NationalsProspects.com

Happy Holidays

As expected, things have slowed down in our little world after an unusually busy December. With the weekend approaching—fast for the folks who’ve procrastinated, slowly for children and the folks who have to work today and tomorrow—I figured I’d post this a little earlier than usual.

Yesterday was the winter solstice, and that means that each day we’ll get just a little more sunlight than the day before. I need not remind anyone here what that means in terms of spring and baseball. (And if I do, what the hell are you doing here?!?!)

But it also signifies the beginning of some sort of holiday for multiple faiths and/or creeds for the next month. So whatever your reason for the season, please celebrate safely and in moderation.

And reach out to your friends, loved ones, and family (yes, you have to) and share what you can spare with those who have less.

The NationalsProspects.com Top 10
11 Pitchers

Much like the bats, there were handful of arms on which we could all agree, then it became a free-for-all. This is actually par for the course – pitchers inspire a lot of strong emotions, in large part because the game begins with ’em and ends with ’em. Think about it: They’re usually the second …

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Catching up on Transactions

While I clean off this egg from my face from the last post, let’s take a peek at the latest transactions, via BA and MiLB: SIGNED • RHP Michael Broadway – If the name’s familiar, it’s because Broadway spent a year (2013) in the system as a reliever for Harrisburg and Syracuse. Since then, he’s …

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Vote for Your Favorite Arms

Well, thanks to an unusually busy December thus far (which could make for painfully longer January), we’re finally getting around to voting on Washington’s minor-league pitchers, a.k.a. the arms. Like before, 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. I’ll then tally the …

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Baseball America Ranks The Top 10 Nats Prospects

Yesterday, Baseball America released its postseason Top 10, and as already discussed in the comments, it’s full of specious goodness (last year’s ranking): Victor Robles, OF (3) Erick Fedde, RHP (4) Juan Soto, OF (’16-’17 IFA) Wilmer Difo, IF (6) Andrew Stevenson, OF (8) Koda Glover, RHP (30) Luis Garcia, SS(’16-’17 IFA) Carter Kieboom, SS(’16 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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