willie medina at Nationals Arm Race

Archive for the ‘willie medina’ tag

2016 Season Statistical review of the 2013 Draft Class

Austin Voth remains the “class” of the 2013 draft class. Photo mlb.com official

(Coming back to this series post Winter Meetings hoopla). Fourth in our set of Draft class Reviews for the 2016 season. First was the 2016 class, then the 2015 class then the 2014 class.

Web links to use while reading:

Stats are pulled from milb.com and/or fangraphs.com; put the player name into the search bar to get his seasonal stats
The 2016 MLB.com Draft Tracker (which I believe is the best draft tracker out there) is the best place to get draft class information.
The 2016 Bonus Tracker
The Big Board and the Draft Tracker are the goto resources for prospects for any Nats fan.
More obscure stats on players are sometimes found at places like thebaseballcube.com, perfectgame.org, their college websites, twitter accounts for the players, and good old fashioned deep-dive googling.
My historical list of Nats prospect rankings, updated for all 2016 mid-season rankings.

This review is especially important to follow because the college-age draftees in this 2013 class are Rule-5 eligible this coming off-season. I think its a big reason why several of these guys are in the AFL right now, and their performance may or may not influence the team’s decision to protect or leave exposed. We’ll put a pin in this post when we eventually do Rule-5 Analysis later this month.

With out further ado…

Round 1: forfeited w/ Rafael Soriano signing, which as I noted in this June 2013 post cost the Nats a shot at one of several highly regarded pitchers drafted just behind our vacated spot (the Cardinals actually took Kaminsky, but I doubt the Nats would have; i think they would have taken Manaea). Here’s a quick summary of 2016’s season for the guys I liked at the time in that spot (Rob Kaminsky, Sean Manaea, Ryne Stanek, Ian Clarkin):

Kaminsky: 11-7 with a 3.28 ERA in a full season starting for AA in his age 22 year. Was flipped in 2015 to Cleveland from St. Louis (his drafting team) in the Brandon Moss deal.
Manaea: 7-9 with a 3.86 ERA in 24 starts for Oakland this year. Was flipped in 2015 to Oakland from Kansas City (his drafting team) in the Ben Zobrist deal.
Stanek: split time between AA and AAA, was removed from the rotation and struggled in relief.
Clarkin: went 6-9 with a 3.31 ERA in High-A as a 21-yr old after losing all of 2015 to injury.

I’ve more than said my peace on how much I disagreed with the Soriano signing and its opportunity cost. Lets move on.

Round 2: Jake Johansen, Coll Sr. RHP (Starter, now a Reliever) Dallas Baptist U. 4-1 3.19 ERA across 3 levels in 2016. 29/22 K/BB in 36 2/3 mostly middle relief innings. 1.64 whip. Johansen started the year in Potomac, walked 11 guys in 6 appearances and was dumped back to XST. Once the GCL started he threw a few innings in Florida before joining Hagerstown for the rest of the year. He had 11 appearances and 19 IP in Low-A with good numbers … but at this point in his career (he’ll turn 26 in a couple of months) and given where he was drafted, the fact that he can’t seem to cut it anywhere above Low-A ball seems like a pretty succinct judgement of the pick. I’m guessing he hangs around until he hits 6-years in the system, but any hopes of him turning into even a marginal middle reliever seem shot. If he was anything other than a big-bonus 2nd rounder he would have likely been released already. He’s toiling in the AFL and (as of this writing) had only given up one run in 9 innings, but had a measly 3 punch-outs against the elite hitters of the minors. With any luck, this confidence boost will carry over into 2017. Trending Down.

Round 3: Drew Ward, HS 3B. Slashed .252/.348/.412 across 2 levels, ending the year in Harrisburg. 121/56 K/BB in 408 ABs, 14 homers. Ward’s age 21 season went pretty well; he started the year in Potomac but posted an .868 OPS there in 53 games to force his promotion to AA. He hit just .219 once he got there though, which means we’re likely seeing him back there in 2017. His strikeout rate remains a problem: 121 Ks in 408 Abs is a 30% clip. But the team clearly rates him; he’s in the AFL for the 2nd straight off-season and is hitting .327 against the best the minors has to offer. And he was a 21 yr old in AA; lots of 21 yr olds are still in Short-A. He’s also starting to get some prospect notice; generally getting ranked in the 12-15 range in the system. I’m going to say Trending Up … lets hope he can put up .800 OPS figures in AA in 2017.

Round 4: Nick Pivetta, Juco RHP (starter) New Mexico Juco. Traded 7/28/15 to Philadelphia for Jonathan Papelbon. He had a solid year starting between AA and AAA and could feature for the Phillies as a 9/1 callup next year. For all of us that can’t stand these moves for closers (see above lost 1st rounder), this may have the jeopardy of haunting us for years if Pivetta becomes a regular rotation member of an NL East rival. Maybe they’ll leave him off their 40-man roster this coming off-season and we can Rule5 draft him 🙂

Round 5: Austin Voth, Coll Jr RHP (starter) UWashington: 7-9, 3.15 ERA in 25 starts for AAA Syracuse. 133/57 K/BB in 157 IP, 1.24 whip, 3.53 FIP, .279 BABIP. Another year, another solid season for Voth. I’m not sure what else there is for him to accomplish in the Minors at this point; he seems to be the pitcher that he is. His BABIP was in-line with his career numbers, he’s slightly regressed in a K/9 rate since arriving at AAA, and his ERA seems to be in line with his career numbers. As discussed in this space earlier this year, I’m not quite sure why the team didn’t add him at the 9/1 roster expansion date; clearly they’re going to add him ahead of Rule-5 (which they did) but instead chose to leave him on the sidelines while they had September tryouts for Mat Latos. Clearly he’s behind several of his AAA rotation mates on the depth chart, but I feel like he could still be a valuable rotation member for the Nats or someone else. Given our starter depth, one has to think he’s trade bait at this point (he’s behind Lopez, Giolito and Cole clearly). He seems like the kind of guy a team like Oakland would love. Trending Up. Post writing update: with the firesale of Nats SP candidates, Voth suddenly is like 2nd in line for getting MLB starts, so we look forward to seeing him in a Nats uniform at some point in 2017 and seeing if he’s the 2nd coming of Tanner Roark … or if he’s more like Taylor Jordan.

Round 6: Cody Gunter, Juco 3B/RHP (reliever) from Greyson College: 0-0 in 2/3rds of an IP for GCL before getting shutdown for the season. He looked halfway decent for Auburn in 2015 while converting from his drafted position (3B) to the mound, but 2016 is a big step-back. I don’t know what to expect in 2017; perhaps a shot at the Hagerstown pen or an outright release. Trending Down.

Round 7: Jimmy Yezzo, Coll Jr 1B from UDelaware. Released on 7/22/15. Played a full season with the Washington PA team in the Indy Frontier League, hitting .220.

Round 8: David Napoli, Coll Sr LHP (relief) from Tulane. Released 3/16/16 after four seasons where he never got above A ball.

Round 9: Jake Joyce, Coll Sr RHP (reliever) from Va Tech. Released in 7/7/14.

Round 10: Brennan Middleton, Coll Sr SS/2B from Tulane. Released on 6/30/15.

Round 11: John Simms, Coll jr RHP (starter) from Rice. 8-5, 3.30 ERA in 29 games (11 starts) for AA. 79/28 K/BB ratio in 92 2/3rds innings, 1.08 whip, 3.84 fip, .254 babip. Simms was the opening day starter for Harrisburg in 2016, but never seemed destined for the rotation; he was mostly a long reliever/spot starter, never throwing even 90 pitches in an outing. He did not go to the AFL this year after going last year; what is his planned usage going forward? His numbers look good; is he destined to move up to AAA and be a 6th starter again? He seems to be able to compete, so we’ll see how he does against more veteran/mature competition in 2017. Trending Steady.

Round 12: Andrew Cooper, Juco RH relief pitcher from Sierra College. Released on 1/12/16, not even getting a chance to compete for a spot in the High-A bullpen. Seems like the team let him try to earn his way up on the field and it never happened.

Round 13: John Costa, Juco RH relief pitcher from Palm Beach CC. Released 4/1/15.

Round 14: David Masters, Juco SS/3B from Central Arizona College: Slashed just .174/.259/.280 with 56/23 K/BB in 236 ABs in High-A. 6HR, 1SB. Masters seemed to play every other day in a utility role for Potomac, posting anemic batting stats but staying with the team the whole year. I thought he was in trouble after hitting just .226 LAST year but he stuck around the whole season. I said this last season, but it seems like Masters isn’t long for the organization. Trending down.

Round 15: Isaac Ballou, Coll Sr OF/CF from Marshall (via Germantown, MD). Slashed .255/.332/.386 mostly for AA Harrisburg. 77/42 K/BB in 373 AA at-bats, 6hr, 7SB. Ballou split time between the corner OF spots and had a couple of stints covering for Syracuse. Ballou didn’t stick as a starter in AAA, instead repeating AA for the most part. Depending on how the MLB roster numbers shake out, he may have the same issue in 2017. Trending Steady.

Round 16: Willie Allen, Juco Corner OF from Oklahoma/Newtown, MA. Did not sign; transferred to Lewis-Clark State (ID), where he played for a year in 2015, then has apparently disappeared. He was not on their 2016 roster, and he does not appear to still be playing.

Round 17: Geoff Perrott, Coll Sr C from Rice. Retired 1/5/2015

Round 18: Cory Bafidis, Coll Sr LH relief pitcher from Texas Wesleylan. Released 7/7/2014.

Round 19: Niko Spezial, Coll Sr LH relief pitcher from Wake Forest. Released 5/28/14.

Round 20: Brenton Allen, Coll Jr Corner OF from UCLA. Released 6/21/14.

Round 21: Justin Thomas, Coll Sr LH relief pitcher from Southern Arkansas. 3-2, 4.75 ERA while repeating High-A. 36/21 K/BB in 47 1/3 relief innings, 1.37 whip, 4.50 fip, .281 babip. Last year I liked Thomas and thought he’d easily move up to AA. Didn’t happen; he repeated Potomac and his numbers went down. His lefty-lefty splits aren’t especially good, which precludes his value as a lefty specialist, so I wonder what his role is going forward at this point. I’d guess he’ll compete for AA spot but may be a release candidate. Trending down.

Round 22: Cody Dent, Coll Sr SS from UFlorida. Released 7/15/16 after getting demoted out of High-A and hitting just .195 as a 24-yr old in low-A. Even his pedigree (he is the son of legendary Bucky Dent) couldn’t save him.

Round 23: Garrett Gordon, Juco Corner OF. Released in 3/26/15.

Round 24: Matthew DeRosier, Juco RHP (starter/reliever) from Southwestern College (CA). 3-3, 4.54 ERA in 14 low-A starts before hitting the D/L on 6/30/16 for the rest of the season. 59/18 K/BB in 67 1/3 innings, 1.32 whip, 3.25 fip, .325 babip. DeRosier was in the opening day rotation for Hagerstown and lasted there for 3 months before getting hurt. DeRosier was a young JuCo signee; he just finished his 4th pro season but he turned 22 in July, so we’re not too worried that he’s still in Low-A. But he needs to start making some progress before he ages out of the system. His FIP is better than his ERA, but we have no idea what the injury was. I’d guess he’ll compete for the Potomac rotation in 2017. Trending Steady.

