Nationals Arm Race

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Archive for August, 2019

Prep Baseball Coverage 2019: Player of the Year Lists

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Last post covering local baseball for 2019; this one tries to summarize all the various “Player of the Year” announcements from various shops, both local and national.

I kind of ran out of gas on this one; fighting through a dozen different paywalls and I never could find the official announcements of Virginia regional all-player lists.   But this is still a pretty good summary of the various POTY lists.

 


 

Individual Player Accolades Announced

In addition to being playoff-baseball time, this is also the time of the year that we start to see player awards.  I’ll put these in as they publish, but we won’t expect most of these until the end of June.

National Lists and State breakouts as available.

  • Gatorade Player of the year awards.  National POTY was Bobby Witt Jr., drafted 2nd overall in the 2019 baseball draft.
    • Maryland:  Jack Bulger, Jr. C from DeMatha.  Early commit to Vanderbilt.
    • Washington DCCollin Bosley-Smith, Jr. RHP from Wilson.   Early commit to Duke.
    • VirginiaNate Savino, Jr. LHP from Potomac Falls.  Early commit to UVA.
  • MaxPreps High School All-AmericansBobby Witt Jr. National POTY.   Local players: Jack Bulger (DeMatha), Lyle Miller-Green, RHP/1B from Lake Braddock named to 2nd team.
  • Baseball America High School All-Americans: no POTY declared.  No local players on 1st, 2nd or 3rd teams.
  • USA Today/American Family All-USA teamsBobby Witt Jr. National POTY.  Local players: Jack Bulger (DeMatha) named to 1st team, Brett Cook from Benedictine 2nd team.  Jamari Baylor HM.
  • American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA)/Rawlings 2019 High School All AmericansBobby Witt named POTY.  local players Jack Bulger C DeMatha and Joe Clancy RHP Westfields named to 3rd team.
  • Collegiate Baseball High School All-AmericansBobby Witt Jr. National POTY.   Local players on 1st team: Jose Torres, SS Calvert Hall HS in Baltimore (NC State commit.).  2nd team: Jack Bulger (DeMatha), Parker Landwehr C Calvert Hall (Boston College commit).
  • Perfectgame.org/Rawlings All-Americans: (unclear if they’re still doing these lists).
    • Maryland:
    • Washington DC:
    • Virginia:
  • PrepBaseballReport; Brett Bady national POTY.  12th overall pick by NY Mets.
    • All Maryland TeamRyan Calvert, RHP/1B from LaPlata HS POTY as a junior.
    • All Virginia/DC Team:  Lyle Miller-Green, RHP/1B from Lake Braddock POTY.  George Mason commit.

 

