aesthetic purposes, but not to fantasy-baseball extent (e.g. he played one game at the position there).

• It’s not fair — There are players here that I wouldn’t list otherwise were it not for lack of position depth or dexterity. We’ve already seen that there’s a bias towards established players, though I’ve made a couple of changes that may very well be overcorrections to offset that.

I did indeed scrap the M*A*S*H category in favor of breaking apart the DSL bats and arms (which sounds more painful than what I mean) to keep the design intact. I created the category to acknowledge that the DSL is purely a scouting-by-box-score exercise. Truth be told, this is also true of the GCL and NYPL, too, but I’ve resisted the very tempting idea (from a workload perspective) of dropping coverage of one or more of the short-season leagues because I want to be as extensive as possible with this site.

Without further ado…

C 1B 2B SS 3B OF
Leon Skole Kobernus Walters Dykstra E. Perez
P. Severino Pleffner Hague Difo J.C. Valdez Goodwin
Reistetter Marmolejos-Diaz Renda Masters Gunter Souza
Read D. Eusebio Mejia Abreu Ward Taylor
B. Miller
W. Ramos
E. Martinez
Wooten
Ballou
Lippincott
Zebrack
Bautista
R. Encarnacion
RHPs LHPs DSL Bats DSL Arms
 Notable Bats Notable Arms
Karns Solis Corredor M. Sanchez Bloxom Garcia
Barrett Purke Gutierrez Yrizarri Hood E. Davis
Hill Mooneyham Ortiz Reyes Martinson Rosenbaum
Cole Lee Mota Torres Oduber Holland
Mirowski Orlan Florentino Valerio Keyes Grace
Schwartz Napoli Ramsey Rauh
Benincasa Silvestre Manuel Dickson
P. Encarnacion Ott Kieboom R. Pena
C. Davis Walsh Yezzo Bacus
Mendez Franco Spann
Johansen
Voth
Hollins
Simms
Pivetta
Giolito
Suero
J. Rodriguez
P. Valdez

10 Commments

  2. I bet Terry Ryan asked Rizzo for Solis, Purke
    Or maybe Mooneyham for Ryan Doumit
    Rizzo said no.
    Diffo is an interesting talent for sure
    Camp will tell who gets challenged. Bit

  3. Despite all your cautions not to view it as a depth chart, it is unsettling to see 3B with Dykstra at the top, and Ward at the bottom. I hadn’t noticed that you had moved Cutter from “Notable” to a prospect … it’s hard to stop thinking of him as the proverbial “bag of balls” we got back when desperate to get rid of Nyjer … are you really more positive on him as a prospect, or does it just reflect the lack of high level depth at the position?

    1. I think we’re hurting for depth everywhere except outfield and pitching, and even those two categories there’s a decided lack of age-appropriate-to-the-level talent. I’m no draftnik, but what the Bullpen Banter guys said about drafting one or two elite or underrated talents, then college-aged projects seems about right. The Nats have been able to develop those projects into trade chips, so it may be depressing if you’re rooting for a high system ranking, but if it results in players like Gio Gonzalez or Doug Faster and a winning parent club, then ultimately it doesn’t matter.

  4. Number 8
    I wish Corey Brown puts up good numbers
    Out along the Bay.
    He could take the roster spot of Seth Smith?

  6. JC Valdez. Does he project like Estarlin
    With his utility gloves @ OF, 3 b and 1b.
    Guess that is up to what is told to Patrick
    Anderson.
    Yezzo , Foat or Lopez 1 b
    Valdez, Dent or Diffo 3b???!
    Anderson should have a young flexible
    Bench.

  7. They’ll have a first round pick this year that might help? In theory the International talent from the DR should at this point be assimilating into the system at various levels to help staunch the loss of prospects to trades and the majors. But, I don’t see that happening as much as in other systems?

    Still, the pitching appears to be strong at least for another season or two as the best prospects are either promoted or traded.

    Not much in the way of replacements for them as far as I can see?

  8. Pingback: Simms, Spann Promoted To Potomac » NationalsProspects.com

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