Round 25: Travis Ott, HS LH starting pitcher. Traded 12/17/14 along with Steven Souza in the Trea Turner/Joe Ross deal. Repeated Short-A for the *third* year and was phenomenal in 2016. Why keep him there? I know Tampa is “conservative” when it comes to promoting pitching prospects, but keeping a talented HS pitcher in the same classification for three years running seems dumb.

Round 26: Garrett Hampson, HS SS from Reno, NV. Did not sign; honored commitment to Long Beach State. Had a monster collegiate career and was drafted in the 3rd round by Colorado. Signed a $750k bonus and had an .845 OPS in Short-A Boise. Could be one that got away.

Round 27: Bryce Harman, HS LH starting pitcher from Richmond, VA (Byrd HS). Did not sign; honored commitment to East Carolina University. Hit .242 his Junior year starting and was not drafted.

Round 28: Joey Webb, Coll Sr LH relief pitcher. Released 6/25/15.

Round 29: Mike Sylvestri, Coll Sr RH relief pitcher. Retired on 6/13/14.

Round 30: Ryan Ullmann, Coll Sr RH Starting pitcher. Released 6/25/15.

Round 31: Willie Medina, Coll Sr SS. Released in Jan 2015.

Round 32: Pat Boling, Coll Jr LHP: Did not sign, chose to return to U. of Georgia for his senior season. He posted a 4.94 ERA his senior year, was not re-drafted, and does not appear he played any independent ball.

Round 33: Andrew Dunlap, HS C/RHP from Houston. Did not sign. Honoring a commitment to Rice University. He has struggled to find the field for Rice, not playing in 2014 or 2015 and hitting .197 in limited PT his junior year in 2016.

Round 34: Jake Walsh, Coll Sr LH relief pitcher. Released 3/16/16, before the season started. This one I still do not get to this day. Look at his minor league numbers: he has a career 1.65 ERA!! All his peripherals look good. I just don’t get this at all. I thought he’d be at least in the AA rotation in 2016; instead he’s out of the game.

Round 35: Lukas Schiraldi, Juco RHP from Texas. Did not sign; instead transferred to U Texas. Drafted in 2014 in the 15th round by Seattle; in 2016 he struggled with the jump to High-A (with the caveat that he’s in the California league).

Round 36: Reid Humphreys, HS SS from Missouri. Did not sign. Honoring commitment to Mississippi State. Drafted in the 7th round in 2016 by Colorado, signed for $227k, and threw a few games in the rookie league. Btw, he converted to the mound in college and is now a RHP reliever.

Round 37: Karsten Whitson, RH starting pitcher from Florida. Did not sign, returned to U Florida for his senior/4th year. Was drafted by Boston in 2014 as an 11th rounder (likely bonus; max of $100k), released on 3/9/16. An ignominious ending to a career that started with him declining 1st round money. As Keith Law says: “Always take the money.”

Round 38: Caleb Hamilton, HS SS from Washington State. Did not sign; honoring commitment to U of Washington. He was drafted in the 23rd round this year by Minnesota and signed. He hit .207 for their rookie league team.

Round 39: Robbie Tenerowicz, HS 2B/SS from California. Did not sign; honoring commitment to UC Berkeley. He was drafted in the 27th round this year by Tampa Bay and signed. He hit .291 with some pop for their rookie league team.

Round 40: Shaun Anderson, HS RH starting pitcher from Florida. Did not sign; honoring commitment to U of Florida. At Florida he was a significant part of their pre-season #1 team, serving as the closer. He was drafted in the 3rd round by Boston, signed for $700k, and then gave up 12 hits and 9 runs in his Short-A debut. He’ll try it again fresh in 2017.

Trending Summary:

Trending Up (2): Voth, Ward
Trending Steady (3): Simms, Ballou, DeRosier
Trending Down (4): Johansen, Gunter, Masters, Thomas
Did Not Sign in 2013 (11): Allen, Hampson, Harman, Boling, Dunlap, Schiraldi, Humphries, Whitson, Hamilton, Tenerowicz, Anderson
Released/Retired (17): Yezzo, Napoli, Joyce, Middleton, Cooper, Costa, Perrott, Bafidis, Spezial, Allen, Dent, Gordon, Webb, Sylvestri, Ullmann, Medina, Walsh
Traded (2): Pivetta, Ott

Executive Summary

Wow; this class is really looking poor. Just two players who I still think are trending up in Voth and Ward. And even though I rate Voth, I sense he’s perhaps he’s limited to being a 4-A/5th starter. As noted before, no 1st rounder and a blatant fail on Johansen the 2nd rounder have made this class look pretty weak. It’d look a bit better if Ward (3rd rounder) turned out, but the cashing in of the 4th rounder (Pivetta) for a short-term head case rental looks equally wasteful in hindsight.

On the bright side … it makes Rule 5 decisions pretty easy. We’ll circle back to this post when we do the Rule5 analysis, but right now the only candidate here worth protecting is Voth. (Update post-writing: we were right; the only one added was Voth and nobody here got drafted).

Written by Todd Boss

December 13th, 2016 at 9:38 am

2015 Season Statistical review of the 2013 draft class

8 comments

Loving what Austin Voth is doing for the Nats. Photo via mlbdirt

The next in a series: previously we reviewed the 2015 season stats for the 2015 draft class and the 2014 draft class. Unlike these other two posts, this one was a bit easier to write. Why? Because I had done this analysis for the 2013 class previously … back in 2013. All I had to do was cut-n-paste that post and all 40 draftees were already listed with key details. Ahhh. I may continue this with previous classes since it was easier to compile. Hopefully I didn’t miss any obvious promotions for key guys like I did previously.

Web links to use while reading:

Stats are pulled from milb.com and/or fangraphs.com; put the player name into the search bar to get his seasonal stats
The MLB Draft Tracker (which I believe is the best draft tracker out there) is the best place to get draft class information.
The Big Board and the Draft Tracker are the goto resources for prospects for any Nats fan.
Baseball-reference.com’s draft database
My working XLS in Google for all this data (cut-n-pasted at the bottom).
TheBaseballCube.com for really obscure stats for players.

Without further ado:

Round 1: forfeited w/ Rafael Soriano signing, which as I noted in this June 2013 post cost the Nats a shot at one of several highly regarded pitchers drafted just behind our vacated spot. In retrospect, here’s a quick summary of the careers so far of the guys I liked at the time in that spot (Rob Kaminsky, Sean Manaea, Ryne Stanek, Ian Clarkin):

Kaminsky: so far, looks pretty good. Career 2.22 ERA across multiple levels, finishing this year in High-A. Flipped this year to Cleveland from St. Louis (his drafting team) in the Brandon Moss deal.
Manaea: looks awesome after some injury issues in 2013. Finished 2015 going 6-0 with a 1.93 ERA for Midland in AA and was a key prospect going to Oakland in the Ben Zobrist deal. I really liked him in 2013 and thought his hip injury bumped him down the line from being the top 10 talent he was initially projected to be, and nothing he’s done professionally has countered that.
Stanek: dominated high-A for Tampa Bay this year, finished the year in AA.
Clarkin: drafted by the Yankees, pitched his first full season of pro ball in low-A (impressive), giving Charleston 16 decent starts. Hurt his elbow in 2015 spring training and didn’t pitch all year, but is apparently recovered and is now pitching in the AFL.

I dunno. I hate to sound like a repeating record on the Soriano signing, but it looks even worse know knowing who we could have had. Knowing how Mike Rizzo loves college arms, you have to think he was likely looking at either Manaea or Stanek, and both those guys are looking like mid-rotation starters perhaps by mid 2016. All for an overpriced malcontent closer we didn’t need and who was eventually supplanted from the role by the same in-house option (Drew Storen) who the team AGAIN tried to supplant with another unnecessary over-priced malcontent (this time Jonathan Papelbon) in 2015 to disastrous results. Do you think Rizzo and Lerner have learned their lesson by now?

Back to the analysis.

Round 2: Jake Johansen, Coll Sr. RH Starting Pitcher Dallas Baptist U.. 1-7, 5.44 ERA with 48/27 K/BB in 48 relief IP, 4.69 fip, .358 babip for Potomac this year. He was pushed to the bullpen full time for 2015 yet was, frankly, awful in relief. This is on top of his 5.19 ERA in 2014 in Hagerstown. This pick is looking more and more like a disaster. I don’t see any silver linings here, other than his K/inning rate (which is thrown off by his 4.5 walks/9 inning rate for his career). Trending Down.

Round 3: Drew Ward, HS 3B. Slashed .249/.327/.358 with 110/39 K/BB in 377 Abs, 6hr for High-A Potomac. Missed a month with an injury, but otherwise took incremental steps back on his performance from his 2014 campaign in Low-A. Where’s the power? Slugging .358 isn’t great, especially for a corner infielder. But there doesn’t seem to be anyone else really preventing him from suiting up for Harrisburg as the starting 3B in 2016. Also worth remembering; he’s a HS draftee so he was a 20-yr old in High-A; quite young. That tempers any criticism. He’s in the Arizona Fall League, a good sign for the team’s opinion of him, so even my opinion may be slightly conservative. Trending Steady.

Round 4: Nick Pivetta, Juco RH Starting Pitcher. 7-4, 2.29 ERA for Potomac in 2015 before getting traded to Philadelphia for Jonathan Papelbon. Was working on a nice improvement over his 2014 campaign for Hagerstown (13-8, 4.22 ERA). Was bumped up to Philly’s AA affiliate in Reading PA and struggled to finish out 2015.

Round 5: Austin Voth, Coll Jr RH Starting Pitcher: 6-7, 2.92 ERA and 148/40 k/bb across 157 ip (28 starts) for AA Harrisburg. 3.07 fip, .284 babip. Another excellent campaign after his three-level jump in 2014. He’s now regularly mentioned in the back-end of Nats top 10 prospect lists and seems like he could be one of the first options considered in 2016 if a MLB starting pitcher gets injured. Looks like a steal of this draft and could be the best player to come out of it by the time all is said and done. Trending Up.

Round 6: Cody Gunter, Juco 3B: 1-0 4.15 ERA, 23/8 K/BB in 21.2 IP for Short-A Auburn, 3.84 fip, .259 babip. Gunter was drafted as a 3B and after two non-descript seasons in Auburn converted to the mound. so far, results look promising; he maintained a K/inning ratio with good control and could be better based on the ERA-FIP delta. I see him getting pushed to the Low-A bullpen in 2016. Trending Steady.

Round 7: Jimmy Yezzo, Coll Jr 1B. Slashed .192/.250/.256 with 36/13 K/BB in 49 games at Potomac, with just one homer, before the team pulled the plug and released him on 7/22/15. Yezzo showed some power in Low-A in 2014 (13 homers in 123 games) but clearly not enough to justify keeping him around as a 1B-only player. This was always going to be the jeopardy with drafting him; he was positionally limited from the start and, despite a great college campaign, couldn’t make the transition in pro ball. Immediately after his release he picked up with a Frontier League team, finishing out the season, so hopefully he gets another shot.

