I guess the question is “which one?” We’ve known for about six weeks that the major leaguers and AAA guys will be having spring training now, while the AA and below players will follow them about a month later. We still do not know, officially, who the non-roster invitees are, but I have very little …
This is sort of the second of two posts that usually come with the release of the Baseball America Prospect Handbook. The first came with the release of the Top 30 two weeks ago. Perhaps the most interesting wrinkle this year is the addition of ten “more prospects to know,” which becomes eight, as the …
After a brief delay that led to some speculation that perhaps one or two teams had held out, yesterday the news that we’d been waiting/dreading became official: All 120 teams invited into the New World Order had signed. If you’ll forgive me, a recap… Minor-league baseball as we know it is gone. Born in 1901 …
Well, no news so far about the minors at a macro level, just a tweet from the Senators confirming they’ve signed the PDC. But there was some news from Baseball America, as its annual prospect handbook has come off the presses. Truth be told, this is not a surprise. The boys in Durham explained it …
Ordinarily, there’d be some excitement now that the “Best Commercials of 2021” show is over. Usually, we’d be thinking “Pitchers and Catchers Report” in another week or so. Instead, we’re wondering what happens after today to the minors as we knew it. It’s the deadline for “The 120” to accept their PDL offers. Most are …
Ordinarily, this is revealed with the release of the handbook, which apparently is late or lost in the mail; hard to tell these days. Before we go further, ze list (last year’s ranking, if applicable): 1. RHP Cade Cavalli 11. SS Jackson Cluff (16) 21. RHP Tyler Dyson (17) 2. RHP Jackson Rutledge (3) 12. …
The horses finally made it through the last pass and arrived at the offices of Baseball America in the Old North State, delivering the edicts from New Amst…er, York on the bonding and de-bonding of the necessary evils, a.k.a. players. It’s only been eight weeks since the last missive. The Nationals of Washington signed the …
We’re almost done with the 13th month of 2020, the 11th of the SARS-CoV2 pandemic, the first month of 2021, and the first pass on the 2021 Watchlist and Player Reports. As I noted last month, this is mainly the 2020 Watchlist with some editing and rearranging of the deck chairs. I’ve already ordered the …
Baseball America released its 2021 Top 100 Prospects List this week and the number of Nationals named was… ZERO. At first, I thought, “OK, so first time since this site started…” Nope. Even in the dark times of 2005-2009, there the likes of the Zimmerman(n)s (Ryan and Jordan) and Chris Marrero, not to mention—except I …
As predicted by multiple sources, the Nats did indeed sign 17-y.o. top IFA (#2 BA, #5 MLB) Armando Cruz to a $3.9M bonus, along with ten others: RHP Gustavo Rivas, 17 (Ven.) — $450K OF Enmanuel Ramirez, 17 (D.R.) — $200K RHP Doimil Perez, 17 (D.R.) — $200K RHP Genderson Zapata, 16 (Ven.) — $200K …