Nationals Farm Authority

The Nationals named Donald “Spin” Williams their Player Development and Scouting, Pitching Advisor today. 

Williams has spent his entire 27-year coaching career with the Pittsburgh Pirates.  From the press release:

[He has] spent the last five seasons as Pittsburgh’s pitching coach, a role he held after seven years as the club’s bullpen coach. The 49-year-old was a pitching coach in the Pirates minor league system from 1981-93, including 1992 when he served the role at Triple-A Buffalo. He began his coaching career as a player-coach with Single-A Greenwood in 1981. Williams has also coached in the Florida Instructional League, the Arizona Instructional League and winter leagues in Venezuela and Colombia.

Williams was profiled in his hometown college magazine (Winona Currents) in fall 2005.  He described his coaching technique as trying to “individually mold myself to teach each guy to get the most out of himself.  You’ve got to find certain ways to get to people. I think that’s my strong suit. That and helping them understand how to be consistent with their pitching mechanics and execute pitches.” 

Williams was dismissed by the Pirates when Jim Tracy was hired as manager and named Jim Colborn the new pitching coach.  Pirates starting pitcher Kip Wells did not necessarily sing the praises of Williams in a January Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article

“I don’t want to take anything away from what the other staff did. Spin tried to get everything out of me that he could,” Wells said. “But I think that, without a better foundation for what was going to be our fail-safe plan when things don’t go well … Since we really didn’t have that, we didn’t establish what was going to make us successful as a staff. From a preparation standpoint, there should be a regimented program you stick by through thick and thin.”

It appears that Williams has a history with Nats GM Jim Bowden.  Back in 1998, Williams served as the pitching coach for the Arizona Fall League team managed by then Reds hitting instructor, Ken Griffey Sr.  His experiences in the AFL, Instructional League, Colombia, and Venezuela should prove beneficial to a Nats farm system that is still recovering from years of MLB neglect.  What his role specifically entails will be interesting to find out.

I’ve updated the Big Board with the Astacio signing and by going ahead and putting Brian Lawrence on the 60-day DL. I also highlighted all the spring training non-roster invitees with a new color. Enjoy!

• Scott M. Collins

VIERA, Fla. - Some conversations and observations from the morning workouts on the fields. Rain has come and gone, but the players are doing weights or treatments and then done for the afternoons anyways. The highlight of the afternoon was the power outage in the offices here.

Erick San Pedro NFA: “How’s the leg?” ESP: “Good. Good. Everything is starting to come back.” He seemed genuinely appreciative of me asking.

Kory Casto NFA: “Where do they have you working out?” KC: “2nd and 3rd” NFA: “Both? Evenly?” KC: “Yep, evenly.”

Soriano was catching batting practice flies in the outfield, but this may just be something that everyone does after some BP.

I knew which spring training instructor was Rick Eckstein (St. Louis Cardinals’ SS David Eckstein’s older brother) before looking him up by his number. They look a lot alike.

After everyone was stretching to end the practices, Brendan Harris, Ian Desmond, and Kory Casto took an extra hour of middle infield practice with spring training instructor Jose Alguacil. Desmond at shortstop, Casto at second, and Harris working with them at both second and shortstop. The odd man out would catch double play throws at first when they were working on that skill.

Not knowing that he wasn’t done after stretching, I tried to ask Harris a couple of questions, but he said he had to finish his work. They began those extra infield drills, but then had to move to another field as some pitchers began to throw side sessions. One of those pitchers was the first NFA interviewee, Shawn Hill. He looked good on the mound and his relatives that were watching saidthat his arm is completely back to normal. They also confirmed that he will NOT be playing for Team Canada.

Then the best part of the day - after Harris was done with his drills and walking back to the clubhouse with Desmond and Casto, he stopped and found me to finish answering my questions. I didn’t have a tape recorder, but in general, I asked him about what positions he was working on and he confirmed shortstop, second, and third. I told him that Frank said they might even try him out at first, but that Frank said it in a joking manner. Harris said that’d be fine with that and that he worked out at first in the Dominican Winter Leagues two years ago.

Harris said he really enjoyed playing shortstop under Washington Nationals bench coach Eddie Rodriguez out in the Arizona Fall League. If you don’t recall, Harris was one of the best hitters in the 2005 AFL this past October. I told him that he looked very fluid at shortstop during his drills and he said that between the AFL and here he felt like he was back in college where he played shortstop for three years and loved it. I asked him what his goals for the year were and he said his main focus was to not spend another entire year in the minors and to be able to help the major league club however he could - be it as an everyday player or as a role player off the bench. I encouraged him, told him that there were many of us pulling for him, and that the versatility he’s working on here in spring training will help him make the big club at some point.

Scott let me know that the Nationals just announced down in Viera that Brian Lawrence will be undergoing shoulder surgery and is not expected back until August.