Round 8: David Napoli, Coll Sr LH relief pitcher. Went 7-5, 4.01 ERA with 62/36 K/BB in 60 relief IP mostly for LowA Hagerstown. 3.57 fip, .289 babip. He started with Potomac but spent most of the year in Hagerstown, despite turning 25 during the season. If anything, his numbers took a step back from his 2014 Hagerstown campaign, and given his age and the glut of arms in the system, time may be running out. Or maybe not: i mean, he signed for $15k and basically cost the team nothing and eats innings; that kind of guy is useful to have around. See McGregor, Scott for AAA the last couple of years. Trending Down.

Round 9: Jake Joyce, Coll Sr RH relief pitcher. Released in July 2014 as the 2014 signees started reporting to Vermont after just one season in Auburn where he posted a 5+ ERA. A cheap, senior sign who had to do more to impress and stick around as Napoli has done.

Round 10: Brennan Middleton, Coll Sr SS/2B. Slashed .198/.252/.264 for half a season while repeating LowA despite his age and was summarily released in July 2015. Senior sign, low bonus figure, poor performance all contributed.

Round 11: John Simms, Coll jr RH relief pitcher. 6-6, 2.74 ERA with 48/25 K/BB in 88.2 (15 starts) for Potomac. 4.15 fip, .236 babip. Earned a mid-season promotion and ended the season with 6 starts in Harrisburg’s rotation. Excellent season-over-season improvement for Simms, who will look to do the same thing in AA’s rotation for 2016. The team clearly sees the same potential and sent him to the Arizona Fall League this year. Trending up.

Round 12: Andrew Cooper, Juco RH relief pitcher. 2-2, 3.53 ERA with 35/16 K/BB in 63.2 relief IP for LowA Hagerstown, 3.63 fip, .283 babip. Improved his numbers across the board while repeating LowA. Still isn’t getting the K/9 we’d like to see though. He’ll be 24 in High-A next year in what probably is a make or break season. Trending Steady.

Round 13: John Costa, Juco RH relief pitcher. Released 4/1/15 after being injured most of 2014. Without knowing the details, I’d guess that whatever injury he suffered was a career ender, that he couldn’t show enough improvement in spring training 2015 to merit keeping around. Tough break.

Round 14: David Masters, Juco SS. Slashed .226/.311/.285 with 69/40 K/BB in 354 Abs, 2hr, 3SB mostly in LowA, missed most of May and June. Did earn a promotion to HighA in August to finish out the season. With so many MIF in the system and the likes of Chris Bostick blasting homers in the AFL, Masters may not be long for the organization. Trending down.

Round 15: Isaac Ballou, Coll Sr OF/CF. Slashed .271/.344/.397 with 82/47 K/BB in 431 Abs, 8homers 21steals CF/LF as he jumped two levels (from HighA to AAA) in 2015. A nice season from the local product (hails from Germantown, MD, went to Marshall U). An .876 OPS in AA greased the skids for him to move up the line. He has some speed (56 career SBs in 322 games) and can hit and can play all three OF positions; can he push the likes of Matt den Dekker for a utility OF spot on the big club? Maybe not for 2016, but a strong AAA campaign would help. Trending up.

Round 16: Willie Allen, Juco Corner OF from Oklahoma/Newtown, MA. Did not sign; transferred to Lewis-Clark State (ID). Allen was an odd case at the time; it was literally impossible to find information on him. But he’s definitely playing college ball at Lewis-Clark now. Now known as “William Allen” if you’re trying to find him in various databases, fyi.

Round 17: Geoff Perrott, Coll Sr C. released/retired (2015): never played in 2014 and no record of his official release in milb.com, but clearly he’s done playing.

Round 18: Cory Bafidis, Coll Sr LH relief pitcher. Released July 2014 once the 2014 draftees started showing up in Auburn. This release has troubled me; he had decent numbers in 2013, then got axed after just 6 innings in 2014. Seemed too fast to me.

Round 19: Niko Spezial, Coll Sr LH relief pitcher. Released in May of 2014, even before the draft. Only threw 19 innings in 2013 and none in 2014, not getting a full-team assignment and likely just losing out on the anticipated numbers game.

Round 20: Brenton Allen, Coll Jr Corner OF. As with Bafidis, Released in June 2014 once the 2014 draftees started showing up in Auburn. He only hit .197 in Auburn in 2013 and was clearly replaceable with new 2014 OF draftees.

Round 21: Justin Thomas, Coll Sr LH relief pitcher. 1-6, 3.43 ERA with 50/18 K/BB in 57.2 relief ip for Potomac. 2.84 fip, .300 babip in HighA. Oddly, he’s a lefty but he has much better L-R splits than loogy splits. But, he also wasn’t really used as a loogy, accumulating 57 innings in 28 games. He was more of a swing-man/innings sponge for the team despite never getting an official start. Good peripherals, good K/9 rates, I see him moving up to the AA bullpen easily. Nice find in the 21st round. Trending up.

Round 22: Cody Dent, Coll Sr SS. Slashed .193/.257/.224 with 42/12 K/BB in 161 abs, 1hr, 2sb, mostly in LowA. Played 3B, got moved up to HighA and then went 0-24 in Potomac. He didn’t play after 7/31 but did not appear on any injury report; he was on the TIL for basically the rest of the season. The son of Bucky Dent seems to be getting similar treatment as Ryan Ripken and Cutter Dykstra (also sons of former MLBers); he’s hanging around despite poor numbers. How long can it last with all the MIF options moving up the line? Trending down.

Round 23: Garrett Gordon, Juco Corner OF. Released in March of 2015; hit just .230 in Auburn in 2014 as a corner OF and, as with Allen above, was deemed replaceable with the 2015 crop of players rising up.

Round 24: Matt DeRosier, Juco RH relief pitcher. 0-2, 3.58 ERA with 30/7 K/BB in 27IP (7 starts) mostly in the GCL, having gotten dumped out of Auburn after a couple of poor starts. 2.02 fip, .435 babip in Auburn, so perhaps it was a short-sample-size that was unflattering. He needs to put together a nice string of healthy starts somewhere outside of complex ball though. Trending down.

Round 25: Travis Ott, HS LH starting pitcher. Traded 12/17/14 along with Steven Souza in the Trea Turner/Joe Ross deal. Despite his sterling short-A 2014 season, Tampa had him repeat the NY Penn league, where he was 6-3 with a 3.90 ERA in 13 starts. Odd.

Round 26: Garrett Hampson, HS SS from Reno, NV. Did not sign; honored commitment to Long Beach State.

Round 27: Bryce Harmon, HS LH starting pitcher from Richmond, VA. Did not sign; honored commitment to East Carolina University.

Round 28: Joey Webb, Coll Sr LH relief pitcher. Released 6/25/15, losing out in the numbers game when the 2015 short-season college draftees started flowing in.

Round 29: Mike Sylvestri, Coll Sr RH relief pitcher. Retired on 6/13/14 after struggling in low-A.

Round 30: Ryan Ullmann, Coll Sr RH Starting pitcher. Released 6/25/15, in a similar fashion to Webb above.

Round 31: Willie Medina, Coll Sr SS. Released in Jan 2015 after a mediocre season between LowA and ShortA in 2014.

Round 32: Pat Boling, Coll Jr LHP: Did not sign, chose to return to U. of Georgia for his senior season. It does not look like Boling was re-drafted, nor does it appear he played any independent ball.

Round 33: Andrew Dunlap, HS C/RHP from Houston. Did not sign. Honoring a commitment to Rice University.

Round 34: Jake Walsh, Coll Sr LH relief pitcher. 2-1, 1.96 ERA, 32/14 K/BB across 36ip as he was promoted from LowA->HighA. 3.51 fip, .273 babip in Potomac. After starting the 2015 season with 17 scoreless innings for Hagerstown, he got bumped up and spent the rest of the season there. Despite his lowly draft status, Walsh has now impressed at every stop and owns a career 1.65 ERA across the various Rookie/A-ball levels. Maybe its time to give this guy a shot at AA? At the very least he looks like a left-handed specialist in training. Trending up.

Round 35: Lukas Schiraldi, Juco RHP from Texas. Did not sign; instead transferred to U Texas. Drafted in 2014 in the 15th round by Seattle, but he has since struggled as a low-A starter, with two straight seasons of 5+ ERA.

Round 36: Reid Humphreys, HS SS from Missouri. Did not sign. Honoring commitment to Mississippi State.

Round 37: Karsten Whitson, RH starting pitcher from Florida. Did not sign, returning to U Florida for his senior/4th year. There’s plenty of cautionary stories about Whitson, who turned down 1st round money and eventually was drafted by Boston in 2014 as an 11th rounder (likely bonus; max of $100k). His pro season looks like its a struggle right now; he had just 7IP in 2014, and was listed as “inactive” for all of 2015. Hate to see such a promising arm apparently fizzle out.

Round 38: Caleb Hamilton, HS SS from Washington State. Did not sign; honoring commitment to U of Washington.

Round 39: Robbie Tenerowicz, HS 2B/SS from California. Did not sign; honoring commitment to UC Berkeley. Washington sure loves 2nd basement from Cal-Berkeley, doesn’t it? See Tony Renda in 2012 or Jeff Kobernus in 2009. I’m sure we’ll revisit Tenerowicz when the time is right.

Round 40: Shaun Anderson, HS RH starting pitcher from Florida. Did not sign; honoring commitment to U of Florida.

Trending Summary:

Trending Up (5): Voth, Simms, Ballou, Thomas, Walsh
Trending Steady (3): Ward, Gunter, Cooper
Trending Down (5): Johanssen, Napoli, Masters, Dent, Derosier
Did Not Sign in 2013 (11): Allen, Hampson, Harmon, Boling, Dunlap, Schiraldi, Humphries, Whitson, Hamilton, Tenerowicz, Anderson
Released/Retired (13): Yezzo, Joyce, Middleton, Costa, Perrott, Bafidis, Spezial, Allen, Gordon, Webb, Sylvestri, Ullmann, Medina
Traded (2): Pivetta, Ott

Executive Summary

The 2013 class is being whittled down quickly; of the 39 initial names, 11 never signed and another 13 have already been cut loose. That only leaves 15 guys to draw conclusions from. I think its safe to say the loss of the 1st rounder and the failures of our 2nd rounder severely dampen this draft, but Voth and Simms give us some promise. I also like what we’re seeing out of long-shots Thomas and Walsh, with some lingering hope that the youngster Ward could make the leap. Meanwhile, two important names out of this draft (Pivetta and Ott) were used to acquire important players; especially Ott’s role in acquiring two every day players of the planned 2016 25-man roster.

cut-n-paste of Working XLS of data:

