Pitchers and catchers report to spring training today, but as you might imagine, the signing of Adam Lind has further depressed the chances of any of “our guys” making the big club. Not that it was all that likely anyway. Don’t get me wrong: When a lot of young players have a good chance of …
As promised, I’ve taken a pass through the 2017 watchlist filled in the unwritten reports while editing a handful.
The “donuts” have been made.
It also usually means that we’re almost at the beginning of spring training, which promises (again) to be pretty quiet for “our guys,” unless (until) there are injuries. There’s already angst over who the Nationals will use for the closer, which of course, longtime readers know is bullsh!t.
For those who like to obsess over Top XX lists, Baseball America has released its latest, which finds Victor Robles at #13 and Erick Fedde at #52.
Pitchers and catchers report on Tuesday – free to discuss in the comments.
Out-of-options southpaw sometimes gets it over the plate, too
Back to the offseason grind, where we pass along the signings of journeymen with non-roster invitations and pretend that it’s meaningful:
• RHP Matt Albers
• RHP Joe Nathan
• RHP Vance Worley
• 2B Grant Green
[Crash Davis] They’re just happy to have the opportunity to see if they can help this ballclub win, and if they can’t make the Opening Day Roster, showcase themselves to the other 29 teams. [/Crash Davis]
Alright, no sense in wasting time; here’s nos. 16-31: 16. Kelvin Gutierrez 21. Osvaldo Abreu (15) 26. Jose Marmolejos 17. Sheldon Neuse 22. Raudy Read (22) 27. Tyler Watson 18. Jakson Reetz (14) 23. Edwin Lora (22) 28. Telmito Agustin 19. Brian Goodwin (31) 24. Jose Sanchez 29. Joan Baez (18) 20. Blake Perkins (12) …
As always, when I make a post to refresh the site, something comes up to predicated an additional post. As the headline gives away, the 2017 Baseball America Prospect Handbook came in the mail today. For those obsessed with how the Washington organization ranks relative to the rest of MLB, it came in at No. …
Hey, we’re still here. It’s just really, really slow.
The hope—as always—is that this post will jinx something into happening so I have something better to write about than, say, the 2017 spring training uniforms and caps or the trucks arriving amid the frenzied construction at the Nats new digs in West Palm Beach.
Until then, please continue to keep the hot stove going in the comments…
I’ve made it through the first pass of writing the 2017 Watchlist and Player reports as I await the arrival of Baseball America’s 2017 Prospect Book. With Sickels no longer doing his book, I couldn’t punt on too many guys, which may be better because it forced me to write and research a little more.
While it’s a lot of work, it pays off down the line. Once the season starts up, the focus is on delivering the news and notes every day, which I enjoy, but gets progressively harder as the season progresses (even with reduced coverage of the DSL and GCL).
This is when I get the legwork done, and more than a few times during the season I’ll use this as reference material (and I’m sure others do, too, so you should know what to do with that the images that appear under “Pay The Bills”).
As always, feel free to discuss in the comments – (UPDATE) preferably here, but I just enabled them on each category page.
Yes, it’s so slow that we’re doing back-to-back transaction posts. Yesterday, the folks at Baseball America posted their latest, which contained two signings for the Nationals:
• LHP Jordan Mills – It’s no secret that the Nats are loading up on lefties. What’s not clear is why Mills was cut loose by the Astros after a single season at High-A in which he posted a line of 3.81/5.16/1.77 in the notoriously hitter-friendly California Lg. Last summer, he pitched in the Can-Am Lg. with good nos. 6-0, 1.96 in 44 appearances (which is a lot considering it’s a ~90-game season).
• IF-OF Mario Lisson – Lisson, who split time between Harrisburg and Syracuse in 2015, returns to the Nationals after spending 2016 in Mexican League. He turns 33 in May, so it’s pretty clear he’s a roster-filler first and an emergency fill-in second.
Baseball America released its latest transaction post, and with it comes a few more signings: • LHP Neal Cotts • Irving Falu • Alex Santana Cotts and Falu are the classic minor-league deals with a non-roster invite to spring training, i.e. longshots who will most likely get mentioned here again when they are released in …