I believe that makes sense and therefore cannot see the Nationals failing to address their lack of middle infield depth in the minors and the imminent departures in the majors as well. They cannot draft the best catcher available without regard to their existing stock of players, its strengths and weaknesses. Flores may not be Jorge Posada as some pundit predicted after last season, but he projects pretty well both offensively and defensively. We have Montz starting to come on and while he may be a long shot, we have options with higher upside than Ian Desmond’s at the position. I don’t pretend to know whether Gordon Beckham is the next coming of Matt LaPorta or not, but he is very convincing. I cannot see how we can pass on the best middle infielder in the draft at #9 and a college player who is close as well. The needs within the system have to figure into the equation and pitching–maybe a closer–and middle infield are the glaring weaknesses as I see them.

Tampa can make the Posey selection because they are significantly deeper at SP and IF than the Nationals. By leaps and bounds. They can afford to make that type of move.

The Nationals are still not very deep. If Brian Matusz or Aaron Crow are sitting out there with Gordon Beckham at #9, I’d hope they’d go after either of the SPs because they are arguably the better players from a scouting standpoint and the Nationals cannot afford the luxury of drafting for need when there are premium players on the board.