Round	Player/Pos	Level	2015 Level	2015 Basic Stats
2	Johansen, Jake RHP	COL sr	Potomac	1-7, 5.44 ERA
3	Ward, Drew 3B	HS (3)	Potomac	.249/.327/.358
4	Pivetta, Nicholas RHP **	JUCO	Traded (2015)
5	Voth, Austin RHP	COL jr	Harrisburg	6-7, 2.92 ERA
6	Gunter, Cody 3B	JUCO	Short-A	1-0 4.15 ERA
7	Yezzo, James 1B	COL jr	released (2015)
8	Napoli, David LHP	COL sr	LowA	7-5, 4.01 ERA
9	Joyce, Jake RHP	COL sr	released (2014)
10	Middleton, Brennan SS	COL sr	released (2015)
11	Simms, John RHP	COL jr	Potomac	6-6, 2.74 ERA
12	Cooper, Andrew RHP	JUCO	LowA	2-2, 3.53 ERA
13	Costa, John RHP	CC	released (2015)
14	Masters, David SS	JUCO	High-A->LowA	.226/.311/.285
15	Ballou, William (Isaac) CF	COL sr	HighA->AA->AAA	.271/.344/.397
16	Allen, Willie CF	JUCO	did not sign: Lewis-Clark State (ID)
17	Perrott, Geoffrey C	COL sr	released/retired (2015)
18	Bafidis, Cory LHP	COL sr	released (2014)
19	Spezial, Niko LHP	COL sr	released (2014)
20	Allen, Brenton LF	COL jr	released (2014)
21	Thomas, Justin LHP	COL sr	Potomac	1-6, 3.43 ERA
22	Dent, Cody SS	COL sr	LowA mostly	.193/.257/.224
23	Gordon, Garrett RF	JUCO	released (2015)
24	Derosier, Matthew RHP	JUCO	GCL->ShortA	0-2, 3.58 ERA
25	Ott, Travis LHP*	HS	traded (2015)
26	Hampson, Garrett SS	HS	did not sign: Long Beach St.
27	Harman, Bryce RF	HS	did not sign: East Carolina
28	Webb, Joey LHP	COL sr	released (2015)
29	Sylvestri, Michael RHP	COL sr	retired (2014)
30	Ullmann, Ryan RHP	COL sr	released (2015)
31	Medina, Willie SS	COL sr	released (2015)
32	Boling, Pat LHP	COL jr	did not sign: Georgia
33	Dunlap, Andrew RHP	NA	did not sign: Rice
34	Walsh, Jake LHP	COL sr	LowA->HighA	2-1, 1.96 ERA
35	Schiraldi, Lukas RHP	JUCO	did not sign: Texas
36	Humphreys, Reid SS	HS	did not sign: Mississippi State
37	Whitson, Karsten RHP	COL jr	did not sign: Florida	.248/.307/.376
38	Hamilton, Caleb SS	HS	did not sign: U of Washington
39	Tenerowicz, Robbie 2B	HS	did not sign: UC Berkeley
40	Anderson, Shaun RHP	HS	did not sign: Florida	1-2, 5.45

Written by Todd Boss

October 26th, 2015 at 10:06 am

Posted in Draft,Nats in General

Tagged with andrew cooper, andrew dunlap, austin voth, ben zobrist, brandon moss, brennan middleton, brenton allen, bryce harmon, bucky dent, caleb hamilton, chris bostick, cody dent, cody gunter, cory bafidis, cutter dykstra, david masters, david napoli, drew storen, drew ward, garrett gordon, garrett hampson, geoff perrott, ian clarkin, isaac ballou, jake johansen, jake joyce, jake walsh, jeff kobernus, jimmy yezzo, joe ross, joey webb, john costa, john simms, jonathan papelbon, justin thomas, karsten whitson, lukas schiraldi, matt den dekker, matt derosier, mike rizzo, mike sylvestri, nick pivetta, niko spezial, pat boling, rafael soriano, reid humphreys, rob kaminsky, robbie tenerowicz, ryan ripken, ryan ullmann, ryne stanek, scott mcgregor, sean manaea, shaun anderson, steven souza, tony renda, travis ott, trea turner, willie allen, willie medina

What is the benchmark for a “good” or “bad” draft?

39 comments

Will Fedde make the 2014 draft a “success?” Photo via chicagonow.com

The title of my previous post was pretty simple: “Nats 2014 Draft == failure.” And it resulted in a rather spirited debate in the comments about the 2014 draft, the 2008 draft in hindsight, etc.

In that debate, I postulated my benchmarks for judging whether or not a team’s draft was “good” or not. Here were the six guidelines I stated for judgement, going round by round/section by section in the draft:

a. 1st rounder: future MLB above average regular to all-star
b. 2nd rounder: future MLB regular
c. 3rd-5th: expect at least one future MLB player in at least a backup/bullpen role
d. 6th-10th: hope for at least one player to reach the MLB level.
e. 11th-20th: hope for at least three players who matriculate to AA or higher
f. 20th and above: hope for one-two players to matriculate to AA or higher

Lets go back through all 10 Nats drafts and see whether these guidelines hold up. For each of the 6 requirements, we’ll give a quick “yes/no the condition was met” for each year. Critical to this analysis is the Nats DraftTracker XLS, milb.com and baseball-reference.com for searching for old players. Also useful is the Baseball America executive database, which populated the staff in charge of each draft.

Editors Note post-posting: I’ve added in the total known bonus amounts, per suggestion in the comments. Data taken from the Draft Tracker. Actual figures are likely higher because most bonus figures past the 10th round are unknown (but likely minimal). Also per good suggestion, I’m adding in the draft position for context, since its far easier to get a future all-star if picking in the top 5 versus later on.

2005: Owner: MLB. President: n/a. GM: Jim Bowden. Scouting Director: Dana Brown. Drafting 4th overall. Total Bonus $ spent: $3,990,500

a. Yes: 1st rounder Ryan Zimmerman: MLB above average regular (former all-star)
b. n/a: we had no 2nd rounder; forfeited for Vinny Castilla
c. Yes: 4th rounder Justin Maxwell turned into a 4th outfielder. No 3rd rounder.
d. Yes: 6th rounder Marco Estrada has turned into a decent starter (albeit for someone else after we released him)
e. Yes: 11th rounder John Lannan and 12th rounder Craig Stammen turned into MLBers, far above expectations here. 18th rounder Tim Pahuta had long ML career for us, playing 3 years at AA.
f. Yes: 33rd rounder Ryan Butcher was a 6yr MLFA who left the org but now has MLB experience with Atlanta. No other 20th+ round draftees made it out of A-ball, but Butcher’s MLB matriculation makes up for it.

2005: Success, inarguably. 6 guys matriculating to the majors is a winning draft, especially considering the lack of a 2nd or 3rd round pick, the ownership confusion, and the budget restrictions put on the team.

2006: Owner: MLB. President: n/a. GM: Bowden. Scouting Director: Brown. Drafting 15th overall. Total Bonus $ spent: $5,222,000

a. No: 1st rounder Chris Marrero looks like a 4-a guy at best and 1st rounder Colten Willems never made it above A-ball.
b. No: the team failed to sign 2nd rounder Sean Black and 2nd rounder Stephen Englund never made it out of low-A.
c. No: none of their 3rd-5th picks made the majors. The highest one of these guys got was 5th rounder Corey VanAllen, who did pitch in AAA after passing through the rule-5 draft and finished out his 6-years with the org. VanAllen is in Indy ball in 2014.
d. No: they didn’t even sign their 7th, 9th or 10th round picks. The closest they got to a MLBer here was 6th rounder Zech Zinicola, who played at AAA for quite a while, was rule-5 picked and returned, and now sits in Baltimore’s AA team.
e. Yes: 12th rounder Cole Kimball made it the majors briefly, while 17th rounder Erik Arnesen, 18th rounder Adam Carr and 13th rounder Hassan Pena all toiled in AAA for several years.
f. Yes, sort of. We’re all well aware of the success of 41st rounder Brad Peacock, but he was picked under the “draft-and-follow” system that no longer exists. So while yes it was a 41st round pick, in our current system Peacock wouldn’t have been picked at all and/or wouldn’t have signed but would have been picked the subsequent year based on his great first-college juco season. Of the rest of the 20th+ round picks, one guy had a couple months in AA (26th rounder Brett Logan) to serve as a backup catcher; he hit .102/.170/.122 in 20 games in 2007 and was released.

2006: Failure: 3 guys who have MLB appearances but near zero impact for this team. Peacock enabled the Nats to get Gio Gonzalez but I think we see now that Peacock wasn’t the driving prospect in that deal (now that Derek Norris has made an all-star team).

For as much as went right for the team in the 2005 draft, it went wrong in 2006. Was the lack of signing their 7th, 9th and 10th round picks evident of “fiscal restraint” demanded by the other 29 owners? Clearly to me, the focus on HS drafted personnel in this draft has Bowden’s hands all over it, and almost none of them panned out in the slightest.

2007: Owner: Ted Lerner group. President: Stan Kasten. GM: Bowden. Scouting Director: Brown. Assistant GM/VP, Baseball Operations: Mike Rizzo. Drafting 6th overall. Total Bonus $ spent: $7,619,300

a. No: The team went one-for-three on its first rounders: Michael Burgess got to AA in his fourth pro season but never further, was flipped for Tom Gorzelanny. Josh Smoker‘s failure has been well documented here. But Ross Detwiler, for all the complaining about his usage and role in this space, did make the majors and looked like a good 4th starter (in 2012). I still believe he could start in this league and is better than a long-man. However, the condition is that a first round pick turns into a successful regular, and this crop failed in all regards.
b. Yes. 2nd rounder Jordan Zimmermann is now a 2-time all-star and is probably the best 2nd round pick the organization has ever had. His successes make up for their other 2nd rounder Jake Smolinksi who has made his MLB debut but not until he became a 6-yr MLFA.
c. Yes. 4th rounder Derek Norris made the 2014 all-star team for Oakland. 3rd rounder Stephen Souza has debuted in the majors and looks quite promising (albeit blocked) for our AAA team. 5th rounder Brad Meyers toiled for us in AAA for years before being released this spring after a long injury recovery.
d. Yes: 10th round pick Patrick McCoy made it to AAA for us, signed with Detroit as a MLFA and debuted this year. We should note for the record though that 6th rounder Jack McGeary was paid as if he was a low-1st rounder and failed pretty spectacularly here.
e. Yes: 20th rounder Jeff Mandel was a long-serving org arm at AA and AAA. 11th rounder Bill Rhinehart was looking like a find, appearning on Nats system prospect lists for a while and getting to AAA before getting flipped for Jonny Gomes.
f. Yes: 28th rounder Boomer Whiting made it to Syracuse before getting released in 2011. 48th rounder (!) Kyle Gunderson was flipped for Logan Kensing in 2009 and made it to Miami/Florida’s AAA squad before getting released.

2007: Success: despite the 1st round failures and the McGeary disaster, the breadth of success in the other categories and the production of the remaining guys weighs out.

2008: Owner: Lerner. President: Kasten. GM: Bowden. Scouting Director: Brown. Assistant GM/VP, Baseball Operations: Rizzo. Drafting 9th overall. Total Bonus $ spent: $4,766,500

a. No: as is well documented, the Nats failed to sign 1st round pick Aaron Crow.
b. No/Inc: 2nd round pick Destin Hood has already passed through Rule-5 waivers once, but has found himself in 2014 and is hitting great for Syracuse (2014’s AAA line: .308/.353/.502). It does make one wonder if he’s worth adding to the 40-man once the season is over to keep him; he’s finishing his 7th pro year and is in line for minor league free agency.
c. Yes: 3rd rounder Danny Espinosa has his critics, but he’s at least a MLB backup or possibly more. 5th rounder Adrian Nieto has stuck with the White Sox after getting plucked in the Rule-5 draft last year and hasn’t been half bad.
d. Yes: 10th rounder Tommy Milone has shown his capabilities as a MLB starter. d. 6th-10th: hope for at least one player to reach the MLB level. 6th rounder Paul Demny remains in the system (on the D/L in Harrisburg) but doesn’t seem like he’ll go much higher at this point.
e. Yes: 16th rounder Tyler Moore has put in meaningful at-bats for the Nats for a few years now. And 19th rounder Steve Lombardozzi looks to be a solid utility/backup infielder in this league for years. Lastly I wonder if the team gave up on 15th rounder J.P. Ramirez too soon; he was paid like a 2nd round pick but was released prior to his MLFA period. He may have only made it to high-A, but his last season was somewhat decent.
f. No: as far as I can tell, nobody of note came in rounds 20 or above from this draft.

