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Friday, May. 03/2013

Anthony Rendon was selected 6th overall in the 2011 MLB Amateur Draft by the Washington Nationals.  In his limited time with the big club, he struggled at the plate, (.182/.308/.227 in 26 Plate Appearances) – while he also made 3 Errors in the field in just 22 Chances.  Still the future is bright and Rendon could certainly play his way onto the Roster later in the year.  He is TRENDING STEADY.

By Sean Hogan (Nationals Correspondent via Citizens of Natstown.com – view website here): Follow @seanhoganvt

When I put together my top 15 prospect list for the Washington Baseball Annual, I knew it was a bit risky. Only five of the top ten were not injury risks before the season, and out of those five, two have already been injured this year.

Through the first month of the season, the top part of the Nats’ farm system has been similarly mediocre to the Nats in general.

1)      3B Anthony Rendon – I didn’t think we’d see Rendon in the big leagues this soon, but he was the first call when Ryan Zimmerman went down with a hamstring injury.

Rendon put up a nice .292/.462/.500 triple slash in 65 Harrisburg Plate Appearances.

Anthony Rendon’s Highlight Package:

Changes in plate discipline aren’t truly evident until you get past 200 PA or so, but the beginning of the season trends make me at least a little wary of Brian Goodwin. TRENDING: SLIGHTLY DOWN.

2)      OF Brian Goodwin – While his .262/.336/.439 triple slash in 119 PA in AA looks decent, I’m not all that pleased with Goodwin’s start to the season. Goodwin’s walk rate has dipped (9.2% so far this season, 13.5% last season) and his strikeouts have gone the wrong way (up to 28.6% from 19.7% last season).

3)      RHP A.J. Cole – Cole’s first few high A starts in 2013 (4.85 ERA in 5 games) haven’t been nearly as bad as they were last year (7.82 ERA in 8 games), but they’re still not where he needs to be.

Cole’s BB and K rates look good (4.17 K/BB), but he’s been very hittable so far (10.4 H/9, 1.385 WHIP). It’s hard to draw many conclusions from five early season starts, though, so he earns the benefit of the doubt for now. TRENDING: STEADY

4)      RHP Lucas Giolito – He’s still a ways away from fully returning from Tommy John surgery, but threw off of a mound on Wednesday, the first time he did so since going under the knife. He should get into some games later on in the summer barring setbacks. TRENDING: STEADY (recovering from injury)

5)      1B/3B Matt Skole – The Nationals have had pretty good luck with Tommy John surgeries on their pitchers, so why not one of their hitters? Skole suffered a microfracture in early April that was only supposed to see him out for three to four weeks, but when he went in for a second exam, it was determined that he tore the UCL in his left (non-throwing) arm.

Skole will be out for three to four months before returning and may not make it back until the Arizona Fall League begins. TRENDING: DOWN (injured)

6)      RHP Christian Garcia – Garcia is recovering from a forearm injury suffered in Spring Training. At last report, it appears that he is still in Viera at extended Spring Training. TRENDING: DOWN (injured)

7)      RHP Nate Karns – It’s no surprise that the top portion of this list is a M*A*S*H unit, but it is a slight one that Karns is not one of the walking wounded. His ERA through 4 games isn’t particularly beautiful at 3.80, but he’s striking out 12.2 per 9 and has a solid walk rate of 3.4 per 9 (3.63 K/BB). If he can continue to keep his walk rate under 4 BB/9 and stay healthy, I’ll stay happy. TRENDING: UP

8)      OF Corey Brown – Suffered an oblique injury in late April. Holds a .257/.316/.514 triple slash in 39 plate appearances, but has struck out in 35.9% of them. TRENDING: DOWN (injured)

9)      SS Zach Walters – Zach Walters is not injured and has 6 home runs this year. That’s the good news. The bad news is that he’s hitting .227/.250/.477 overall with 3 BB and 25 K in 93 plate appearances for Syracuse. TRENDING: DOWN

10)   LHP Sammy Solis and LHP Matt Purke – It’s easy to group Solis and Purke together, being the team’s two high-ceiling and injury-prone lefty prospects. To further cement themselves together, it appears that they are both on track to return in May, with Solis expected back a tad ahead of Purke. TRENDING: STEADY (recovering from injuries)

11)   Purke (see above)

12)   OF Eury Perez – Out of this entire bunch, Perez is one of the healthiest (despite missing a week or so due to a wrist injury in April). He’s still allergic to walks (only 1 in 70 PA so far for Syracuse), but we knew that already. He’s stolen 5 bases in 6 chances, which is both positive and not a surprise. TRENDING: STEADY

13)   C Sandy Leon – I honestly bought into Leon’s offensive improvements from 2012, but they have not held steady so far this season. He’s currently at .211/.299/.289 in 87 plate appearances for Harrisburg. TRENDING: DOWN

14)   2B Tony Renda – He’s doing the little things well (7/7 on stolen bases, solid 10/14 BB/K ratio, 19 runs in 25 games) but is only at .250/.315/.360 overall. Where is the gap power that we heard about? TRENDING: STEADY

15)    RHP Taylor Jordan – Finally, someone who is rewarding my offseason prospect ranking faith with solid performance! Jordan has a 1.59 ERA in 5 starts, with a sparkling 5/1 K/BB ratio in 28 and 1/3 innings. TRENDING: UP

The Nationals are one of 2 teams in the MLB (The Mariners is the other) that have never made a World Series Appearance. Will this change in the Year 2013? So far the club has managed a 15 – 14 Record and are now just 2 1/2 Games Behind the Braves for 1st place – After Atlanta has gone 5 – 10 since a 12 -1 Start. The Nationals have played one of the toughest schedules despite playing two series versus the Miami Marlins. The second half of play eases off the reigning NL East champions.

*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com and their partners***

A big thank-you goes out to our ‘Nationals Correspondent’ Sean Hogan  for preparing today’s featured article.  Sean is a Pro bono sports writer for Citizens of Natstown,and also writes for his own place on the internet at   http://dcisforbaseball.blogspot.com   

You can follow Sean  Twitter and talk about the game of baseball – which he says about 99% of his twitter and his life revolve around America’s favoritepast time. Follow @seanhoganvt 

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