Nationals Farm Authority

Baseball Prospectus:  28. Chris Marrero; 35. Ross Detwiler; 81. Michael Burgess 

Keith Law: 51. Detwiler; 64. Marrero; 83. Jordan Zimmermann; 90. Josh Smoker; Burgess is his #5 Nationals prospect but not in the top 100

With a hat tip to Terry Byrom from the Harrisburg Senators, we now have the complete listing of the Nationals top 30 prospects according to Baseball America

1. Marrero
2. Detwiler 
3. Balester 
4. Burgess
5. McGeary
6. Smoker 
7. Zimmermann 
8. Maxwell
9. Willems
10. Lannan
11. Smolinksi
12. Clippard
13. Carr
14. Desmond
15. Mock
16. King
17. Gonzalez (Smiley)
18. Martis
19. Peacock (Brad)
20. Casto 
21. Matt Whitney 1B - 2007 Rule 5
22. Derek Norris CA - 2007 high school pick
23. Mike Daniel OF - 2005 college pick
24. Steven Englund OF - 2006 high school pick
25. Jhonny Nunez RHP - 2006 traded from Dodgers
26. Hassan Pena RHP - 2006 junior college pick
27. Martin Beno RHP - 2007 college pick
28. Zech Zinicola RHP - 2006 college pick
29. Roger Bernadina OF - 2001 international signing
30. PJ Dean RHP - 2007 high school pick

Here is the breakout:

Year Acquired 

(a) One selection from the 2006 draft (Brad Peacock) was signed as a draft-and-follow in 2007

(b) These four players (Bernadina, Casto, Desmond, and Balester) were drafted while the franchise was in Montreal

Source of Talent

Draft Round

(c) Peacock as a draft-and-follow

Positions

Davis was an 8th round draft pick by the Montreal Expos in 2004. The 24-year old lefthanded hitting infielder had a breakout season with his power hitting 20 home runs between Hagerstown and Potomac in 2007. His biggest challenge is his comman of the strike zone where he K’d 108 times in 432 at-bats. His future is likely an utility infielder. Look for him to start 2008 in Potomac with a chance to go to Harrisburg if he performs.

VanAllen was a 2006 5th round draft pick by the Nationals out of Baylor University. The 23-year old lefthander split his 2007 between Hagerstown and Potomac where he was 4-10 in 24 starts with a 4.59 ERA and 1.53 WHIP. He has an above average fastball in the low-90s that is still developing. He also has a change up and a slider that grade out as around average. His biggest challenge is working on his command and if he can, has the potential to be a back of the rotation starting pitcher. Based upon the roster limitations, VanAllen could start 2008 in either Harrisburg or Potomac.

From a Clippers press release

The Columbus Clippers have named Rick Eckstein as their hitting coach for the 2008 season. Eckstein begins his first season with the Clippers, though he is no stranger to the organization. Rick spent three seasons in the Nationals organization, most recently in 2006 as hitting coach for the Triple-A New Orleans Zephyrs.

Last season, Eckstein was the hitting coach of the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds ( PCL) in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. He also served as bullpen coach for Team USA during the inaugural World Baseball Classic prior to the 2006 season. Rick was a coach with short-season Single-A Vermont in 2005 and coached the final month of the 2004 season with Harrisburg, spelling Rob Ducey, who participated in Athens Summer Olympics for Team Canada.

He has enjoyed coaching stints in the Minnesota and Tampa Bay organizations and has also coached at the collegiate level at the University of Georgia and University of Florida.

During his coaching career, Eckstein has served in a variety of roles, including hitting coach, as well as strength and conditioning coach. He played college ball at the University of Florida, where he graduated in 1997 with a BA in Exercise Sport Science.

His brother, David, is the Cardinals shortstop and Rick was invited to the 2005 All-Star Game to assist Manager Tony La Russa’s staff.

Digging around online, I found this additional move by the Nationals

WASHINGTON NATIONALS–Purchased the contract of OF Juan Senreiso from Laredo (UL)

Senreiso played in Independent ball in 2007 after splitting his career with the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers. Here is some information on Senreiso from back in 2004

Baseball America has this week’s minor league transactions.

