{"id":1616,"date":"2011-06-07T14:26:13","date_gmt":"2011-06-07T18:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=1616"},"modified":"2014-11-18T15:01:33","modified_gmt":"2014-11-18T20:01:33","slug":"nats-top-picks-verdict-fantastic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=1616","title":{"rendered":"Nats top picks verdict: fantastic!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Anthony Rendon – What a draft day steal. Photo: Brett Coomer\/Houston Chronicle via chron.com<\/p><\/div>\n

I’ve been out of town the past few days (hence the late coming regular rotation reviews).\u00a0 When, while driving home yesterday afternoon, a friend offered to text me the first 6 picks of the MLB draft I said absolutely.<\/p>\n

Here’s a running set of thoughts (paraphrased from text messages).<\/p>\n

1. (Pirates select Gerrit Cole<\/strong>): slight surprise here, but apparently Cole was consensus 1-1 pick in most drafts.<\/p>\n

2. (Mariners select Danny Hultzen<\/strong>): Can’t believe Mariners skipped Rendon, and also surprised on the Hultzen pick.<\/p>\n

3. (Diamondbacks take Trevor Bauer<\/strong>): Damn, I wanted Bauer.\u00a0 Still can’t believe Rendon is falling.\u00a0 O’s like HS guys…<\/p>\n

4. (Orioles take Dylan Bundy<\/strong>).\u00a0 hmmmm.\u00a0 If Rendon is there at 6 the Nats have to take him. Surprising draft so far.\u00a0 Where do you play him?\u00a0 Move him to 2b, move Espinosa to short and trade Desmond.\u00a0 Nats looking like they’re on Starling or Meyer now.<\/p>\n

5. (Royals take Bubba Starling<\/strong>).\u00a0 Damn.\u00a0 Take Rendon!!!\u00a0 What an amazing opportunity; this is the absolute consensus 1-1 in the 2011 draft for the past couple of years.<\/p>\n

6. Nats take Anthony Rendon<\/strong>. Wow!<\/p>\n

I still can’t quite believe that Rendon fell to us.\u00a0 I thought for sure he was going #2 or #3 overall.<\/p>\n

Then, to get Alex Meyers<\/strong> at #23 when we were reportedly considering him at #6 is an even bigger steal (if he’s worth what the Nats think he’s worth).\u00a0 Bryan Goodwin <\/strong>at #32 seems to represent good value.\u00a0 Here’s Byron Kerr<\/strong>‘s take<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We didn’t have a 2nd rounder (lost to Phillies for Werth), but Nats went very bold with Matt Purke<\/strong> in the 3rd.\u00a0 Scouting pundits love the pick.\u00a0 He’s hurt, but he was also a consensus top 10 pick at one point.\u00a0 Its risky but bold<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For a full list of our picks, here’s the Draft Tracker<\/a> at mlb.com.\u00a0 Also, do a saved search<\/a> on #Nats tag in twitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been out of town the past few days (hence the late coming regular rotation reviews).\u00a0 When, while driving home yesterday afternoon, a friend offered to text me the first 6 picks of the MLB draft I said absolutely. Here’s a running set of thoughts (paraphrased from text messages). 1. (Pirates select Gerrit Cole): slight […]<\/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":[2678,185,2679,447,265,736,1057,1221,1677,1056],"class_list":["post-1616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-draft","tag-alex-meyers","tag-anthony-rendon","tag-bryan-goodwin","tag-bubba-starling","tag-byron-kerr","tag-danny-hultzen","tag-dylan-bundy","tag-gerrit-cole","tag-matt-purke","tag-trevor-bauer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616","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=1616"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10023,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616\/revisions\/10023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}