DC/MD/VA Local

  • Washington Post All-Met team 2019Lyle Miller-Green, RHP/1B from Lake Braddock POTY.  George Mason commit.
  • The Baltimore Sun’s All-Metro TeamJose Torres, SS Calvert Hall HS in Baltimore.  NC State commit.
  • Richmond Times-Dispatch All-Metro Team: (behind a paywall)
  • Virginian Pilot All-Tidewater teamMason Dunaway, SS Hickory is POTY.  JMU commit.
  • Virginia Class 6 All Region Teams
    • Region A (Tidewater) All Regional team:
    • Region B (Richmond) All Regional team:
    • Region C (Northern VA, inner suburbs) All-Regional teamLyle Miller-Green, RHP/1B from Lake Braddock POTY.  George Mason commit.
    • Region D (Northern VA, Western Suburbs) All Regional teamZach Agnos, RHP from Battlefield HS POTY.  ECU commit like his brother ahead of him.
  • Virginia Class 5 All Region Teams
    • Region A (Tidewater area) All-Regional team:
    • Region B (Richmond) All Regional team:
    • Region C (Northern VA) All Regional teamBen Williamson, SS Freedom-South Riding.  William & Mary commit.
    • Region D (Northwest and Western VA) All Regional teamDrew Harlow, RHP/SS Halifax county POTY.  Undecided/no commit as of 6/8/19
  • Virginia Class 4 All Region Teams
    • Region A (Tidewater area) All-Regional team:
    • Region B (Richmond) All Regional team:
    • Region C (Northern VA) All Regional teamJoe Vogatsky, jr RHP/3B from Kettle Run HS POTY.   early commit to JMU.
    • Region D (Northwest and Western VA) All Regional team:
  • Other Virginia All-Regional teams: harder to come by:
    • Class 3 Region B (Culpepper/Warrenton area) All Regional teamJake (Jakob) Dudley, 1B/3B from Culpeper County HS is POTY.  No college listed.
    • Class 2 Region B (NorthWest VA) all Region Team:  T.R. Williams, Sophomore RHP from Page County POTY.
  • Northern Virginia All-District teams:
  • NovaBaseballMagazine Nova Nine top 100 listJoey Kamide‘s top 100 players from the 85 high schools in the NoVa coverage area.
  • NovaBaseballMagazine Nova Nine:  Lyle Miller-Green, RHP/1B from Lake Braddock POTY.  George Mason commit.
  • VHSL All-State Teams: all 6 teams available from this link.
    • 6-A: Lyle Miller-Green, RHP/1B from Lake Braddock POTY.  George Mason commit.
    • 5-A: Michael Tolson RHP/oF from Stafford POTY.   Western Carolina U commit.
    • 4-A: Quade Tomlin, SS jr from Liberty Christian Academy POTY.  Liberty U commit.
    • 3-A: Jacob Critzer, C Fluvana County HS POTY.    No college commitment known.
    • 2-A: Andrew Potojecki, RHP Chatham HS (Danville) POTY.  Longwood College commit.
    • 1-A: Matthew Kleinfelter, RHP Lancaster HS POTY.   JMU commit.
  • VISAA’s All-State teams
    • Division III All State Team: Tanner Schobel, SS Walsingham Academy  (Williamsburg) POTY as Junior.  Early Virginia Tech commit.
    • Division II All State Team: Jeremy Wagner, OF/RHP from the Miller School (Albemarle) POTY as Junior.  Early Austin Peay commit.
    • Division I All State Team: Aiden Kuhle, RHP/1B from Cape Henry Collegiate (Virginia Beach) POTY.  Roanoke College commit.
  • Maryland All-MIAA All-State teams:
    • MIAA A division: behind a paywall
    • MIAA B division: behind a paywall
    • MIAA C division: behind a paywall
  • Maryland State Association of Baseball Coaches (MSABC) All-Maryland teams: four regional all-star teams picked for exhibitions.
  • Maryland Brooks Robinson All-Star game rosters
  • Anne-Arundel County All-Baseball team: unknown
  • Montgomery County All-Baseball Team: unknown
  • All Baltimore-City Baseball team: behind a paywall
  • All Fredericksburg Baseball team:  Michael Tolson RHP/oF from Stafford POTY.   Western Carolina U commit.
  • All WCAC: unknown
  • All IAC: unknown
  • All MAC: unknown

If I missed an award, or if you know of something I don’t, don’t hesitate to post.

 


Past awards that no longer seem to be in existence:

  • Louisville Slugger All-Americans: last awarded in 2016.
  • National High School Coaches Association (NHSCA) POTY: last awarded in 2017.
  • Under Armor All-Americans: perhaps there used to be selections, but now there’d just a game mid-July of mostly rising senior all stars.
  • USA Today/American Family All-State Teams and POTYs: stopped doing state-level all-state baseball teams for 2019.

Nats Annual Mid-Season Bullpen overhaul; 2019 edition

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Come on, you know every blog post about Strickland has to lead with this photo right? Photo via Star Tribune

Come on, you know every blog post about Strickland has to lead with this photo right? Photo via Star Tribune

Another year, another mad scramble at the trade deadline to fortify the bullpen.

So, how does this year’s moves look?

Honestly … pretty good, all things considered.

