{"id":15377,"date":"2018-09-20T09:24:40","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T13:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=15377"},"modified":"2018-09-20T09:24:40","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T13:24:40","slug":"2019-draft-race-to-the-bottom-we-have-a-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=15377","title":{"rendered":"2019 Draft Race to the Bottom; we have a winner!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MLB_Draft_Logo.0\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Its that time of year; for all the non-playoff contenders, the last few weeks of September are for “showing some fight” and “making a run to build on for the next season.”<\/p>\n

In reality, wins in September for a lost team are really only good for one thing: “costing your team spots in the 2019 draft.”<\/p>\n

Luckily for one team though this year … the #1 draft pick in 2019 is already sewn up.\u00a0 The Baltimore Orioles, the pride and joy of\u00a0Peter Angelos<\/strong> and the major’s best (and most expensive) team back in the mid 1990s … has officially bottomed out in a way that not even the Houston Astros could accomplish.<\/p>\n

As of this writing (9\/20\/18) they sit at 44-108, a .289 W\/L percentage<\/a>.\u00a0 They sti an astounding 59 games out of first place.\u00a0 They project to around 46-47 wins, which means the 2003 Detroit Tigers’ ignominious record is safe.\u00a0 But they’re still projecting to be one of the worst teams<\/a> in the history of the 162-game era.<\/p>\n

Baltimore currently has an 8 game “lead” for the #1 overall draft pick<\/a>.\u00a0 Amazingly, Kansas City sits at #2 … and they have nearly as large of a lead for that pick over the next worst teams.<\/p>\n

So, how about our Nats?\u00a0 After selling off and waving the white flag (a few weeks too late, and without getting under the damn luxury tax threshold so why did they bother but thats a different story for a different post), the Nats as of this writing sit at 77-75, projecting to 82-83 wins.\u00a0 They sit precisely in the middle of the 1st round: 15th\u00a0overall pick (technically they are the 14th worst team, but Atlanta will get the 9th overall pick thanks to blowing their negotiations earlier this summer with\u00a0Carter Stewart<\/strong>).\u00a0 Thanks to the machinations of the standings, its likely that irrespective of how they play out the string, they’ll pick no better than 14th overall in the 1st (and 13th of 30 there on) and no worse than 18th overall in the 1st (and 17th of 30 there after).<\/p>\n

So, that’s not bad.\u00a0 They’ve picked in that general area a few times just in the past few years actually.<\/p>\n