Signed: RHP Chris Booker, RHP Sam Marsonek

Booker returns to the Nationals after beoming a minor league free agent at the end of the 2007 season. Assuming he sticks around he’s likely a member of the Clippers bullpen in Columbus. Booker’s repertoire is primarily his fastball which sits in the 90s.

Marsonek is another RHRP. He was a Texas Rangers 1st round draft pick back in 1996. He was traded to the Yankees in 1999 with RHP Brandon Knight in exchange for OF Chad Curtis. Up until 2003, he was primarily a starter but has spent the majority of his time in the bullpen through 2005. He was apparently out of baseball in 2006 but pitched in the independent Atlantic League in 2007.

Here is a scouting report from Scout.com.

Repertoire. Fastball, Slider

Fastball. Marsonek flashes a power fastball that has been clocked upwards of 96 miles per hour on the radar gun. His 6′ 6″ frame makes him a menacing presence on the mound along with his great heater. The problem is, he doesn’t’ use this excellent heater enough. He will need to trust it more in order to be successful in the big leagues. But, there is no doubt that this is a plus fastball.

Other Pitches. For the most part, Marsonek is a two pitch pitcher which is probably why he never had much success as a starter. However, with these two power pitches, he can be a dominating Besides his good fastball, he has a hard, nasty slider that he uses as his primary strikeout pitch. If he can just learn to have slightly better command with this pitch, he could end up being a successful pitcher. But the good news is, his command has gotten better and better since the start of the 2004 season.

Pitching. Sam Marsonek is a natural power pitcher as a benefit of his monstrous frame and he is a very imposing and intimidating figure on the mound. With the stuff he has, many expect that he should be a bit more of a strikeout pitcher than he has been early in his career. However, he still just find ways to get outs but should probably learn how to trust his fastball much more. He also needs to learn to locate his pitches much better if he ever wants to be a successful major league pitcher. Marsonek leaves too many fat pitches out over the plate. However, he has good enough overall stuff to still be dominant at times.

If he sticks with the Nationals, Columbus also seems his likely destination.

Checking it at #19 for the hitters is Dani Arias, another product of the Dominican Summer League. Arias played for both the DSL Nationals 1 and 2 in 2007. The 19-year old switch-hitting shortstop hit 311/395/363 over 190AB with 18/27 stolen bases. He’s still a raw prospect but given the dearth of middle infield prospects in the organization, he has the opportunity to make a name for himself. He should play 2008 in the GCL.

Beno was a late selection in the 2007 (36th round) out of Oklahoma State. The 21-year old right-handed relief pitcher made his professional debut with one appearance with the GCL Nationals before moving onto 16 relief appearances with the Vermont Lake Monsters. Over 21 2/3 innings of work, he struck out 38 while walking 16. He has two pitches, a fastball that was clocked at the mid-90s in college but is more consistent in the high-80s/low-90s. His secondary pitch is a split finger. He’s another guy the Nationals have who could develop into an arm for the bullpen. The numbers game will dictate whether he is in Hagerstown or Potomac in 2008.

Now that we have the Nationals top 20, here is an updated look at the sources of talent with the knowns in bold

College (9)

1. Ross Detwiler
2. Justin Maxwell
3. Jordan Zimmermann
4. Kory Casto
5. Adam Carr 
6. John Lannan

Numbers 7 through 9: Brad Meyers, Adrian Alaniz, Marco Estrada, Cory VanAllen, and Mike Daniel seem the most likely candidates. If you were to ask me, I’d go with Daniel, Estrada and VanAllen.

Junior College (1)

The only one: I’m sticking with Hassan Pena here.

