Nationals Farm Authority

The signing of players drafted in 2006 has an expiration date. If the player attends a four-year college, the club’s negotiating rights are lost as soon as the player enters his first class at the end of the summer. (UPDATED - Brown, Dyson, and Beverly rights expired on Monday)

I’ve split the group up into four groups, first are those scheduled to attend 4-year colleges/universities who have not had their first class:

Player	Drafted	Pos	School	1st Day
Sean Black	2nd	RHP	Seton Hall	September 5
End Top 20 rounds
Jim Birmingham	25th	LHP	Penn	September 6
D’Vontrey Richardson	35th	OF	Florida St (football)	August 28
Nick Pierce	40th	RHP	Maryland	August 30
Javier Martinez	42nd	RHP	Fordham	August 30
J.J. Pannell	50th	RHP	George Mason	August 28

Here are the players whose negotiating rights have expired:

Player	Drafted	Pos	School	1st Day
Sam Brown	7th	RHP	North Carolina St	8/23
Dustin Dickerson	15th	3B	Baylor	8/21
Sam Dyson	19th	RHP	South Carolina	8/24
End Top 20 rounds
Forrest Beverly	23rd	LHP	South Carolina	8/24
Khris Davis	29th	OF	Cal St Fullerton	8/19
Austin Hudson	37th	RHP	Central Florida	8/21
Zach Von Tersch	38th	RHP	Georgia Tech	8/21
Andrew Doyle	39th	RHP	Oklahoma	8/21
Brad Peacock	41st	CA	Florida Atlantic	8/19
Jarred Holloway	49th	LHP	Miss St	8/17

Here are the unknowns:

Player	Drafted	Pos
Taylor Kinzer	34th	OF
Chad Jenkins	44th	LHP
Josh Rodriguez	47th	CA

And here are the draft-and-follow candidates, the Nationals have until one week prior to the 2007 draft to sign them:

Player	Drafted	Pos	School
Joey Rosas	9th	LHP	Yavapai CC
Marcus Salmon	10th	RHP	JuCo in FL
Michael Robinns	28th	LHP	Meridian CC
Burt Reynolds	30th	SS	JuCo in FL
Tyler Moore	33rd	1B	Meridian CC
Adam Kramer	45th	RHP	New Mexico JC
Jayson Brugman	46th	SS	South Mountain CC
Kyle Page	48th	OF	Brevard County CC

If the players are not signed and report to their first class, the Nationals lose the right to sign them. Teams typically will focus on getting around half of their draft class signed (roughly 25 guys, which is exactly where the Nationals are as of 8/22). Roster sizes dictate the number of players a team get realistically sign. When you add the players from the Dominican Summer Leagues, the spots fill up. Most of the second day of the draft is spent assembling a class of draft-and-follow-candidates (this year Rounds 20-50 took place on day two).

However, teams do typically hope to sign most of their first 10 rounds, when possible. The Nationals currently have 7 of their 12 players selected in rounds 1-10 under contract. The outstanding candidates are Sean Black (2nd round committed to Seton Hall), Sam Brown (7th round committed to NC State), Joey Rosas (9th round), and Marcus Salmon (10th round). I now know that both Rosas and Salmon are draft-and-follow candidates, so if they are signed, it will not be until shortly before the 2007 draft. As previously updated, it appears that Sam Brown has started at NC State, leaving Sean Black as the one to watch.