Update (SMC): For clarification purposes, The announcement that Lawrence had had an MRI indicating a Labrum tear was made from one of the practice fields. The “team” made the announcement, but it was the team’s Medical Physician, Dr. Bruce Thomas who was actually speaking at that point. Bowden, Lawrence, and team orthopedist Dr. Wiemi Douoguih were actually standing there as well.

VIERA, Fla. — I got five questions in at the press conference. I’ll write a fuller report after the workouts, but here are my questions with Frank Robinson in direct quotes or summarized otherwise:

While discussing having a long relief man and relievers in genera, I asked: Can Armas or Drese handle being long men or relief pitchers? Frank: “Yes, they each have certain pitches for being used in relief. Drese – a sinker.” And Armas has some good pitches. But, they’re better suited to being starters. The infrequent and inconsistent times of being able to pitch throws them off.

I asked about Ruben Mateo, Alex Escobar, and Mike Hinckley’s health. Frank said that all are in camp and fully healthy. I asked if Hinckley’s fastball was back over 90 and Frank said, “Well, I hope he’s not throwing over 90 yet,” but he’s getting it into shape.

I asked: You mentioned the bench being better, but also that people here could win a job. You also mentioned trying guys out at multiple positions. In light of that, where will Brendan Harris be working out this spring? “All over the infield. Third base, shortstop, second base, maybe even a little first base”

And finally, I asked: Are there any players that you’ll have Mitchell Page working with more closely? “He’s started working with Church to help him stay back. He’ll work with Watson on the qualities of being a leadoff hitter.”

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p class=”MsoNormal”>Quotable Frank: 8:57 am – with only two media in the conference room so far – “That’s it? $#!+ that ain’t worth it.” 9:42 am – from office after the press conference – “TEDDY!! Where’s TEDDY?! I need some CHEERIOS and SKIM MILK!!”

VIERA, Fla. — Spring Training - where minor leaguers closest to the cusp of being major-league ready come to show that they either deserve to play with the big boys or deserve to keep preparing in the minors. The Washington Nationals have more than two full rosters of players in attendance here, but they also have a plethora of offseason signings of fringe players that the front office needs to see in action.

While the major papers will be wrapped up in controversies over second base and stadiums, we will attempt to answer some lingering questions regarding the team’s top minor leaguers. How is Mike Hinkley’s shoulder after surgery? How is Erick San Pedro’s leg? Are Bill Bray and Kory Casto working out with the big boys or with the minor leaguers not expected to make the big club? At what position(s) are Brendan Harris and Bernie Castro working out? Is Brandon Watson getting any one-on-one hitting instruction time with Mitchell Page? Who else is Page working with closely? Is Josh Karp in camp or not?

I hope to get some answers between Saturday morning’s press conference and the workouts. Stay tuned.

According to sources, Erick San Pedro has not been added to the 40-man roster, it is an error on nationals.com

MiLB.com has a profile on Nats LHSP prospect Mike Hinckley’s recovery from shoulder surgery.  Hinckley was the Nats top prospect entering the 2005 season “but after suffering a strained shoulder in Spring Training, Hinckley didn’t make his first start until May, and even then it was obvious that his very valuable left shoulder was not acting the way it should.”

His 2004 numbers painted a picture of an up-and-coming 21-year old (156IP 1.10WHIP 7.6K/9 2.4BB/9 0.6HR/9) while splitting time between Brevard County and Harrisburg.  His 2005 numbers clearly reflected the shoulder issues (127.2IP 1.58WHIP 5.6K/9 3.6BB/9 0.7HR/9) all in Potomac.

The shoulder problems presented Hinckley with the opportunity to change the grip on his changeup, making it more effective.  This would give him a third pitch to complement his 90+ mph fastball and a 75-80 mph curveball with bite.

Another spring with Randy St. Claire should go along way towards getting Hinckley’s career back on track.  Rather than wasting time and money on guys like Pedro Astacio, it would be much wiser developmentally to give Hinckley increased exposure this Spring.  Hinckley is likely to start the season in Double-A Harrisburg though a quick promotion to New Orleans is not out of the question. Look for Hinckley to get his first legitimate opportunity at making the Nats in 2007.

Nationals Top 10 Prospects Lists

 John Sickels offers his depressing take on the Farm System

1. Ryan Zimmerman, 3B, Grade A
2. Kory Casto, 3B, Grade B-
3. Bill Bray, LHP, B-
4. Larry Broadway, 1B, C+
5. Brendan Harris, 2B, C+
6. Collin Balester, RHP, C+ (raise grade from C in the book)
7. Mike Hinckley, LHP, C+
8. Justin Maxwell, OF, C+
9. Clint Everts, RHP, C+
10. Daryl Thompson, RHP, C+
11. Josh Whitesell, 1B, C+
12. Jason Bergmann, RHP, C+
13. Darrell Rasner, RHP, C+
14. Frank Diaz, OF, C+
15. Francisco Plasencia, OF, C+
16. Ian Desmond, SS, C
17. Brandon Watson, OF, C
18. John Michael Howell, OF, C
19. Marco Estrada, RHP, C
20. Edgardo Baez, OF, C