Tip of the cap to VladiHondo for a more complete list of JuCo guys (2004 - Marvin Lowrance, Leonard Davis, Trahan, & Matt Perks [leaving Brian Peacock off of the list since he’d count under draft-and-follow]; Nobody of note in 2005, 2006 - Sean Rooney & Pena; and, 2007 - Chris Blackwood & Anthony Benner)

High School (12)

1. Chris Marrero
2. Collin Balester
3. Michael Burgess
4. Jack McGeary
5. Josh Smoker
6. Colton Willems
7. Stephen King
8. Ian Desmond
9. Jake Smolinski

Numbers 10 through 12: Stephen Englund, Steve Souza, and Derek Norris. Perhaps PJ Dean? I’d lean towards the three bats

Draft/Follow (1)

1. Brad Peacock

International (2)

1. Esmailyn Gonzalez

Number 2 : Rog Bernadina is still my guess, but I could also see them tabbing one of the arms from the Nationals Dominican academy like Juan Jaime or Marcos Frias or Randy Almonte

Trade (4)

1. Garrett Mock
2. Tyler Clippard 
3. Shairon Martis

Number 4: Jhonny Nunez or Andrew LeFave. Flip a coin.

Rule 5 (1)

The only one: Matt Whitney is still my guess here. The only other choice is Garrett Guzman. 

Jim Bowden referenced on XM radio that Baseball America had ranked the Nationals organization at #9 for 2008 after coming in dead last at #30 last year. Today, the Nationals have an official release which confirms this among other things

First, the top 10 organizations according to Baseball America:

1. TB
2. BOS
3. CIN
4. TEX
5. NYY
6. LAD
7. COL
8. ATL
9. WAS
10. LAA

From the press release

Washington’s No. 9 ranking stands in stark contrast to last season, when the Nationals’ system ranked 30th in baseball. The Nationals’ ranking leap of 21 slots was the second-largest this decade, or since Baseball America began producing its Prospect Handbook in 2001 (Texas leapt 24 slots, from No. 28 to No. 4, in 2008).

“The Nationals’ march up our prospect rankings isn’t unprecedented, but it’s extremely impressive,” said Baseball America Editor In Chief John Manuel. “It shows a commitment to building an organization, not just a team, and to building it creatively, through trades for prospects, through the draft and through international signings. The Nats have shown that with the resources they now have, they intend to be players for top amateur talent. General Manager Jim Bowden should be commended especially for the team’s 2007 draft class, because he brought in strong personalities and strong talent evaluators to the organization and got them to work together for the common goal of restocking the farm system, and the early returns on the ’07 draft class indicate that mission was accomplished.”

Prior to 2008, neither the Nationals nor Expos had ranked higher than 16th in BA’s organizational rankings.

The Nationals top 20

1. Marrero
2. Detwiler 
3. Balester 
4. Burgess
5. McGeary
6. Smoker 
7. Zimmermann 
8. Maxwell
9. Willems
10. Lannan
11. Smolinksi
12. Tyler Clippard (he is the other traded player referenced the other day)
13. Carr
14. Desmond
15. Mock
16. King
17. E Gonzalez
18. Martis
19. Brad Peacock
20. Casto

And finally here are the Nationals (Expos) rankings over the past eight seasons:

• 2001: 21
• 2002: 16
• 2003: 29
• 2004: 30
• 2005: 26
• 2006: 24
• 2007: 30
• 2008: 9

Rhinehart was a 2007 11th round draft pick out of the University of Arizona. He played primarily in the outfield for the Wildcats but moved to 1B after he signed with the Nationals. In 60 games with Vermont, the 23-year old lefthander hit 299/377/453 with five homers and 43 RBI. It’s still uncertain whether he can continue to hit at this rate as he progresses up through the system, but his initial performance speaks positively for the future. A numbers game at 1B might put him in Hagerstown to start the 2008 season.

Pena is a Cuban defector who the Nationals grabbed in the 13th round of the 2006 draft out of Palm Beach Community College. A combination of injury and a late sign kept him off of the field in 2006. He spent his 2007 pitching in Vermont where he was 4-5 in 13 appearances with a 4.25 ERA and 1.48 WHIP over 59 1/3 innings of work. He has a low-90s fastball with an average breaking pitch. He’ll continue to pitch as a starter but his future might be in the bullpen. Expect him to start 2008 in Hagerstown with Rhinehart.