Author Topic: KLaw: Nats farm system ranked 19th (Baseball America: 14th)  (Read 5687 times)

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Offline NatsDad14

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19. Washington Nationals
This represents a ton of progress since Mike Rizzo took over as GM. He inherited a farm system that couldn't begin to fill the major league team's needs. Ownership opened its wallets beyond the first pick in August, adding three more players in the team's Top 10.

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/insider/news/story?page=2011MLBOrgRanks

I'm hoping the trend of ownership actually spending on the draft continues. Still disappointing to me that the ownership has talked about a plan to develop the farm system for 5 years and they failed to spend the necessary amount until last year's draft. The farm should be ranked higher if the ownership/front office actually put the necessary resources. Look at KC. Dayton Moore came on board around the same time as the Lerners. He has taken a farm system widely considered as one of the worst (just like the Nats) and turned it into arguably the best in baseball history. The crazy thing about that is the Royals had some of the fewest picks in the draft in that time span.
 
Team    Picks in top 3 rounds since '07
Blue Jays    25
Padres    21
Rangers    20
Angels    20
Red Sox    17
Cardinals    17
Royals    12*
* Only Orioles and Indians had fewer
Team    First-round
picks since '07
Blue Jays    12
Rangers    12
Angels    11
D-backs    11
Padres    11
Giants    9
Red Sox    8
Royals    5#
# Only Orioles, Marlins and Indians had fewer

Though it's not all negative. Here is an interesting excerpt from an ESPN.com article on the Royals farm system:

The Royals' talent surge is particularly impressive because of how quickly things have coalesced. That's a product of two astute drafts by former scouting director Deric Ladnier, who now works for the Washington Nationals

Offline PANatsFan

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Goo about Ladnier.

:az: about last years draft.

Offline houston-nat

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The Royals fired Ladnier in fall 2008. The recent drafts have been post-Ladnier.

Ladnier picks included:
Eric Hosmer
Mike Montgomery
Johnny Giavotella [/08]
Mike Moustakas
Sam Runion
Danny Duffy [/07]
Luke Hochevar
Blake Wood [/06]
Alex Gordon [05]

That's some good high school choices (Montgomery, Moustakas) but the record is not so impressive until you get to 2008, and even then, he was still fired.

Offline HalfSmokes

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True, but until recently KC didn't like spending on draft picks

Offline daggerrrrrr

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The Royals fired Ladnier in fall 2008. The recent drafts have been post-Ladnier.

Ladnier picks included:
Eric Hosmer
Mike Montgomery
Johnny Giavotella [/08]
Mike Moustakas
Sam Runion
Danny Duffy [/07]
Luke Hochevar
Blake Wood [/06]
Alex Gordon [05]

That's some good high school choices (Montgomery, Moustakas) but the record is not so impressive until you get to 2008, and even then, he was still fired.
I love Eric Hosmer, Mike Montgomery, Mike Moustakas. When did this Deric Ladnier guy join the Nats? I never heard of him.

Offline JCA-CrystalCity

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The Royals fired Ladnier in fall 2008. The recent drafts have been post-Ladnier.

Ladnier picks included:
Eric Hosmer
Mike Montgomery
Johnny Giavotella [/08]
Mike Moustakas
Sam Runion
Danny Duffy [/07]
Luke Hochevar
Blake Wood [/06]
Alex Gordon [05]

That's some good high school choices (Montgomery, Moustakas) but the record is not so impressive until you get to 2008, and even then, he was still fired.
Hochevar was a strict signability and budget pick.  Even Gordon was a bit of good fortune in that he was among the highest rated, local, and willing not to break the bank.  Still, you wonder what scouting they did considering who they passed on that went after him.  Duffy is a stud.

Offline daggerrrrrr

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It seems like Deric Ladnier followed what he did in 08 and did it in 2010 with the Nats. Royals '08 vs Nats '10 draft 1st pick, Eric Hosmer/Bryce Harper(HS age elite power hitters)  2nd pick, Mike Montgomery/Sammy Solis(LHP)  3rd pick, Johnny Giavotella/Rick Hague(middle infield prospects), 4th Round picks, Tim Melville/AJ Cole(pitching prospects who were projected 1st round pick but fell). I think he's going to do the same for us as he did for the Royals, it's just going to take a couple more drafts.

Offline Potomac Cannons

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Hochevar was a strict signability and budget pick.

That may be the first and only time that statement is uttered about a Boras client.  Especially one that was a sandwich round pick the year before and turned down the Dodgers money to try and get more.

Offline JCA-CrystalCity

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That may be the first and only time that statement is uttered about a Boras client.  Especially one that was a sandwich round pick the year before and turned down the Dodgers money to try and get more.
  contemporary reporting said that the Royals had the deal worked out with Boras prior to the draft. 
http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2006/06/live_blogging_t_1.php

He was rated the 7th best pitcher in the draft by BA before the draft.

