As those of you on the Twitters already know, the 2014 Baseball America handbook did indeed arrive in yesterday’s mail. The staff has been reviewing it and so over the next couple of days, we’ll discuss what they found. Like two years ago, the moves made in November and December are not reflected in the …
February has finally arrived… and so has the latest transaction post from Baseball America (and with any luck, my copy of the handbook is in the mail truck I can hear going by; yes, I’m that pathetic). The Nats have recently signed the following players: LHP Zach Jackson RHP Juan Bermudez RHP Warner Madrigal OF …
As I get older, I’m convinced that Januaries are like watching your preferred gender walk on by… but in reverse. Each one seems uglier than the last. Now that we’ve dispensed with the obligatory comment on the weather, here are a few items to pass along as we wait out this [expletive deleted]. Keith Law …
With the announcement today of the full list of 2014 non-roster invitees (NRIs), we now have a good sense of the minor-leaguers who will begin spring training next month with the big boys. Suffice it to write, the vast majority of these guys won’t make the Opening Day roster. But with a new field manager*, …
Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com has released the 2014 edition of his Top 100 prospects with two Nationals making the cut. Coming in at #44, it’s a kid from Southern California, and the Nats’ #1 pick in the 2012 Draft, Lucas Giolito(sorry for the Casey Kasem lead-in; kids have been watching Scooby Doo a lot lately) …
With snow expected to cripple the DC area (and extend kids’ three-day weekend into five), now’s as good a time as any to take a look at the broadcast schedule for the 2014 Nationals spring training. For the folks who have subscriptions to MLB.tv and MLB Radio, there will likely be some road broadcasts (personal …
With a second transaction post this week from Baseball America (H/T to Ben Meyers for alerting me via Twitter), we have a few more moves to pass along: SIGNED • LHP Tyler Robertson • IF Jamey Carroll • IF Mike Fontenot • OF-1B Joe Dunigan RELEASED • RHP Ben Grisz • 2B Matt Foat As …
The Harrisburg Senators and Washington Nationals have announced a four-year extension of their player development contract through the 2018 season. This is the second affiliate to extend during this offseason, both months in advance of the September deadline to renew before open negotiations (typically the last two weeks of September). The Senators have been a …
OK, so it’s less than a month until pitchers and catchers report… and it’s about 40 degrees warmer than it was a week ago… but this is the nadir of the offseason: holidays have come and gone, first pass at the player reports written, but the prospect books are still a couple weeks away from …
As reported earlier this week, I’ve been using the downtime afforded by the Fairfax County Public Schools weather to work on the first draft of the player reports for the 2014 Watchlist. The focus has been on the players that I’ve seen in the past season or so, the Top 10 guys per Baseball America (for which I have more up-to-date scouting reports), and the GCL and Auburn guys, who I don’t expect to get much attention from either BA or John Sickels.
Special thanks go to Ryan Kelley and Sean Hogan as their work on the 2013 draft picks (listed in the blogroll) was invaluable for this project (see previous parenthetical) as it made possible for me to write in more sooner than in years past. When the 2014 book and PDF arrive from BA and Sickels respectively, I’ll fill in “Report Not Written” entries and edit/rewrite the others.
As always, feel free to discuss in the comments while we wait (wade?) out the winter.