{"id":14062,"date":"2017-06-13T09:25:52","date_gmt":"2017-06-13T13:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=14062"},"modified":"2017-06-13T09:37:24","modified_gmt":"2017-06-13T13:37:24","slug":"nats-first-two-picks-reaction-risk-and-reward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=14062","title":{"rendered":"Nats first two 2017 draft picks reaction: Risk and Reward"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_14064\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/RomeroSeth-Houston-via-uhcougars.com_.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14064\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14064\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-14064\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/RomeroSeth-Houston-via-uhcougars.com_-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Romero kinda looks like the Chief, doesn't he? PHoto via UHcougars.com\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/RomeroSeth-Houston-via-uhcougars.com_-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/RomeroSeth-Houston-via-uhcougars.com_.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14064\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Romero kinda looks like the Chief, doesn&#8217;t he? PHoto via UHcougars.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Well, it came to pass. \u00a0The nats couldn&#8217;t help themselves and took talent over character.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s my quick reaction to our first two picks. \u00a0Not surprisingly, the team went with two college arms.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1st Round\/#25 overall:\u00a0<strong>Seth Romero, <\/strong>LHP UHouston. Well, the worrisome situation came to pass; the Nats couldn&#8217;t help themselves and drafted perhaps the draft&#8217;s biggest knucklehead. \u00a0His list of transgressions at Houston were large and dumb; fights with teammates, weight\/conditioning issues, drug issues. \u00a0Prior to the spring, he was easily a top-10 talent, with early projections having him going as high as 6th overall. \u00a0He had 85 frigging strikeouts in 48 collegiate innings this year, and his slider is reportedly unhittable. \u00a0Sounds like a <strong>Carlos Rodon<\/strong> comp while he was in college.\u00a0\u00a0He&#8217;s a power-lefty; works 92-95, touches 97 and per MLB already has two 60-grade pitches. \u00a0He kind of reminds you body-wise of <strong>Chad Cordero<\/strong>, with mechanics kind of like\u00a0<strong>Drew Storen<\/strong>. \u00a0He&#8217;s got a very quick arm, is a big-body kid who might still need some conditioning work, but whose mechanics may give him some issues later on. \u00a0I don&#8217;t like the pick for the character issues; the Nats left one big college arm who I would have preferred in\u00a0<strong>Alex Lange<\/strong>, but the guy I really liked here (<strong>Tanner Houck<\/strong>) went the pick before, so perhaps that sewed up the Nats choices.<\/li>\n<li>2nd\/#65:\u00a0<strong>Wil Crowe,<\/strong> RHP from South Carolina. \u00a0A guy who I saw in some mock drafts going to the Nats at #25 overall falls somehow to #65 overall, despite nearly every ranking system having him 20 picks higher. \u00a0Crowe is a TJ survivor (aren&#8217;t they all these days?), with a 65 fastball and a couple of 55s on his other tools who was solid if unspectacular for USC this year. \u00a0Big guy, big arm, physical comparison to\u00a0<strong>Joe Blanton<\/strong>. \u00a0I like this as a safe pick.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Interestingly, both guys might be &#8220;slot savings&#8221; picks too. \u00a0Romero may be a\u00a0<strong>Scott Boras<\/strong> advisee, but his free-fall may not put him in much of a bargaining position. \u00a0Meanwhile, Crowe has now passed up being drafted twice, is a redshirt Junior and really doesn&#8217;t need a 5th year of college. \u00a0So perhaps we&#8217;re seeing some strategy here, saving some cash for a run at a prep arm in the 3rd or 4th.<\/p>\n<p>Verdict: in Rizzo we Trust. \u00a0If Romero&#8217;s issues are past him, then we very well could see a\u00a0<strong>Brandon Finnegan<\/strong> like movement through the minors this season (especially since he didn&#8217;t pitch a full year), with him even helping in the MLB bullpen later this season. \u00a0Why not? \u00a0If he&#8217;s got two 60-grade pitches right now, then he could probably pitch in a MLB bullpen right now. \u00a0Crowe seems like more of a classical big-body RHP innings eater who we may see slowly rise with solid but unspectacular stuff; just the kind of solid starter every team needs to develop from within.<\/p>\n<p>I will now begin talking myself into Romero. \u00a0Hey, we were all 21 once and did dumb things too. \u00a0There&#8217;s my justification for the pick \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, it came to pass. \u00a0The nats couldn&#8217;t help themselves and took talent over character. Here&#8217;s my quick reaction to our first two picks. \u00a0Not surprisingly, the team went with two college arms. 1st Round\/#25 overall:\u00a0Seth Romero, LHP UHouston. Well, the worrisome situation came to pass; the Nats couldn&#8217;t help themselves and drafted perhaps the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2844,2435,1835,861,52,213,180,3565,3583,3588],"class_list":["post-14062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-draft","tag-alex-lange","tag-brandon-finnegan","tag-carlos-rodon","tag-chad-cordero","tag-drew-storen","tag-joe-blanton","tag-scott-boras","tag-seth-romero","tag-tanner-houck","tag-wil-crowe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14062"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14066,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14062\/revisions\/14066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}