2008: Failure: How would you judge this draft? We failed to sign the first rounder, which for me is a huge negative. The second rounder may or may not ever debut in the majors, which is also for me a huge negative because of the huge prevalence of 1st and 2nd rounders on MLB rosters. But we got four (5 counting Nieto) other MLBers out of the rest of the draft, including some very deep-dive picks that you rarely find (Moore and Lombardozzi, aside from Peacock, are the two lowest round picks to ever make it to the majors for this team).

2009: Owner: Lerner. President: Kasten. GM: Rizzo. Scouting Director: Brown. Drafting 1st overall. Total Bonus $ spent: $18,806,000

a. Yes: no arguing about either first round pick here: both Stephen Strasburg and Drew Storen have pitched at all-star levels in their careers.
b. No: 2nd Rounder Jeff Kobernus may have made his MLB debut, but he’s nowhere close to being a “regular” in the majors right now and doens’t seem to be trending that way either.
c. No: 3rd round pick Trevor Holder was a gross over-draft (albeit with known reasons; the team committed an *awful* lot of money to the first two guys on this list) and was released in 2013. 4th rounder A.J. Morris looked quite promising for us, was flipped in the Gorzelanny deal, and this year is pitching effectively for Pittsburgh’s AAA squad after being taken in the minor league Rule-5 portion last off-season. And the Nats failed to sign their 5th rounder. So even if Morris pans out as a MLB-capable player, he’s doing it for someone else.
d. Yes: 9th round pick Taylor Jordan was effective for the team last year and may yet figure in the team’s plans despite his mysterious D/L trip right now. And 6th round pick Michael Taylor has rocketed up the prospect lists for this team, is crushing AA pitching right now, is on the team’s 40-man roster and may very well get a look as 2015’s starting center fielder.
e. Yes: 12th rounder Nathan Karns made the org look quite intelligent when he gave spot starts in 2013 after rocketing up the farm system after finally recovering from arm issues. I wonder if the success they had with Karns was the first impetus for Rizzo to take more gambles on high-end-but-injured arms. 13th rounder Patrick Lehman has bounced around as an org arm for years. 11th rounder Juston Bloxom played a couple years in AA before getting released this year. 16th rounder Sean Nicol is splitting time between AA and AAA this year. Finally, I wanted to note something I never knew before studying this: the Nats drafted Marcus Strohman in the 18th round out of HS; this is the same Strohman who went in the first round three years later to Toronto and who is currently holding down a rotation spot for the playoff-pushing Blue Jays. Wow. He’s listed as a SS on the draft-tracker but clearly is a MLB-calibre starter.
f. Yes: 22nd rounder Danny Rosenbaum has been Syracuse’s “ace” for three seasons now. And a slew of guys drafted in the 20s stuck around for years as middle relievers (Mitchell Clegg, Matt Swynenberg, Evan Bronson, Rob Wort, and Shane McCatty). You just can’t ask for more out of your picks in rounds 20-30.

2009: Success: I’ll take a couple of misses in the 2nd and 3rd rounds given the amount of talent they picked up in the middle and late rounds. Great draft. 6 guys who have debuted in the majors with at least another one likely coming soon.

Note: from 2010 onwards, most of the judgement calls are still “in progress.” We’ll use projections and “small sample sizes” to pass judgement. It is what it is. Feel free to criticize in the comments about using projections and national pundit scouting reports to make judgements.

2010: Owner: Lerner. President: Kasten. GM: Rizzo. Scouting Director: Kris Kline. Drafting 1st overall. Total Bonus $ spent: $11,413,200

a. Yes: 1st rounder Bryce Harper has turned into everything the hype suggested. Fun fact; when he went on an rehab assignment in Potomac, he was the 2nd youngest guy on the roster. Remember that when you criticize the guy for not being better than he already is: if he was “playing by the rules,” he’d be jsut finishing his junior year of college.
b. No/Inc: 2nd rounder Sammy Solis has been one injury issue after another. He missed all of 2012 with Tommy John, came back slowly in 2013, but now sits on the AA D/L with another “elbow” issue. He was protected on the 40-man roster last fall, but you have to wonder what’s to come of him. He’s finishing his 5th pro season and he’s got exactly one start above A-Ball.
c. Yes/Inc: 4th rounder A.J. Cole was paid like a late first rounder, and after some struggles he’s really come onto the scene this year. He was already really young for AA and “solved” it, and is now in AAA holding his own. The other guys in this category are less impressive: both Rick Hague and Jason Martinson are repeating AA and not really hitting well enough to push for promotions. This could be a side-effect of the huge amount of money committed to Harper and Cole.
d. Yes: 9th round pick Aaron Barrett went from unknown/unrecognized prospect to the Nats 40-man roster last fall to being lights-out middle reliever in the major league pen this year. As a 9th round college senior pick. 8th rounder Matthew Grace may be next; after toiling as a mediocre starter, he became a reliever in 2013 and has been lights out in AA and AAA this year. And he’s not just a LOOGY: 56 IP in 33 appearances and he’s given up just 6 ER in that time.
e. Yes: 15th round pick David Freitas, after getting traded to Oakland for Kurt Suzuki, got traded again to Baltimore and now is in AAA. 12th round pick Robbie Ray has made his MLB debut for Detroit after going over in the Doug Fister deal. 11th rounder Neil Holland toils in the Harrisburg pen admirably.
f. Yes: 23rd rounder Colin Bates and 26th rounder Christopher Manno both are in the Harrisburg pen. 22nd rounder Cameron Selik made it to AA before hitting his ceiling and being released earlier this year. And 32nd rounder Randolph Oduber is a starting OF in Potomac with decent splits and a shot of moving up.

2010: Success: It may have been a no-brainer to take Harper, and it may have been an example of the “checkbook” winning in their picks of Cole and Ray, but you have to hand it to this team; they bought two high-end prep guys out of their college and they’re both looking like huge successes. And they got a MLB servicable reliever out of a college senior sign who they paid just $35,000 in bonus money. Great work.

2011: Owner: Lerner. President/GM: Rizzo. Scouting Director Kline. Drafting 6th overall. Total Bonus $ spent: $11,325,000

a. Yes: 1st rounder Anthony Rendon was on everyone’s “all star snub” lists this year, while their other 1st rounder Alex Meyer remains one of the top pitching prospects in the game and seems likely to debut later this year. Their supp-1st rounder Brian Goodwin remains on every pundit’s prospect lists even if he seemingly has been passed on the organizational “future starting Center-fielder” depth chart. There’s no chance the team leaves him exposed in the upcoming rule-5 draft, so he’ll have at least three more years to prove he belongs.
b. n/a: forfeited for Adam LaRoche signing.
c. No/Inc: Right now our 3rd through 5th picks are looking iffy; 4th rounder Matthew Purke was paid like an upper first rounder and has been a massive disappointment. Right now he’s recovering from Tommy John and faces an uncertain future. 4th rounder Kylin Turnbull has gotten lit up in high-A this year, his second crack at the league. 5th rounder Matt Skole may be the most promising of the bunch; he crushed 27 homers in his first season of full-season ball only to miss all of 2013 because of a freak injury. Can Skole continue developing and make the majors on a full-time basis? Can Purke at this point?
d. Yes: With the call-up of 6th rounder Taylor Hill earlier this year, this category is met. Which is good because the rest of the 6th-10th rounders from this year are struggling. Two are already released/retired, one is MIA and the lone remaining active player (Brian Dupra) is struggling as a starter/swing-man in AA. But Hill is a huge win; a college senior draftee on minimal bonus rocketing through the minors and forcing his way onto the 25-man roster.
e. Yes/Inc: It is far too early to fully judge this category, but it is looking promising despite the fact that the team failed to sign SIX of its ten picks beween the 11th and 20th round. 11th rounder Caleb Ramsey is already in AA. 16th rounder Deion Williams is on the mound (not a SS as in the Draft Tracker) and is struggling in short-A. 18th rounder Nick Lee is struggling in Potomac this year but has shown a huge arm and seems like he’ll eventually convert to loogy (especially considering his undersized stature); I can see Lee making it far as a matchup lefty reliever with swing-and-miss stuff. The lone failure at this point is 12th rounder Blake Monar, sort of inexplicably released after a decent 2012 season in Short-A.
f. Yes: 30th round pick Bryan Harper earned his way to Harrisburg. 45th round college senior pick Richie Mirowski also made it to AA, where he wasn’t half bad last year, though at the moment he’s back in Potomac. And there’s three other players drafted in the 20th or higher who are active on Potomac’s roster this year and who may get moved up. Decent production out of the bottom of this draft so far.

2011: Projected Success: As discussed before, I believe the selection of Rendon was a “no-brainer” based on a unique set of circumstances that occured on draft day, but credit the management team for having the stones to pick him when other GMs didn’t. I’m sure the Mariners (especially) would like a re-do on that draft (they picked 2nd overall, got soft-tossing local product Danny Hultzen, who was sidelined last year with all sorts of shoulder issues and is no sure bet to ever make it back. They rolled the dice with Purke and so far seem to be losing, but Purke was himself a 1-1 talent at one point (remember, he had his $4M+ deal with Texas pulled thanks to MLB-stewardship at the time) and was probably worth the risk. I’d like to see Skole reach the majors in some capacity before declaring this draft a full success.

Note: from here onwards, everything is a projection and is based on scouting the stat lines. I’m going to sound negative where others sound positive and vice versa. Hey, its better than writing nothing.

