Wednesday, March 23, 2011

2011 Organizational Rankings: #24 – Washington | FanGraphs Baseball

2011 Organizational Rankings: #24 – Washington | FanGraphs Baseball


Not a through analysis but a few off the top of my head observations:

Financial Resources: 75 (T-20) -- This is absurdly low. 7th largest media market combined with the richest owner in North American team sports means there should be no dearth of financial resources. If this refers to spending already made, then I understand this rating. Oh boy do I understand it.

"Chances are the team’s ability to draw high level players will trend more with team record and team willingness to spend than anything else."

This is his conclusion to the "We signed Werth to attract other FA to come to Washington."

In that the theory behind signing Jayson Werth in the first place was to win more, the two go hand in hand. If Werth does his job and the Nats win more, then more players will want to play there. Especially since they have vast untapped resources at their disposal. Which came first? To me, the winning is far more important than the spending so I agree here.

Chides the Nats for not trading Dunn at the deadline last year. Thinks they could have done better than the #23 pick and the #35 pick. Maybe, that is speculation. Getting prospects is only slightly less risky than the draft. Would you rather have Kevin Slowey or Jordan Zimmermann? That's the breakdown from the Soriano non-deal. Looks like a big fat winner for the draft pick to me.

“given his dealings with the incredibly expensive first overall picks he’s had to sign the last two years, the team is willing to spend, spend, spend on the draft for now”

This is the fly in the draft ointment. This statement is untrue if you focus on 2009 but true for 2010. The draft strategy only makes sense if the team is willing to follow 2010 and overpay for talent rather than the signable 2009 disaster. Going signable for #23 and #35 would kind of defeat the purpose of the Dunn gamble.

I won’t even waste another electron on international signings (Maya withstanding) except to say there has been ZERO other evidence this team is seriously engaged internationally. Bring me the arm of Yu Darvish this offseason and we can’t forget all this.

Really can’t argue with 24th. Only real positive note right now is if you include SS, you have two potential franchise players in the system. Most teams don’t have one. We really can’t say in only two years if the current organization is adept and developing the talent at hand. It won’t be long though when all of JimBo’s picks are gone and we’ll be left with these guys scouting and development track record on the line.

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