Nationals Farm Authority

Digging around the internet this morning turned up the following site, Global Baseball. It’s a blog that will be updated by a person (jhelfgott) who is “currently working on a year-long research project on the globalization of baseball, courtesy of the Thomas J. Watson Foundation. Over the next 12 months, [the] project will take [the writer] to the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Australia, Puerto Rico, Okinawa, and Venezuela.”

In his first posting, he mentions a Nationals prospect pitching in the Dominican Summer League (DSL), RP Atahualpa Severino. I had never heard of Severino prior to reading this posting, so I’ll leave it to the writer:

Severino’s a 21-year-old working his way back from Tommy John surgery, and has been dominant on a level considered incredible even for the pitching-friendly DSL. It’s rare to see a 21-year-old still hanging around the DSL, but when an organization decides to keep a player around that long, chances are he’s either suffered a setback due to injury, or he’s a lefthanded pitcher. Severino is both. The report, featured in yesterday’s Listin Diario, was concerned primarily with detailing Severino’s success (44 strikeouts and walked 3 in 18 innings, good for a 0.50 ERA), and repertoire (fastball sitting in the 90-92 range, and a quality curve and slider). While we get precious little in the way of a backstory here, it does say that Severino signed for a $6,000 bonus a few years ago. This is his second season in the DSL, and his first since his surgery last year. Players are only allowed a maximum of 3 years before they’re either released or sent up to their teams’ US system.

From first blush, those numbers are absolutely astounding. Forty-four strikeouts in eighteen innings pitched? That’s 22K/9IP! Those are astounding strike out numbers without even mentioning a 1.5BB/9IP which leads to an unbelievable 14.7K/B rate. His results need to be tempered with the level of competition. The DSL is considered the lowest level of competition in comparison to even the Rookie leagues (i.e the GCL Nats play in a more challenging league). His age (21) and injury history (Tommy John surgery) are a concern as well, but it’s promising to see that a player, a LHP no less, is developing well for the Nationals.

The discussion of Severino raises a larger issue for someone attempting to track the Nationals minor league system. The guys playing in the Dominican Republic or Venezuela (the Nationals are not there this year) are very difficult to follow. Box scores are few and far between. Cumulative statistics are notoriously slow (and in some cases incomplete). MiLB.com has some of the statistics, usually a few days behind, and unfortunately this season stopped carrying the DSL box scores. This leads to local newspapers (like the Listin Diario) where a knowledge of conversational Spanish is a must. And even then, it can be spotty.

I guess what I’m trying to say is “Thank You” to the author of the blog. You are providing an insight to me and indirectly my readers. I look forward to your updates from around the globe.