Nats Make Second Annual Spare IF Trade to Angels for Two Pitchers
Pognophiles weep, N.L. infields a little less breezy in 2017
Sickels Releases Top 20 Nats Prospect List
As noted in the comments, John Sickels released his Top 20 Prospects for the Washington Nationals last night. Here’s the breakdown by letter grade: B+/A- Victor Robles B+ Erick Fedde B Juan Soto B- Carter Kieboom, Koda Glover, Austin Voth, Sheldon Neuse B-/C+ A.J. Cole, Andrew Stevenson C+ Drew Ward, Wilmer Difo*, Pedro Severino, Brian …
The NationalsProspects.com Top 10 Position Players
There are four players we can agree on: Victor Robles, Andrew Stevenson, Drew Ward, and Carter Kieboom. They’re the only ones named on every ballot. This is actually pretty normal, since the Nats aren’t typically deep in position players. Twenty different players were named on 12 ballots (including mine), down one from last year. Robles …
Nats Go All in for Eaton
For those of you who work the third shift, aren’t on the Twitters, or had a date last night (hey, it could happen), Washington traded Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, and Dane Dunning for Chicago White Sox outfielder Adam Eaton. This is hard for us as prospect followers because we become (or have become) enamored with …
Nats Make Some Minor-League Signs
As noted yesterday, the latest BA transactions post—first in nearly two weeks—was published yesterday. Here are Washington’s signees:
• RHPs – Dustin Antolin, Derek Eitel
• LHPs – Yoan Aponte, Braulio Lara
• C’s – Brian Jeroloman, Adderling Ruiz
• 2B – Corban Joseph
Antolin, whose full name (Dustin Kamakana Mai Ku’u Makualani Antolin) makes for a difficult time at the DMV, Aponte and Eitel appear ticketed for Syracuse as inventory while little can be found on Aponte, which leads to the inference that he’s low-tier IFA.
Jeroloman and Ruiz are re-signs and will likely continue in their roles as player and player-coach, respectively. Jospeh spent 2016 with the Orioles organization as a stopgap at AA and AAA and will likely do the same for the Nationals in 2017
Vote for Your Favorite Bats
Quick! Before they get traded! It’s time to crowdsource our favorite position players in the Washington farm system as part of our annual offseason ritual to fill the void between when the Nats get eliminated in the playoffs and a season-ending injury in Spring Training the last pitch in September and the first pitch in …
Nationals Trade Pedro Avila for Derek Norris
As semi-predicted in the penultimate post, the Nats have begun the plug holes via the trade route with the acquisition of former farmhand C Derek Norris from San Diego for RHP Pedro Avila.
Norris, who was traded away nearly five years ago to Oakland, will most likely split time with Jose Lobaton while Pedro Severino becomes trade bait or insurance, given his age and option status.
Avila, 19, rose quickly through the Nationals farm system making the jump from the DSL in 2015 to Low-A in 2016. He went 5-5 with 2.91 ERA in the first half, but 2-2, 4.18 in the second half, which is not uncommon for young pitchers in their first full season. The Venezueln teenager had been rated as the #23 prospect in the most recent listing by the MLB.com.
The Next CBA
As expected, the new Collective Bargaining Agreement was agreed upon before the deadline last night. As predicted, there will be no international draft. BUT… (There’s always a but, isn’t there?) In this case, the scuttlebutt on the “but” is higher bonus pools – somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 to $6M per team per year …
The Preliminary 2017 Watchlist
Here we go again on my own, traveling down the only road I’ve ever known with the seventh edition of this site’s watchlist. There’s a certain degree of fear this time around because, CBA uncertainty aside, it feels like this might get blown up in less than a month. Why? Because even Stevie Wonder can …
Happy Thanksgiving
As it did a year ago, it seems quiet on the minor-league front, like January before the prospect books arrive. The two major Top 10 lists — Baseball America and John Sickels — haven’t been published yet and most of the online stories center on the exploits of the AFL contingent. Yesterday, the first salvo …