This is an odd little set. I’m not even sure why it exists, exactly, but at the same time I kind of don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, as I’m thrilled to be able to get more cards of players in the Nationals organization. The problem, of course, is that many players that I’d like to see are omitted.
Today we’ll take a look at the players from the GCL Nationals, Potomac Nationals, and Hagerstown Suns.
Well, play-ER from the GCL Nats. I was surprised to see Danny Rosenbaum is already 23, but then he also didn’t spend 2010 with the GCL Nationals at all. He spent most of the season at Hagerstown, where he had a 2-5 record with a 2.32 ERA and 84 strikeouts in 101 IP. He moved up to Potomac and pitched pretty much just as well, a good sign for a guy who had a mediocre college career. To be honest, I didn’t know much about him until I read this article on washingtonpost.com, and I’m glad I learned.
A.J. Morris was the only Suns player with whom I was not familiar. With A.J., it became clear that these cards are based on the player’s team from the previous year, as he didn’t pitch for Hagerstown this year. Morris was a bit of a drop-off from Danny Rosenbaum, though. He was sent back to the GCL Nats early this year and didn’t significantly improve at that level, throwing a 3.21 ERA with 10 Ks in 14 IP. Not to mention he was giving up 5.8 hits an inning. That ballooned when they moved him up to Potomac this year; his ERA went up to 3.88, and he surrendered 8.4 hits an inning. At age 23 at that level, I’m not optimistic we’ll ever see him in the majors.
Drew Storen, of course, made the majors this season. He was mediocre, but considering he was in college just a bit over a year ago, I think he’ll be fine.
I’ve written about Steve Lombardozzi on this site before.
Steven Souza has been kicking around the Nationals system since 2007, but he was a high school draftee, so it’s not that big of a deal. He’s floated between SS and 3B, but with Zimmerman firmly entrenched at third, I’m not sure where he would fit in long-term. Hell, I’m not sure he does. He repeated with Hagerstown this year and finally started finding his power, knocking 11 home runs, but he also hit .231/.306/.432. That’s definitely not going to get it done. Still, he’s only 21 and has some time, so we’ll see.
I recently got a Trevor Holder autograph from eBay, so I was excited to see him in the actual uniform. Unfortunately, he’s struggled quite a bit in the minors, so he may never see Nationals Park. He had a 1.393 WHIP at Potomac this year at age 23, so…hrm.
Derek Norris is the most solid prospect we’ll see today. He had some trouble with high-A pitching this year, only going .235/.419/.419 (NICE ops) with 12 home runs, but he’s only 21, and catchers develop more slowly, so I’m not too freaked out. Not to mention he has some great power potential.
Tom Milone was another player that I’d never heard of, but he looks pretty good; he went 12-5 in both 2009 and 2010, which doesn’t mean a whole lot, but when you consider it’s between A and AA and that his ERA stayed almost the same, I think he looks like a candidate to eventually get to Washington. I’d bet he makes it as a reliever, though. We’ll see.
