Fangraphs put out a very interesting list ranking their top 39 Washington Nationals prospects
Fangraphs is one of my favorite baseball sites and they put out their prospect rankings the other day. Their rankings are always fascinating because their lead analyst Eric Longenhagen is never afraid to go against consensus. That is what he did here and he also put in some very interesting nuggets.
Top of the List:
The top of his rankings were pretty run of the mill, though he still had Dylan Crews listed as a prospect despite him technically graduating. He was undeterred by Crews’ slow start and actually compared him to Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio on multiple occasions. While Chourio is a lot younger, Longenhagen was confident that Crews could work out his struggles just like the Brewers youngster did as he got more experience.
Travis Sykora, Jarlin Susana, Brady House and Daylen Lile made up the rest of the top 5. Lile’s inclusion this high is somewhat surprising, but he has had a great season. He dominated the upper minors and has been finding a groove offensively in the Big Leagues. Lile has been one of the best players in the system this year.
Notable Rankings:
Beyond the top five there are some guys with interesting placements. One that really stuck out to me is Alex Clemmey being all the way down at 12. Despite Clemmey putting up strong numbers as a starter this year, Longenhagen seems pretty convinced that Clemmey is headed to the bullpen. This is due to Clemmey’s shallow pitch mix and lack of command. However, I would have Clemmey higher on my list due to his youth and electric stuff.
On the higher side, he has Jake Bennett at number 9 on his list. He mentioned that Bennett’s stuff has actually improved this year after he came back from Tommy John. That is an interesting nugget I had not seen before. Longenhagen seemed confident that Bennett could be a number 4 starter.
One more guy on the lower side that interested me was Yohandy Morales, who he had all the way down at 34th. In his write up, he basically said he was out on Morales unless he makes a swing change to allow him to tap into his power.
Interestingly, he was high on a lot of the Nationals DSL guys. Longenhagen had Daniel Hernandez, Victor Hurtato, Marconi German and Brayan Cortesia all inside his top 30. Hopefully some of these youngsters can continue this momentum once they reach the US.
Interesting Nuggets:
One of my favorite things about these fangraphs rankings is that you get interesting nuggets of information you would not otherwise know. There were a couple nuggets in these rankings.
The most interesting one was about former top 5 pick Elijah Green, who did not even crack the top 39. Longenhagen said that a scout told him that a big SEC school was courting Green to play football. Given Green’s struggles, athleticism and the fact his dad was a football player, this makes sense.
Another interesting one that encouraged me was about Yoel Tejada Jr., who he had ranked as the Nats 14th ranked prospect. Longenhagen said that the Nats worked to alter Tejada’s release point and that these changes have drastically improved the right handers command. This is a great thing to hear.
There was a lot of interesting stuff in these rankings and I recommend that you read all of it. Fangraphs is a great site that does a bunch of cool stuff. I am excited to see what they think about the Nats system after the draft.