Quote
The Royals, up until Monday, were thought to be ready to select Miller, the lefty from North Carolina, or if not Miller then University of Houston right-hander Lincoln or Washington's Lincecum. Hochevar, who had been rated the eighth-best prospect overall and seventh-best pitching prospect in the draft by Baseball America, was on the Kansas City radar, yet certainly not the main target as recently as Sunday.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060606&content_id=1490897&vkey=draft2006&fext=.jsp

He had already done the Aaron Crow trip to the indy ball once when he had not signed.  He received a $5.3 MM contract, of which $3.5 MM were in bonus.  Comparable to Mike Pelfrey the year before, slightly less than Andrew Miller that year.  #3 pick in 2006 was Longoria.  Pitchers in the top 11 included Brad Lincoln, Andrew miller, Brandon Morrow, Clayton Kershaw, Tim Lincecum, and Max Scherzer. 

Offline PatsNats28

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I read an article somewhere that called Aaron Crow a 1st rounder for the Royals... it was either FanGraphs or ESPN (guessing ESPN because of how they're worst at that stuff).

Offline PatsNats28

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Ah yes, here we go:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=6057996

Quote
The Royals haven't had many high-level misses of late. In 2007, they selected Moustakas and Duffy with two of their first three picks. In 2008, they landed Hosmer in the first round and followed up with Montgomery, Tim Melville and John Lamb, three high school pitchers. The following year they chose pitcher Aaron Crow in the first round and gave Myers $2 million as a third-round pick


Offline Tyler Durden

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Where does Corey Brown rank on these lists?  He's a lot like Maxwell or Burgess - lots of tools (maybe a nod to Rizzo's former boss), lots of strikeouts.  I think BA had Burgess around 15 or 17.  Would Brown be higher up because of his success at AA?  Or lower because he's a couple of years older?

I still don't know why we didn't just keep Maxwell.  But if this guy learns to hit breaking balls, he could be useful.  Even if not, seems like he'll be a contributor as a 4th or 5th OF.

On a separate but related note, Rizzo ahs drafted a lot of MI recently.  With the lack of quality OF in th esystem, has there been any talk of converting them to outfielders?  Desmond helped demonstrate last year that it's not automatic that a SS can play OF.  But others have made that transition pretty successfully.

Offline CatsEye

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He's also a giant whiff.
           What he said    :thumbs:   Crow =  :idiot:

Offline Tyler Durden

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I don't know where to put this, but for minor league bats, I'm excited about Matt Antonelli and Rick Hague and Jason Martinson this year. 

Antonelli could be a big time bounce back from injury.  His blog - http://www.matthewantonelli.com/ - is outstanding.  He seems like such a good guy and an easy guy to root for.  His recent post on free agency was outstanding.  Former first round pick of the Padres, I think he and Corey Brown could both see some time in the bigs this year.

Hague was just raking last year at age 21.  He should only get better.  I think they try him in the outfield - it's fairly common for SS's to convert to outfielders, often CF, if they can't hack it in the infield.  His bat, though, is promising.

Martinson, at least from his one minor league season, looks like Lombardozzi - a scrapper who just gets on base.  If he can continue doing that, he'll be successful here.  We're going to have plenty of mashers between Werth, Zim, and Harper.  We're going to need guys who can get on base.

Kevin Keyes was pretty terrible last year, but the tools are there, anyway.  Looks like a guy that will hit a ton of homeruns in the minors, at a minimum.  Maybe a future 1B?  I doubt he sticks in the OF.

Another random thought - we don't have very many Latin American FA's outside of Maya and Frowney Gonzalez.  Hopefully at some point, we see the new program in the Dominican start to pay dividends.

Offline Lintyfresh85

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I like Antonelli because he announced his own signing with the Nats on Twitter.

Offline tomterp

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I like Antonelli because he announced his own signing with the Nats on Twitter.

As posted by a relation here:

Matt was misdiagnosed for 2 years from the Padres Drs. He finally went to a Dr in Boston and found the problem. He had surgery to remove a cyst that formed in his wrist, he is now pain free for the first time in 2 years and looking foward to getting back to playing the way he did before the injury. He is very happy to be part of the Washington Nationals and cant wait to show the kind of player he can be.

Still, he's pussed out so far on coming here to WNFF to discuss his qualifications.

 :?

Offline houston-nat

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Still, he's pussed out so far on coming here to WNFF to discuss his qualifications.

What sort of contact have we had (blog comments?)? I feel like he'd totally do it.

Offline tomterp

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What sort of contact have we had (blog comments?)? I feel like he'd totally do it.

I sent a message through janto01960, but no response.

Offline Kevrock

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  • That’s gonna be a no from me, doge.
In that case, let's root against him.

Offline PANatsFan

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I sent a message through janto01960, but no response.

janto just posted the once though.

Offline tomterp

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janto just posted the once though.

If you don't count private messages.

Offline PANatsFan

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Offline hammondsnats

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farm system is improving, for sure which is cool, but it should be much better at this point...imo.

Online blue911

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IMO, a better system would be to rank teams by their 25 and under players. Show what they have on the way and their ability to draft & develop players (something that didn't happen often under Minaya or Bowden)