2012: Owner: Lerner. President/GM: Rizzo. Scouting Director Kline. Drafting 16th overall. Total Bonus $ spent: $4,503,500

a. Yes/inc: 1st rounder Lucas Giolito (so far) has shown himself to be at full speed post TJ surgery and is mostly in the top 10-15 of every professional scouting pundit’s list for best prospect in the entirety of the minors. He’s got a #1 starter ceiling, a huge frame and three plus pitches. He’s projecting to be everything you’d hope for from an upper first rounder.
b. No/inc: It is hard to squint at 2nd rounder Tony Renda at this point and project him as a future “MLB regular.” Sure he’s hitting .297 in Potomac, and sure his numbers at the plate have not varied much in his three pro seasons. Unfortunately he’s vastly undersized and he has no power in a time where pro middle infielders are expected to provide serious pop. Maybe he can forge a career like Jamey Carroll or like a Jose Altuve, but the odds are against him. I don’t mean to discount the guy because he’s 5’8″ but we all know there’s a significant bias in the industry towards undersized guys. Heck, a pitcher is considered “short” if he isn’t 6’2″ these days.
c. No/inc: So far the guys picked 3rd-5th are also struggling. 3rd rounder Brett Mooneyham‘s struggles are well documented here. 4th rounder Brandon Miller continues to show great power but has missed much of this season with a hamstring injury (he’s on rehab in the GCL as we speak). Lastly 5th rounder Spencer Keiboom suffered a blown UCL that basically cost him the whole 2013 season. He’s got great numbers in low-A this year but is two years too old for the league. Keiboom’s talents more centered on his defense than his bat, so he may still push forward as a future backup catcher. But until he does, this category falls in the “no” side.
d. Maybe/inc: The leading hope for some MLB success out of our 6th-10th round picks right now resides in one of two middle relievers: 7th round pick Robert Benincasa or 9th round pick Derek Self. You never know; one of these guys could turn into the next Aaron Barrett. 8th round SS Stephen Perez made the all-star team this year in Potomac and could feature as a future utility infielder. The team has already released its 6th round pick Hayden Jennings, and their 10th rounder (local Rockville product Craig Manual) was a college senior catcher who is backing up other catchers in the system for the time being). He may continue to hang around but unless he gets a starting gig he’s going to get replaced by someone newer.
e. Yes/inc: 17th rounder Blake Schwartz has already made it to AA, where he struggled and he now sits back in Potomac (where he was great last year, go figure). 11th rounder Brian Rauh got a spot-start in AA last year but has bounced in and out of the Potomac rotation this year. 16th rounder Ronald Pena is working his way off injury but faces a long road to move up thanks to a lack of swing-and-miss stuff. The team has already released four of its 11th-20th round picks; the remaining out-field players (12th rounder Carlos Lopez and 19th rounder Bryan Lippincott) both seem to face long odds as college senior draftees still residing in the low minors to even make it up to AA at this point. To be fair, Lopez missed most of 2013 with an unknown injury, so we’ll give him a slight pass. Lippincott sits in XST right now.
f. No/inc: 33rd rounder Mike McQuillan has hung around and currently serves as a utility guy/bench player for Potomac. A couple of relievers remain on squads: 29th rounder Leonard Hollins is hurt but is on a full-season squad, and 30th rounder Robert Orlan was with Hagerstown to start the season but is back in Auburn. The rest of the 20th round and up guys features carnage; eight college senior draftees already released to go along with 10 unsigned (mostly high schoolers) picks in the later rounds. One unsigned pick looks interesting; all-american freshman UNC player Skye Bolt may be a big-time 2015 draft pick. But otherwise, I’m predicting that we dont’ get even a AA player out of the last 20 rounds of this draft at this point.

2012: Projected Failure: Frankly, this is looking like it may be a one player draft. At this point, I don’t think you can look at *any* other player in this draft and project even a bench/fringe 25-man roster guy besides Giolito. Now ask yourself: if Giolito fulfills expectations and becomes an “ace,” a top 15-20 arm in the majors while the rest of this draft basically becomes high-A and AA filler, does that change your opinion of the draft success/failure?

2013: Owner: Lerner. President/GM: Rizzo. Scouting Director Kline. Drafting 30th overall. Total Bonus $ spent: $2,678,100

a. n/a: No 2013 first rounder thanks to the supurfluous signing of Rafael Soriano. As noted at the time, the Nats missed out on players like Sean Manaea, Ryan Stanek or Ian Clarkin, all of whom were available at the time of their lost 1st rounder. Manaea in particular has flourished, rising up prospect list charts and sporting a healthy K/9 rate in high-A this year. I’d like to call this in and among itself a failure (given my reservations about paying for saves in general), but have to admit that Soriano has been pretty durn good this year.
b. No/inc: 2nd rounder Jake Johansen thus far has not lived up to advance billing in his first year in full-season ball. He’s averaging just 4.5 innings per outing and sports a 5.00 ERA and less than a K/inning. I can understand the difficult adjustment to pro ball, but I don’t get how his vaunted velocity and size combination aren’t resulting in more swing-and-miss. He’s given no indication that he can avoid what scouts have been saying all along (that he’s destined for the bullpen), he’s way too wild and way too hittable.
c. Yes/inc: the Nats collection of 3rd rounder Drew Ward, 4th rounder Nick Pivetta and now especially 5th rounder Austin Voth are making this management team look very smart. All Voth has done since forcing his promotion to High-A is give up 10 hits and ONE earned run in 33 innings over five starts. That’s just ridiculous. And he’s doing it while maintaining a 36/5 K/BB ratio. There’s zero reason for him to still be in Potomac at this point. I don’t know what Voth’s ceiling is, but its getting pushed.
d. No/inc: Thanks to the new CBA’s rules, most 6th-10th rounders are throw-away/college senior picks these days. So it’ll be awfully hard to depend on one of them turning into a 25-man roster guy. The best bet out of this draft will be having either 6th rounder Cody Gunter or 7th rounder James Yezzo eventually matriculating to the majors. The other guys in this category were 15k bonus college seniors, one of whom (9th rounder Jake Joyce has *already* been released). Do we think either Gunter or Yezzo projects as a major leaguer? Not right now: Gunter’s struggling in short-A for the 2nd year in a row and Yezzo is an undersized 1B showing little power.
e. Maybe/inc: Right now the pickings for the guys taken 11th-20th look pretty slim too. Three were senior signs who have already been released and we failed to sign our 16th round pick Willie Allen (though can’t fault the Nats for that: doing research on him for last year’s draft review showed all sorts of inconsistencies with him, including whether he’s even still playing baseball in college). But 11th rounder John Simms is looking like a great find; he’s already in the AA rotation and holding his own (though you could argue it was out of need, not performance). Among those left, 10th rounder Brandon Middleton and 15th rounder Isaac Ballou are starting and playing well in Hagerstown, 12th rounder Andrew Cooper is strugging in low-A, 13th rounder John Costa has yet to debut for the team thanks to TJ surgery, and 17th rounder Geoffrey Perrott was a senior catcher who got a grand total of 13 at-bats in 2013 and has remained in XST so far thisyear, perhaps to serve as a bullpen catcher for others remaining in Viera and perhaps because he was hurt most of last year and may still be recovering. If Simms continues to rise and we get a couple more longer-lasting prospects out of this crew, we’ll convert this to a success.
f. Maybe/Inc: The Nats picked seven college seniors in the 21st round or above and so far they’re all with Hagerstown. Middle infielders Cody Dent (22nd rounder) and Willie Medina (31st rounder) both hit in the .220s last year, are hitting in the .220s (or worse) this year, and seem like they may not last the season. However the pitchers in this bunch are looking better and better. 28th rounder Joey Webb has a 2.53 ERA, 30th rounder Ryan Ullmann has as 3.10 ERA and got a high-A up-and-back call-up, and 34th rounder Jake Walsh dominated Low-A and earned a call-up to Potomac. Only 29th rounder Michael Sylvestri seems to be in trouble among these senior signs; after struggling in Short-A last year, he gave up a ton of runs in 6 mid-relief outings and is currently in re-assignment purgatory. What of the non senior-signs? 24th round pick Matthew Derosier is struggling in short-A and 23rd round outfielder Garrett Gordon seems like he’s a bench player in Auburn. But a revelation may be 25th round prep draft pick Travis Ott. He holds a 2.10 ERA through 6 starts in Auburn despite being quite young for the league. So, the trend seems good that we’ll get value out of the bottom part of this draft.

2013: Projected Failure: Sorry to say; no first rounder, a middle reliever out of your 2nd rounder, perhaps a 5th starter out of the 3-5 rounds, and some org filler from the bottom of the draft? How many players from this draft do you realistically project to make the majors?

2014: Owner: Lerner. President/GM: Rizzo. Scouting Director Kline. Drafting 18th overall. Total Bonus $ spent: $4,149,900

a. Maybe/inc: 1st rounder Erick Fedde may project as a MLB rotation guy, but he’s not projecting as an ace level arm. So if he comes back from surgery 100%, if he keeps moving up the chain, if he makes the majors and if he has an impact we’ll give this a yes. Lots of ifs.
b. n/a: we failed to sign our 2nd rounder Andrew Suarez.
c. Maybe/inc: The hopes here fall on 3rd rounder Jakson Reetz and 4th rounder Robbie Dickey, since our 5th rounder was a senior lefty out of non-baseball powerhouse Duke. How do we dream on Reetz and Dickey? Maybe Reetz turns into our next Derek Norris while Dickey turns into the next Austin Voth. Lets hope so, because both so far have had rather inauspicious starts in the GCL (Reetz batting .220 and Dickey posting an ERA in the 12s). To be fair Reetz is a kid and Dickey isn’t much older, so we have a long way to go before passing true judgement.
d. No/inc: We failed to sign the 8th round pick Austin Byler (and from reading the tea leaves, it didn’t seem like we were ever even close). Our 7th, 8th and 10th round picks were low-bonus college seniors with little hope of advancing. So this category falls squarely on the shoulders of 6th rounder Austin Williams, who looks ok so far in Short-A.
e. Far too Early: most of these guys who did sign are 15 games into short seasons.
f. Far too Early: most of these guys who did sign are 15 games into short seasons.

2014: Not promising: An injured first rounder, no 2nd rounder, really just a handful of non senior-signs elsewhere in the draft. As I opined in the previous post discussion, I just don’t like the looks of this class.

So. 5200 words later, I think I actually like my guidelines. I think though that the new CBA forces teams into making a bunch of “throw-away” picks in the 6th-10th rounds, so my criteria needs to be adjusted downward for that category in the last few years. Otherwise I think it holds.

What say you?

Editor’s Post-posting thoughts. Based on the analysis above, the franchise has 5 successes and 5 failures (or projected failures) in ten drafts. After up and down drafts the first four years, we had three straight successes in 2009-2011, but now I feel like we’ve had three successive failures from 2012 onwards. Here’s a sobering thought about those successes and failures: lets talk about bonus money spent.

In the 5 drafts I call successes, the team spent (chronologically): $3,990,500, $7,619,300, $18,806,000, $11,413,200 and $11,325,000 in bonus money.
In the 5 drafts i’m calling failures/projected failures: $5,222,000, $4,766,500, $4,503,500, $2,678,100, $4,149,900

See a pattern? With the exception of the unbelievable 2005 draft, the Nats have had successes when spending big money and failures when they don’t. Maybe its just that simple.

I think, to be fair, it is also worth nothing the three distinct “eras” of Nats draft philosophy:

Era 1: 2005-2008: MLB hamstrung budgets and Lerner penny pinching era. 2 successes, 2 failures.
Era 2: 2009-2011: Lerner’s realize the Tampa Bay way: spending through the draft is the best way to acquire talent. 3 successes
Era 3: 2012-present: the new CBA spells out draconian draft bonus policies. 3 failures.

Era 1 may be just the way it used to go; sometimes you’d get wins in the draft, other times you’d strike out. Era 2 was the glory years of Nats drafting, though the cynic may point out that picking three consensus 1-1 talents and spending 8 figures in bonus money wasn’t that hard. Era 3 is more troubling: why has this management team not done better in the CBA/limited bonus era?

