It's not just the first-round pick pitchers not doing that well. It's not developing much from later round picks, or trading any of them who end up looking promising.
Zimmermann was a 2nd (excellent result), Crowe 2nd (could still be a useful back-end guy), Glover was an 8th in 2015 who broke.
The '16 3rd rounder (Luzardo; Doolittle trade) looks excellent for the slot, just he's doing it in Oakland. Taylor Hearn ('15 5th round; Melancon trade) is doing well as a reliever in TX, Gilbeau ('15 10th round; Strickland/Elias trade) same in Seattle. It's pretty painful to have no useful pen lefty now when you drafted two guys who look likely to fit that bill fairly late in the same recent draft. 2013 4th Round was Nick Pivetta (meh; but he was traded for Papelbon!). Can go on even more going back (Robbie Ray, 12th in 2010, traded), but 2010 was basically the last draft that produced much pitching value for the Nats outside the first round (Barrett, Grace -who had one decent season, not bad for an 8th rounder - as well as AJ Cole doing ok elsewhere).
Compare that to even the Mets: deGrom was a 9th, Matz 2nd, Gsellman 13th, Lugo 34th (!), and that's just off the current mediocre staff. Not all those dudes are world-beaters, but even getting Robert Gsellman with a 13th round pick is a huge steal.
Edited the title because there's a lot to Slate's post worth discussing.
Frankly, I'm not so impressed at his position drafting, either. Rizzo's been bailed out by a great Dominican scouting and development program.
I'm not sure how to classify Jesus Luzardo. He was a draft pick, played at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, 2016 3d rounder, and was tracking to the big leagues when traded. While originally acquired in a trade, I think (Guzman?), Treinen also ought to be added to the list of development successes, but should be with a bit of an Astrorisk because he blossomed outside the organization after being up and down here.
Treinen also only had a season and a half in the minors with the Nationals. He went straight to AA when they got him.
