Most Impactful Draft Ever for Nats?: We Think So.

It certainly didn't come easily, but the Nationals have successfully signed their top 4 draft picks from the 2011 MLB Amateur Draft. All-in-all, Nats dropped just under $17 million on this year's draft, according to Adam Kilgore on Twitter. Here's the incredibly quick breakdown on the top 4:

Anthony Rendon was one of the top bats in the 2011 draft, and he successfully signed with a $6 million signing bonus, and $7.2 million guaranteed over 4 years. He'll quickly find a spot within the organization, but not at 3rd base. That position is already spoken for.

Alex Meyer, the right handed star pitcher from the University of Kentucky, announced to the world over his Twitter account (@AlexMeyer17) that he was indeed a Nats player. He's set to earn $2 million from the Lerners.

Brian Goodwin is a bit of a different story. He was dismissed from the University of North Carolina because of academic violations and moved to Miami Dade College before being drafted by the Nats as a compensation pick for not re-signing Adam Dunn. He's due $3 million in guaranteed dollars. Considering Adam Dunn's disastrous season in Chicago, we don't think many Nats fans will hate this signing.

The biggest wildcard coming into the deadline was Matt Purke, who the Nats drafted in the 3rd round. Purke was selected 14th overall in the 2009 draft by the Texas Rangers and declined to attend TCU. He thought he was increasing his stock for a later draft, but a little shoulder trouble in his throwing arm plummeted his draft stock. We think his family will get by, though.

According to Baseball America's Jim Callis, Purke will earn around $4.4 million over 4 years, which includes a big league deal. The big league deal is huge, because it immediately puts him on the 40-man roster. If his shoulder issues get resolved quickly, he could be a game changer fairly quickly.

This draft was huge for Nats GM Mike Rizzo. There's no way to overstate that. It's possible that the Nats had the best draft of any team in baseball. What do you think, CapBallers and NatsTown? How'd the front office do?

PM Discussion Post: Trading Block

It's now July 5th and you are sitting in your office this afternoon wishing you were at another barbeque, probably surfing the internet for something to occupy your time before its quitting time. We are glad to provide you with something to keep you busy. Let's talk.

If someone would've told you that the Nats would be at .500 on July 4th despite injuries to Zimmerman and LaRoche and with an ineffective Werth, would you believe them? I know that I wouldn't, as my prediction was for 75 wins, I believe. We have gotten to this point with timely hitting, solid defense, and outstanding starting pitching. Which leads me to this question...

With all the quality AA/AAA pitching depth the Nats have (Detwiler, Maya, Millone, Meyers, Peacock), and with the Nats flirting with a Wild Card Birth (7 games out) ...

1) Would you trade Marquis, Livo, and/or Gorzelanny now?
2) Who would you bring up to replace them?

We would love to hear your ideas in the Comments!

Minor League Roundup

By now you will have heard about a certain top prospect that moved up from Hagerstown to Harrisburg, so I'm going to ignore that one for now (if you want to read more about Bryce Harper's debut check Nats News Network). Today's focus is going to be on those other performances of the year that might have been overshadowed by a certain phenom - both on the pitching side and the hitting side. Here are the top performers of this year's Nationals Minor Leaguers through the first half.

Hitting Prospects (min 100 ABs)
Bryce Harper - OF - Low-A/AA - 18 Years-old
84 Hits in 261 ABs. .321 AVG. .977 OPS. 14 HR. 46 RBI. 19 SB.

Stephen Lombardozzi - 2B - AA/AAA - 22 Years-old
102 Hits in 324 ABs. .327 AVG. .837 OPS. 18 2B. 27 RBI. 18 SB.

Matt Antonelli - UTIL - AA/AAA - 26 Years-old
52 Hits in 163 ABs. .319 AVG. .839 OPS. 2 HR. 11 RBI.

David Freitas - 1B - Low-A - 22 Years-old
81 Hits in 261 ABs. .310 AVG. .914 OPS. 21 2B. 9 HR. 53 RBI.

Blake Kelso - UTIL - Low-A - 22 Years-old
94 Hits in 307 ABs. .306 AVG. 12 2B. 47 Runs.

Chris Marrero - 1B - AAA - 22 Years-old
93 Hits in 310 ABs. .300 AVG. .796 OPS. 8 HR. 42 RBI. 15 2B.

Pitching Prospects
Tom Milone - LHP - AAA - 24 Years-old
96 IP. 3.38 ERA. 0.99 WHIP. 101 K. 5 BB (!).

Brad Meyers - RHP - AA/AAA - 25 Years-old
95.1 IP. 3.68 ERA. 1.20 WHIP. 83 K. 6 BB.

Brad Peacock - RHP - AA - 23 Years-old
92.2 IP. 2.14 ERA. 0.84 WHIP. 120 K. 21 BB.

Daniel Rosenbaum - LHP - High-A - 23 Years-old
91 IP. 2.57 ERA. 1.31 WHIP. 63 K. 1 CG Shutout.

Robbie Ray - LHP - Low-A - 19 Years-old
50.2 IP. 1.95 ERA. 0.987 WHIP. 49 K. 16 BB.