Written by Todd Boss

July 23rd, 2014 at 10:52 am

Posted in Draft

Tagged with aaron barrett, aaron crow, adam carr, adam laroche, adrian nieto, aj cole, aj morris, alex meyer, andrew cooper, andrew suarez, anthony rendon, austin byler, austin voth, austin williams, bill rhinehart, blake monar, blake schwartz, bommer whiting, brad meyers, brad peacock, brandon middleton, brandon miller, brett logan, brett mooneyham, brian dupra, brian goodwin, brian rauh, bryan harper, bryan lippincott, bryce harper, caleb ramsey, cameron selik, carlos lopez, chris marrero, christopher manno, cody dent, cody gunter, cole kimball, colin bates, colten willems, corey vanallen, craig manual, craig stammen, dana brown, danny espinosa, danny hultzen, danny rosenbaum, david freitas, deion williams, derek norris, derek self, destin hood, doug fister, drew storen, drew ward, erick fedde, erik arneson, evan bronson, garrett gordon, geoffrey perrott, gio gonzalez, hassan pena, hayden jennings, ian clarkin, isaac ballou, jack mcgeary, jake johansen, jake joyce, jake smolinski, jake walsh, jakson reetz, james yezzo, jamey carroll, jason martinson, jeff kobernus, jeff mandel, jim bowden, joey webb, john costa, john lannan, john simms, jonny gomes, jordan zimmermann, jose altuve, josh smoker, jp ramirez, justin maxwell, juston bloxom, kris kline, kurt suzuki, kyle gunderson, kylin turnbull, leonard hollins, logan kensing, lucas giolito, marco estrada, marcus strohman, matt skole, matt swynenberg, matthew derosier, matthew grace, matthew purke, michael burgess, michael sylvestri, michael taylor, mike mcquillan, mike rizzo, mitchell clegg, nathan karns, neil holland, nick lee, nick pivetta, patrick lehman, patrick mccoy, paul demny, rafael soriano, randolph oduber, richie mirowski, rick hague, rob wort, robbie dickey, robbie ray, robert benincasa, robert orlan, ronald pena, ross detwiler, ryan butcher, ryan stanek, ryan ullmann, ryan zimmerman, sammy solis, sean black, sean manaea, sean nicol, shane mccatty, skye bolt, spencer kieboom, stan kasten, stephen englund, stephen perez, stephen strasburg, steve lombardozzi, steven souza, taylor hill, taylor jordan, ted lerner, tim pahuta, tom gorzelanny, tommy milone, tony renda, travis ott, trevor holder, tyler moore, vinny castilla, willie allen, willie medina, zech zinicola

Season Statistical Review of all Nats 2013 draft picks

5 comments

Jake Johansen led the Nats 2013 draft. Photo via DBU website

Last year, minorleagueball.com’s John Sickels started a quick-hit review of every 2012 draft pick with snap judgements and quick stats. I thought it was a great project, a nice little way to see how the draft picks were faring. He petered out around the 17th round, and I took up his cause for just the Nationals picks and went through all 40 rounds at this link here. Apparently 2012’s project was too much work for Sickels; he doesn’t seem to be doing it this year. So I picked up the torch and did a Sickels-style analysis for all 40 of the Nats 2013 draft picks below.

(Note: stats are pulled from milb.com and/or fangraphs.com; put the player name into the search bar to get his seasonal stats). MILB has nice consolidated seasonal stats while fangraphs has better advanced stats. They do not include any playoff stats for those still playing after 9/2/13).

Finally, at the end of each writeup i’ll put in a color coded trending line for the player: Green for Trending Up, Blue for Trending steady, red for Trending Down. This is just my knee-jerk opinion of the prospect status of the player system-wide. And yes I realize this is their first pro ball season, short-sample sizes, etc etc.

Without further ado:

Round 1: forfeited w/ Rafael Soriano signing, which as I noted in this June 2013 post cost the Nats a shot at one of several highly regarded pitchers drafted just behind our vacated spot.

Round 2: Jake Johansen, Coll Sr. RH Starting Pitcher. 1-3, 1.92 ERA with 51/23 K/BB in 51 2/3 innings between Auburn and Hagerstown, 34 hits. After signing quickly for slot (very quickly, like in 24 hours or so), Johansen joined short-A Auburn and was essentially unhittable through 10 starts. He was promoted up to low-A, got hit around in two starts and finishes the season with a 1.92 ERA, and a sub 1.00 WHIP. Johansen outperformed his poor college numbers somewhat, still walks too many batters, and still flashes a dominant fastball. Scouts continue to believe he’ll end up in the bullpen, but until that situation presents itself Johansen will stay as a starter. He seems like he’s bound for the opening day start in Hagerstown in 2014. Trending Up.

Round 3: Drew Ward, HS 3B. .292/.402/.387 with one homer, 25 walks, 44 strikeouts in 168 at-bats for the GCL Nats in the rookie league. A good average and a great OBP, but where’s the power? Ward was reported to have a ton of power coming up but his slugging was lower than his OBP. He produced at a 142 wRC+ for the season, which is great, but I think he needs to show more power going forward. That won’t be easy in his next stop; the stadium in Hagerstown is old and cavernous with huge walls; you earn every homer up there. Trending Up.

Round 4: Nick Pivetta, Juco RH Starting Pitcher. 1-1, 3.41 ERA with 18/12 K/BB in 29 innings between GCL and Short-A, 28 hits. Pivetta started 8 games but averaged less than 4 innings a start. For such a big guy (6’5″ 220) with such a reported fastball (upper 90s in short spurts) I would have hoped for more K’s (18 in 29 innings). Outlook; bound for Hagerstown but seems like someone who may convert to short relief soon where he can maintain higher velocity in shorter outings. Trending Steady.

Round 5: Austin Voth, Coll Jr RH Starting Pitcher: 3-0, 1.75 ERA with 55/6 K/BB in46 1/3 innings between three levels, 33 hits. You read that correctly; 55 to 6 strike out to walk ratio for this U of Washington product. He pushed his way through two promotions on the season, ending up in the Hagerstown rotation. Another interesting stat: Zero home-runs in his 55 innings on the year. And these stats were done with pretty normal looking BABIPs; his FIP values were lower than his ERAs in short- and low-A. He seems like an exciting draft find and should be in the Hagerstown rotation in 2014. Trending Up.

Round 6: Cody Gunter, Juco 3B. .229/.294/.313 with 3 homers, 20 walks, 62 strikeouts in 214 at-bats for Auburn. 62 punchouts out of 214 at-bats; that’s more than 25%. With so many Ks and so little power (.084 ISO), I’d be concerned about Gunter’s future at the corner. Its possible he was just a bit young for Auburn as a 1st-year JuCo grad. Trending down.

Round 7: Jimmy Yezzo, Coll Jr 1B. .267/.282/.342 with 2 homers, 5 walks, 37 strikeouts in 243 at-bats for Auburn. Five walks in 243 at-bats?? That shows a pretty significant plate discipline issue. Yezzo came to the Nats with such a good hitting reputation in a decent baseball conference (the CAA); what has happened? Drafted as a first baseman, Yezzo needs to show some serious power improvement to continue at a spot which normally is where lesser defenders “end up” to keep their bat in the lineup. Trending down.

Round 8: David Napoli, Coll Sr LH relief pitcher. 1-0, 1.14 ERA with 28/10 K/BB in23 relief innings in Auburn, 16 hits. He had a very wild reputation coming out of college, but seems to have toned it down at Auburn to become an excellent relief pitcher. I’m a little disappointed to see him already get converted to relief, but his size and stuff seems to point towards situational lefty anyway. I could see him in Potomac in 2014 quickly turning into the next Ian Krol. Trending up.

Round 9: Jake Joyce, Coll Sr RH relief pitcher. 1-3, 5.22 ERA with 25/12 K/BB in 29 relief innings in Auburn, 37 hits. Joyce was unlucky (.381 babip) and his FIP reflects that (3.03 versus 5.22 era), but he still gave up a ton of base-runners (1.67 whip) and a ton of air-outs (0.62 GO/AO on the year). Given the fact that Joyce was a senior sign for very little money, he could seem rather expendible if he doesn’t start strong in 2014. Trending down.

Round 10: Brennan Middleton, Coll Sr SS/2B. Did not play an inning in 2013; I cannot find any details of the injury. There are some reports that he injured his ankle towards the end of his senior season at Tulane; perhaps that injury carried over into the summer. He signed for a pittance and was not highly regarded; he could struggle to make a team out of spring. Trending down.

A quick note before continuing: you can see the effect very clearly of the new MLB draft rules by looking at the Nats draft picks here; our 8th,9th and 10th round guys signed for a combined $40,000 so the team could over-pay earlier in the draft. We got mostly cheap guys, senior signs with zero leverage as we got closer to the 10th round and the production shows. Then, starting at round 11 (where the slot per pick is a flat $100,000 and the signing bonus cap re-sets) we start to see more significant prospects get signed and coaxed out of remaining college eligibility. Its almost as if we should treat the 8th-10th rounders as closer to 30th round picks, all things considered.

Round 11: John Simms, Coll jr RH relief pitcher. 0-4, 5.70 ERA with 34/7 K/BB in 30 relief innings mostly in Auburn, 41 hits. His walks were low but hits were high. His ERA looks ugly but look beyond the top layer and you discover that Simms actually didn’t pitch that badly this year. A ridiculously high BABIP of .438 contributed to his inflated short-A ERA; his FIP was just 2.38. Combine that with his 5/1 K/BB ratio and he has the makings of at least a good reliever in the system. Look for him in Hagerstown or Potomac’s bullpen, where shorter stints should allow him to maintain velocity. Trending steady.

Round 12: Andrew Cooper, Juco RH relief pitcher. 2-1, 3.86 ERA with 16/7 K/BB in 25 2/3 relief innings mostly in Auburn, 29 hits. Drafted as a project, and so far he’s pitched like a project. His numbers aren’t bad or great in any direction. I’d suspect the team knew he needed some complex time so I could see him staying in Viera until next season’s short-A starts up and repeating the level. Trending steady.

Round 13: John Costa, Juco RH relief pitcher. Did not pitch an inning in 2013; he had Tommy John surgery in March and won’t be healthy until mid 2014. Likely stays in the complex league until short-season starts, then heads to the rookie league. Trending down.

Round 14: David Masters, Juco SS. .178/.246/.237 with 0 homers, 9 walks, 33 strikeouts in 152 at-bats for Auburn. Masters showed little power, little hit tool in general. He had a wRC+ of just 51 and slugged lower than his OBP. He’s apparently a genius in the field though. But, you’ve got to hit to advance. If he’s the defensive whiz that the scouting reports say, then he may get another shot in 2014. Note; as others have noted, Masters is a 2nd cousin to Mad Men star John Hamm. I hope this wasn’t the reason we drafted him :-). Trending down.

Round 15: Isaac Ballou, Coll Sr OF/CF. .273/.381/.366 with 2 homers, 32 walks, 37 strikeouts in 238 at-bats mostly for Auburn. Ballou was Auburn’s leading hitter by average and earned a promotion up to Hagerstown, where a 3/27 start dented his seasonal numbers. No reason not to see him in low-A again starting in 2014. Trending up.

Round 16: Willie Allen, Juco Corner OF from Oklahoma/Newtown, MA. Did not sign; I cannot find any reason; there’s a link to his hometown paper that seemed to indicate that he was ready to sign and report. Perhaps something came up in his medicals. Allen also does not appear to have transferred to a 4-year school. Interesting question; how did a kid from Boston end up in an Oklahoma junior college program?

Round 17: Geoff Perrott, Coll Sr C. .308/.308/.308 in 12 at-bats for Hagerstown; Perrott was hurt most of the year and is providing late-season cover for the Suns’ playoff push. A lost season for Perrott; hopefully he gets a chance to prove himself next season. Trending down.

