For the minors fans, the news is sparse this time of year, but thanks to MASN’s Byron Kerr, we can at least discuss the annual list of minor-leaguers who’ve been asked to come to camp early, a.k.a. “accelerated camp.” This is the analog to the Fall Instrux – extra time for instruction, etc. And, of …
Last night, John Sickels released his Washington Nationals Top 20 prospects list for 2016. Here’s how it breaks down by letter grade: A Lucas Giolito A- Trea Turner B/B+ Victor Robles B Reynaldo Lopez, A.J. Cole B/B- Erick Fedde B- Wilmer Difo, Anderson Franco, Austin Voth B-/C+ Andrew Stevenson C+ Osvaldo Abreu, Rafael Bautista, Christopher …
It’s hard to imagine with the ice and snow we’ve been having lately, but pitchers and catchers do report to Viera on Friday. Allegedly. And, according to some dispatches, it’s the last one at Space Coast stadium. So we’ve got one more year of beat writers bitching about Panera. Yesterday, we got the news as …
As some have already noted in the comments, there’s finally some movement on the transaction front with the Nationals signing two career minor-leaguers and a former major-leaguer to a minor-league contract. First, the guys we might see this summer: • LHP Robert Fish – Hasn’t pitched since 2013. While he’s already succumbed to Nationals elbow …
With John Sickels’s prospect book still a month out or so, I decided to finish the Watchlist with the BA book and hold out on a couple of guys that I think (hope) he’ll cover. One’s a 2015 Draft pick, the other’s a 40-man guy that I want his opinion on before I weigh in. …
After being reminded that I have a lousy copyeditor 😉 Here are Washington’s Nos. 16 through 31… 16. Drew Ward (8) 21. Rhett Wiseman 26. Phillips Valdez 17. Sammy Solis* (15) 22. Edwin Lora 27. Nick Lee (30) 18. Joan Baez 23. Raudy Read (22) 28. Taylor Hearn 19. Austen Williams 24. Juan Soto 29. …
A pleasant surprise — even if I did pay extra for expedited shipping — as the 2016 Baseball America Prospect Handbook arrived in today’s mail. This is almost a full week earlier than last year… and despite the recent snowstorm. A bigger surprise? The folks in Durham, NC rated the Nationals as the fifth-best organization.. …
The first pass at the player reports for the 2016 Watchlist is now done. Rather than use the snowstorm to work on my novel, I tried to get as many written as reasonably possible. Truth be told, between doing this and reading the books from Baseball America and John Sickels, this is where the real …
Things have been slow, but with the Baseball America transaction post earlier this week, we have some stuff to discuss: SIGNED • RHP Boone Whiting RELEASED • RHP Andrew Cooper • RHP Sam Johns • RHP 2B Thomas Alvarez • RHP OF Wilman Rodriguez OUTRIGHTED TO AAA • RHP Erik Davis • RHP Taylor Hill …
Just a quick note to update folks on what’s been going on.
Like a few years ago, one of my site plugins failed. Ironically, thanks to another plugin, the front page remained intact but anywhere else, you got an error message regarding said plugin. Well, long story short: It’s fixed and the bad plugin has been deleted.
I’ve been working on the on the player pages for the 2016 Watchlist and have put up three already (C, 1B, 2B). We’re at the stage where I skip over the ones that I believe will be written about by Sickels and Baseball America, ergo, “Report Not Written” for four thus far.
With long weekend upon us, I should have more time to work on the others, and perhaps an edition of “Morning Reading.”
Otherwise, it’s “Happy Friday!”