  • Acquired: Hunter Strickland, Daniel Hudson, Roenis Elias
  • Traded away: Taylor Guilbeau, Elvis Alvarado, Aaron Fletcher, Kyle Johnston
  • 40-man Moves to make room: DFA Javy Guerra, Michael Blazek and move Jonny Venters to 60-day DL.
  • 25-man Moves to make room: Guerra, Blazek and one tbd as of this writing
  • Salary acquired: just $1.233M per Mark Zuckerberg , thus staying under the Luxury tax.
  • Mid-season prospect rankings of traded away assets per MLBPipeline/Baseball America/Fangraphs:
    • Taylor Guilbeau: #15 on MLB/#14 on BA/#20 on Fangraphs
    • Elvis Alvarado: unranked on all three
    • Aaron Fletcher: #21/#19/unranked on Fangraphs
    • Kyle Johnston: #27/#21/unranked on fangraphs

So, I’ll take these moves.   The team traded from strength (college-age pitching prospects) to acquire a position of need, and got some decent control with a couple of them to boot.  Irrespective of the underlying stats of these three guys … they’re upgrades over the two guys DFA’d and/or the guys who still remain in the bullpen with seasonal ERAs that start with a 4 (Wander SueroTony Sipp), a 5 (Matt Grace) or a 6 (Kyle Barraclough, mercifully already demoted to AA).

Strickland has been  hurt all year, and saw  his 2019 numbers take a dive from 2018, but for his career he’s still a solid player and is a good gamble.  I’m guessing whatever remnant remains of the clubhouse stemming from his ridiculous and immature plunking of Bryce Harper will talk it out and move on.   Elias’ time as Seattle’s closer has also left his numbers in decline versus last year, but he’ll step into a different role here and won’t have as many high-leverage spots.  Hudson (who was born in Lynchburg and went to ODU in Norfolk) has an interesting career, was once a very promising starter for Arizona before missing an entire season due to injury.  He was featured prominently in Jeff Passan‘s book The Arm since Hudson had to do two Tommy John’s in two years … but he’s been healthy since (relegated to the bullpen).

It seems to me that the new bullpen lineup (assuming all healthy), will go like this:

  • Closer: remains Doolittle
  • Setup/8th inning: Strickland and Elias
  • 7th inning: Rodney, Hudson, Rainey
  • longer relief: Suero, Grace/Sipp

It remains to be seen who gets optioned back; Suero has been solid for a couple of weeks, Rainey has given up just one run this month, Grace has scuffled, Sipp had treaded water, so it remains to be seen.

Will these moves win the Nats the Pennant?  Hardly.  Despite their decent form as of late, they’ve picked up just 1.5 games on Atlanta and seem to be competing for the WC.  Atlanta drastically improved their bullpen, getting better, more expensive assets, and Philly made moves to improve their rotation (moves the Nats couldn’t do b/c of salary cap issues).

Which of the traded assets am I most bummed to see go?

  • Guilbeau had a fantastic year in AA, has struggled a bit in AAA in SSS and could feature as a MLB reliever for some teams.  He’s in his 5th pro season, has already been rule-5 eligible for two years, but may still be more than an org-guy.  A nice turnout for a 10th round pick.
  • Elvis Alvarado: a lottery ticket, 20-yr old recently converted pitcher who’s been in the GCL “rotation” this year and has more walks than IP.
  • Aaron Fletcher: a fantastic 2018 14th round pick who has shot up the Nats system this year, blowing away both Low-A and High-A and currently holding his own more or less in AA SSS.
  • Kyle Johnston: Probably the most pedigree’d player moved, a 6th rounder in 2017 who has been in the Potomac rotation all year, pitching pretty well.

I think I was most interested to see how Fletcher turned out, then to see if Johnston could make the jump to AA next year.  Guilbeau may have already peaked as an org guy, and Alvarado is 5 years away.

Thoughts?

 

Written by Todd Boss

August 1st, 2019 at 11:41 am