AJ Cole - RHP - Low-A - 19 Years-old
41 IP. 3.29 ERA. 1.17 WHIP. 50 K. 10 BB.

Christopher Manno - LHP - Low-A - 22 Years-old
28 Games. 36 IP. 1.00 ERA. 0.861 WHIP. 56 K. 13 BB. 10 Saves.

Patrick Lehman - RHP - High-A/AA - 24 Years-old
21 Games. 24.2 IP. 1.46 ERA. 0.527 WHIP (!). 18 K. 1 BB. 9 Saves.

One of the things to make sure you are aware of is the players ages as compared to their level. If they are, say 24 years-old they probably shouldn't be playing in A ball anymore. A few other notes...

- Freitas is quietly having a fantastic year in Hagerstown.
- Lombardozzi is showing some pop at the 2B position.
- Marrero needs to hit with more power.
- Antonelli was a good depth pickup.
- Milone's 101K/5BB ratio is absolutely nasty.
- Peacock has a chance at cracking the rotation if some trades happen.
- Robbie Ray is a future star.
- Lehman's WHIP is out of this world.
- There are some Auburn players not listed that bear watching - Jimenez, Ortega, Nieto, Bates, and Grisz.

What other observations do you have, CapBallers? Any other Minor Leaguers stick out to you?

Now That the Ink Has Dried...

... on the minor league deal that the Nats have signed with Oliver Perez, Former Mets Great, lets dig a little bit deeper. You know the story about his time in Flushing, but do you know about his past? Perez started his career in San Diego (founded by the Germans...), and quickly was included in a trade to the Pirates (along with Jason Bay) for Brian Giles. It was there, with the Buccos, that Perez found his groove.

The marriage between Spin Williams (Nats pitching coordinator and then Pirates pitching coach) started off rocky, post-trade 2003 Perez was 0-3 with a 5.87 ERA and a 1.652 WHIP. Not too much of a surprise, going to a new city as a 22-year old trying to find his way. That year (2004), after some time with Spin, Perez had his best year as a pro going 12-10 with a 2.98 ERA, 1.153 WHIP, and a 4.5 WAR while leading the league in K/9 at a whopping 11.0.

And so enters the first great lull of Perez's career...

Injury (and mental) problems plagued the next several years and Perez lost not only velocity but lots of ballgames as well. After numerous DL stints, bullpen demotions, and minor league demotions it was time for a change of scenery; it should be noted that he was finally replaced in the Pirates rotation by Tom Gorzelanny. Perez was traded to the Mets for Xavier Nady, and was sent to AAA only to be called up less than 4 weeks later. He started his Mets career with a bang, posting a CG shutout in just his 3rd start.

The next year Perez had, arguably, the 2nd best year of his career, going 15-10 with a 3.56 ERA and a 1.31 WHIP. But this wouldn't be the year the Mets were convinced. It took 2008 to warrant an extension, where his stats were across the board worse than 2008 by the way. And so enters the Mets idiocy, "Lets give this guy whose ERA went down by almost a point, while his WHIP went down, and his strikeout numbers decreased, while leading the league in Walks, a 3 year extension at $12 million a year." Minaya, "Oh, ok. Sounds good, that Madoff guy has really gotten us a lot of money so why not."

Combined in 2009-10, Ollie pitched in just 31 games (only 21 as a starter). His stats are something out of a horror film. 6.81 ERA. 112.1 IP. 85 ER. 21 HR. 100 BB. 99 K. -1.9 WAR. Terrifying.

So, the Nats are hoping to see some 2004 magic out of the 29-year old lefty. And if they do, it will be fantastic to see the Mets get shutdown by a pitcher they are paying $12 million. The chance of that happening are about .01%, but we are in the business of positive thinking... Wait, no we aren't. Even still, this is your standard low risk, high reward signing - maybe Spin Williams can work some magic and we can get some value for our MLB-minimum.

2011 Primer: Part 4 (The Minors)

In the final installment of the series that Mac has done a brilliant job with, I'm going to go over some Twitter accounts and sites that you must check out if you want to know what's going on in the minors. If you have any to add, throw them in the comments section. I'd love to learn some new ones.

Nationals Prospects
http://www.nationalsprospects.com
Nationals Prospects has done an outstanding job of covering the Nats farm system and prospects. The blog is clean and full of information, and has become my go-to for Nats minor league info since the guy below stepped aside from his official blog.

Brian Oliver
Twitter: @NFA_Brian
I know he's "retired" from the blogging world for a very noble teaching career, but he still links to really great MiLB information on his Twitter account pretty regularly. Definitely worth the follow if you don't already.

Top Prospect Alert
http://www.topprospectalert.com
Twitter: @Minor League Blog
Great source of information on the Minors, especially during the season on their Twitter accounts. Provides superb summaries of the biggest names in MiLB that evening.

Prospect Insider
http://www.prospectinsider.com/
Twitter: @ProspectInsider
Provides prospect top stories, info on possible positional battles across the league, and even has a great rundown on arbitration, the Rule 5 draft, and free agency in its own Primer section. Worth a look.

Baseball-Reference
http://www.baseball-reference.com
I know Mac has already used this for baseball blogs, but it's also a great source for getting minor league stats.

I know there are others, so add them to the comments.