Nationals Farm Authority

Sorry for the delay in getting this back up. The NFA Big Board is back. Link will remain on the right side of the page under the Serach box

The Big Board is updated as soon as every change happens so keep an eye on it as spring training winds down and then as the minor league teams set up their rosters.

Bergmann, Bray, Gryboski, and Hughes are the only pitchers in camp (besides Lawrence, Ayala, and Drese who are still being counted) not in the 11 that have recently begun to be presumed to make the Opening Day roster. Those eleven: SP: Patterson, Livan, Ortiz, Astacio, Armas RP: Cordero, F-Rod, Majewski, Stanton, Eischen, Rauch If Eischen isn’t ready, one of the 4 pitchers listed above may take his spot.

25th man competition: Backup Catcher (Wiki vs. Castillo), LeCroy, Jackson, Anderson, Byrd have 5 of 6 bench slots pretty much locked up. I am presuming Fick and Guzman start the year on the DL and Clayton takes Guzman’s starting spot.

That leaves:  The loser of the Watson/Church race vs. a 12th pitcher vs. Brendan Harris vs. Michael Tucker vs. Daryle Ward in a competition for the 25th man on the roster.

I don’t think that the loser of the Watson/Church race needs to be sitting on a bench.  They need to be starting somewhere.  Watson has had a good spring, but Church may make it on his major league experience.  The likelihood of Soriano resigning with the Nats is slim, so there is still a high possibility that he’ll be traded before July 31 (or maybe we keep him and take the draft pick(s) when he signs elsewhere).  In that event, the loser of this race should be ready to step right into Soriano’s spot in the outfield.

I don’t think there’s any reason to carry a 12th pitcher at this point. With Damian Jackson and Marlon Anderson (and Robert Fick soon enough), there really is not a reason to carry a 5th outfielder.  Especially when Tucker’s contract is not guaranteed. Daryle Ward is superfluous at this point, but it’d be nice to have him in the system.

Drumroll… that leaves Brendan Harris as hopefully the 25th man on the team.  His presence allows Jackson to be used in the outfield more freely.

38 guys left in camp, so 13 have to be axed. I presume 5 will start the year on the DL, the 4 pitchers currently not set to make the team, the losers of the 25th man competition, and the loser of Castillo vs. Wiki are those 13.

Today, the Nationals announced several moves regarding the players in the major league Spring Training camp.  They optioned 1B Larry Broadway to AAA New Orleans of the Pacific Coast League and LHP Michael Hinckley to A Potomac of the Carolina League.  They also reassigned RHPs Andrew Good and Francis Beltran, LHPs Mike Bacsik, Micah Bowie, and Jim Crowell, CA Erick San Pedro, INFs Josh Labandeira and Kory Casto, OFs Frank Diaz, Ruben Mateo and Cristian Guerrero to Minor League camp.

What does this mean?  The Nationals are paring down their available players for the Major League Spring Training games.  The thirteen players named above will begin practicing with the Nationals minor leaguers (listed here).  Of the names listed, none of them were expected to crack the 25-man roster. 

Why did they option Broadway and Hinckley while Diaz and Casto are assigned?  Aren’t all four on the 40-man roster?  Yes.  All four are currently on the Nats 40-man roster.  The reason for option versus assignment has to do with service time.  In simplest terms, a player has three years after he is added to the 40-man roster in which he can be sent to the minors without being removed from the roster, these are option years. An option is used every year such a player is sent down unless the player remains in the minors for less than 10 days in each stint.  Both Broadway and Hinckley have started their option years (they were added to the Nats 40-man in fall of 2004).  Diaz and Casto were assigned because their option clocks do not start until the 2006 season begins.  For more mind-numbing transactional terms, see this very thorough glossary.

Changes have been made to the Big Board.

Checking the minor league web sites:

• Zephyrs baseball has the list of all of the minor leaguers in the Nats organization (not invited to the major league camp).  We’ll use the list as a cross-reference when the Big Board is updated with official rosters.
• The Zephyrs also have news that MiLB will have Gameday for all AAA games in 2006.  That should go a long way towards helping out with the Farm Authority Report.  Hopefully, they’ll add AA in 2007 and so forth.

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

Our sidebar will be updated soon, but I wanted to let you know that the Big Board is still being updated regularly and can be found at:

http://farmauthority.dcsportsnet.com/files/Nats_Org.htm

–Scott M. Collins