Round 18: Cory Bafidis, Coll Sr LH relief pitcher. 2-0, 2.73 ERA with 22/13 K/BB in 26 1/3 relief innings mostly in Auburn, 18 hits. He got pushed to low-A too early, settled into short-A where he probably belonged to begin with, and pitched relatively well for 20 innings. Too many walks for a relief pitcher, though, he’ll have to work on that. He mostly worked in 2 inning stints and never got any looks at starting. Trending steady.

Round 19: Niko Spezial, Coll Sr LH relief pitcher. 1-0, 3.32 ERA with 21/8 K/BB in 19 relief innings mostly in the GCL, 16 hits. Spezial started the season with Auburn but got the quick demotion after just 3 1/3 relatively non-descript innings. A college senior draftee, he did not belong in the rookie league. Nonetheless he pitched effectively for the record-setting GCL Nats. Spezial needs to show how he fares against someone his own age, which hopefully he’ll get a chance to do in 2014. Trending steady.

Round 20: Brenton Allen, Coll Jr Corner OF. .186/.319/.271 with 1 homer, 15 walks, 31 strikeouts in 113 at-bats mostly for Auburn. A disappointing pro debut for Allen, a 9th rounder out of HS who chose UCLA at the time. Which makes his signing all the more curious; if he was a 9th rounder at one point, why sign for 20th round money? Why not go back for your senior season to try to build draft value? Nonetheless, he seems like he’ll compete for a full season OF job in 2014 but will have to show a better hit tool. Trending down.

Round 21: Justin Thomas, Coll Sr LH relief pitcher. 1-0, 3.13 ERA with 28/3 K/BB in 23 IP split between FOUR levels. Thomas was well traveled this summer; he started in the GCL, got promoted to Auburn, then again to Potomac before settling back in Hagerstown for the bulk of the 2nd half. All he did in Hagerstown was post a 21/1 K/BB ratio in 15 2/3 innings. His ERA was a bit inflated versus his low-A FIP (2.56) and he remains the sole member of his draft class to broach high-A on the year (even if it was just for a game or two). He’s clearly a leading situational lefty candidate with his control and should feature for Potomac in 2014. Trending up.

Round 22: Cody Dent, Coll Sr SS. .222/.310/.242 with 0 homers, 19 walks, 47 strikeouts in 153 ABs for Auburn. A light hitting senior sign middle infielder who strikes out one out of every three times isn’t going to go far in this game unless he fields like Ozzie Smith. What’s interesting is this: Dent is actually hitting BETTER than he did at Florida this year. A blogger on fangraphs dug into the numbers and found that Dent had an amazingly low babip his senior year in college. Trending down.

Round 23: Garrett Gordon, Juco Corner OF. .257/.356/.317 with 0 homers, 12 walks, 27 strikeouts in 101 ABs for the GCL Nats. We’d hope for some more power here for the undersized Gordon; he’s listed as an outfielder but he caught in high school. Perhaps he’s considering going back to the position. Trending down.

Round 24: Matt Derosier, Juco RH relief pitcher. 2-1, 2.43 ERA with 20/5 K/BB in 19 relief innings mostly in the GCL, 24 hits. Derosier may have been a Juco guy but he’s young; he turned 19 in July of this year. After a brief stint to start the season in Auburn he pitched in middle relief for the GCL Nats, getting at least 4 long enough stints to earn a “grade” in my monthly starter grades. He posted good, solid numbers, nothing flashy, nothing bad. A 4/1 K/BB ratio is great. He’ll move up next year, looking to stick as a younger member of the bullpen in low-A. One interesting point related to Derosier: despite his young age, he’ll achieve rule-5 eligibility as if he was a college draftee, so he could run out his eligibility when he’s in the very low-minors. Trending up.

Round 25: Travis Ott, HS LH starting pitcher. 3-0, 4.03 ERA with 32/12 K/BB in 29 innings in the GCL, 24 hits. The rare mid-20s round high schooler who signs, Ott was used as a starter in the GCL and was mostly good all year. His seasonal numbers were skewed by one bad outing where he gave up 6 earned runs in 1 2/3 innings in mid-July. This tall, lanky left-hander (6’4″ 170lbs) seemingly has room to grow and is very young; he turned 18 at the end of June. Looks like the Nats might have a find here. Trending up.

Round 26: Garrett Hampson, HS SS from Reno, NV. Did not sign; honored committment to Long Beach State (as confirmed by a local media site as well as PerfectGame). Hampson was a well regarded prospect heading into the draft (BA had him #84) and may have been a typical casulty of the new MLB draft reality; unless you’re picked in the first couple rounds and will sign for slot, you’re dropping.

Round 27: Bryce Harmon, HS LH starting pitcher from Richmond, VA. Did not sign; honored committment to East Carolina University. A big lefty clocked 87-91 but recruited by lesser baseball schools (per PerfectGame).

Round 28: Joey Webb, Coll Sr LH relief pitcher. 2-0, 1.89 ERA with 25/6 K/BB in 19 innings in the GCL, 13 hits. A college senior who turns 23 in a few weeks pitching in the rookie league? The definition of “too old for the level.” But, Webb comes from a very small baseball school (NAIA’s Menlo College in California) and may not have been ready to compete with a bunch of Division I guys in Short-A. Webb has almost no baseball pedigree (PerfectGame doesn’t even have a profile of him) so he’ll have to earn it going forward. Trending steady.

Round 29: Mike Sylvestri, Coll Sr RH relief pitcher. 3-1, 5.40 ERA with 14/9 K/BB in 18 innings split between Short-A and the Rookie league. Sylvestri started in Auburn, got shelled (12 runs in 8 2/3 innings) then threw a shutout in the rookie league (9 2/3 innings, 9 hits, zero runs). He’s undersized (5’10”, 180) and could have trouble getting out of rookie ball (as evidenced by his short-A experience). May not be long for the organization. Trending down.

Round 30: Ryan Ullmann, Coll Sr RH Starting pitcher. 3-2, 4.74 ERA with 38/13 K/BB in 49 1/3 innings, 64 h its. Ullman, like Webb, started in the rookie league being a senior coming from an NAIA (small). By the end of the season, Ullmann was in the Auburn rotation. He got 6 starts in Auburn with some up and down results (3 decent, one ok, two bad) that resulted in a 5.30 ERA all told. You can’t teach size (he’s 6’6″, 230). Ullmann closed in college and may return to the pen. Trending down.

Round 31: Willie Medina, Coll Sr SS. .228/.315/.237 with 0 homers, 9 walks, 24 strikeouts in 114 ABs for the GCL Nats. A .552 OPS playing as a 22-yr old in the rookie league is disappointing. Medina may struggle to make it out of Viera next spring. Trending down.

Round 32: Pat Boling, Coll Jr LHP: Did not sign, chose to return to U. of Georgia for his senior season. Bolling missed all of the 2012 season with an injury and redshirted, then had an uneven 2013 season (going from weekend starter to bullpen guy). Probably looking to either complete his degree or try to compete for a full time starter job a year removed from injury in 2014.

Round 33: Andrew Dunlap, HS C/RHP from Houston. Did not sign. Honoring a committment to Rice University. Research on Dunlap finds an interesting story; he apparently went to 3 different high schools all told (he moved around b/c because at the time he was a catcher and was blocked at the varsity level), was committed to Texas Tech at one point but then de-committed when he decided to become a pitcher and discovered he could hit 95-96 on the mound, transferred again and tried to gain a 5th year of high school eligibility, apparently failed, and had no “team” to play for this past spring. Nonetheless, he had multiple offers for scholarships (Rice, UNC and U San Diego) before going to Rice. BA did a Q&A feature on him in Feb 2013, so I’m guessing he was supposed to go much higher than the 33rd round.

Round 34: Jake Walsh, Coll Sr LH relief pitcher. 0-0, 1.40 ERA with 17/5 K/BB in 19 1/3 innings closing in the Rookie League. Promoted to Hagerstown on 9/3/13 to provide lefty bullpen coverage in the playoffs. He was probably too old and too experienced for the rookie league but showed enough promise to get a two-level call-up for the post-season. Lets see how he does in 2013, likely as a situational lefty/closer for Hagerstown. Trending up.

Round 35: Lukas Schiraldi, Juco RHP from Texas. Did not sign. The son of Calvin Schiraldi, Lukas was a 2nd year All-American Juco pitcher ranked #162 by Baseball America who has decided to transfer to U Texas Austin (like his father) instead of signing. Understandible; if Schiraldi succeeds for Texas next spring, he’ll come into the 2014 draft as a high-powered college junior with much better earning potential.

Round 36: Reid Humphreys, HS SS from Missouri. Did not sign. Honoring committment to Mississippi State. Humphreys was the 2013 “Mr. Baseball” for the state of Missouri. He is also the brother of the Nationals’ own Tyler Moore, who also was Mr. Baseball for Missouri and also attended Mississippi State.

Round 37: Karsten Whitson, RH starting pitcher from Florida. Did not sign, returning to U Florida for his senior/4th year. Whitson is an interesting story. He was San Diego’s 1st round pick (9th overall) in 2010 and was drafted just behind Matt Harvey and just ahead of Chris Sale. In a move that surprised the Padres, Whitson refused to sign for slightly above-slot money and chose to go to school, turning down a $2.1M offer. After a great freshman year, Whitson struggled with arm pain his sophomore year and turned to Dr. James Andrews this past spring, performing a “cleanup” surgery on his shoulder to alleviate an “impingement” and costing him the whole season. Clearly Whitson needs to return to school and complete a full healthy season to regain draft value, so I don’t entirely understand this pick. Maybe the Nats wanted to see if Whitson wanted to sign and rehab with the team as opposed to on his own (they did something similar with Robert Orlan last year). But that would have made no sense for Whitson; he’s already in college on scholarship; why would he possibly have signed for round 37 money at this point in his career?

For me Whitson confirms what Keith Law always says when it comes to significant bonus money; take the money; you can always go back to college if you wash out of the minors. But you just never know what may happen; if Whitson suffers another injury or performs badly next spring, he’ll be lucky to be offered $10k and will really wish he’d have taken that life-changing $2M bonus. When proposed with this scenario, my wife says “I want my kid to go to college” but the reality is this; that money may not ever be there again, and the kid can always go to college later. You have to take it if it is there.

Round 38: Caleb Hamilton, HS SS from Washington State. Did not sign; honoring committment to U of Washington. Seems like Washington’s area scout liked Hamilton, so they made an impression on the kid and drafted him late.

Round 39: Robbie Tenerowicz, HS 2B/SS from California. Did not sign; honoring committment to UC Berkeley. He looks like an excellent Oakland-area product staying close to home. Made the Area Code team and was on some all-american lists. The Nats have drafted two middle infielders from Cal lately (Kobernus and Renda) so perhaps Tenerowicz will be a third in a few years.

Round 40: Shaun Anderson, HS RH starting pitcher from Florida. Did not sign; honoring committment to U of Florida. Baseball America had a nice little writeup on the 2013 draft’s Mr. Irrelevant.

Written by Todd Boss

September 5th, 2013 at 1:35 pm

Nationals Arm Race

Archive for the ‘willie medina’ tag

2016 Season Statistical review of the 2013 Draft Class

2015 Season Statistical review of the 2013 draft class

What is the benchmark for a “good” or “bad” draft?

Season Statistical Review of all Nats 2013 draft picks

Categories

Pages

Links I use Frequently

Nats Blogroll

NatsArmRace Creations

Archives

Recent Comments

Tag Cloud