Herr Detwiler
With a few early surprises, Ross Detwiler fell into the Nationals' laps, and they took him with the 6th overall pick. Detwiler is a tall, lanky left-handed starting pitcher out of Missouri State.
Detwiler is the second best college arm in a draft not particularly deep with collegiate throwers. He throws low 90s and has an excellent slider. Sickles is pretty high on him, although he ranked him as the 4th best pitching prospect in the draft.
The Nationals avoided one tough question when the Orioles took Wieters with the 5th pick. Porcello was still available, and I perhaps would've liked to have seen them take him, but it's a defensible decision to take Detwiler instead.
This doesn't matter with respect to the pick, but I'd highly recommend this Joe Posnaski piece from a few weeks ago, where he wrote about how difficult it is to scout players, using Herr Detwiler as an example.
Todd Jacobson is blogging up a storm, and spits back some interesting quotes -- open for some fun interpretation! -- from our good friend, Jim Bowden.
More later... (We're about to pick again!)
Detwiler is the second best college arm in a draft not particularly deep with collegiate throwers. He throws low 90s and has an excellent slider. Sickles is pretty high on him, although he ranked him as the 4th best pitching prospect in the draft.
The Nationals avoided one tough question when the Orioles took Wieters with the 5th pick. Porcello was still available, and I perhaps would've liked to have seen them take him, but it's a defensible decision to take Detwiler instead.
This doesn't matter with respect to the pick, but I'd highly recommend this Joe Posnaski piece from a few weeks ago, where he wrote about how difficult it is to scout players, using Herr Detwiler as an example.
More later... (We're about to pick again!)
posted by Chris Needham at
4:41 PM
5 Comments:
Hopefully his slider is as effective in the bigs. As tall and as long as he is, he should still be able to get some spin on the ball, even if the seams are smaller.
By
@NateHays, at 6/07/2007 7:47 PM
Hopefully. From what I've read, his curve and change are so-so. But if he's got the FB and SL working, those can be show-me pitches. Besides, RSC has been the master teacher of the changeup. Hopefully he'll pass along some tips for refinement.
By
Chris Needham, at 6/07/2007 7:51 PM
Can he pitch Saturday in Minnesota? Please?
By
Anonymous, at 6/07/2007 8:32 PM
Chris do you see a familiar yet denied trend from the Nats here? Stan seems to be breaking his word that they would draft the best players regardless of cost.
Not that I ever believed Stan or Jimbo on that but this seems worst than I would have expected. Stan promised that he would put much of the saved payrole into draft picks and that this would be a much different year in this respect....do you see it?
By
JayB, at 6/07/2007 9:31 PM
Had Wieters been there and they didn't take him, I'd be inclined to agree.
The only player they could get dinged for is Porcello, who many are saying is the best HS pitcher since Josh Beckett, but he fell all the way to Detroit because of his demands ($10 millionish and a major-league contract -- it's the latter that would be a problem for a HS pitcher).
I don't have a huge problem with what they did all things considered, but now's the time for action. We can't assess now. We'll have to assess on August 15th, the deadline for getting these picks signed. There is NO EXCUSE for not signing every one of these picks. If they fail to do that, then they'll deserve to be ripped as cheapass bastards (and you know I don't have any problem doing that!)
But for now? They did pretty well. Very well, if what I'm reading is right...
By
Chris Needham, at 6/07/2007 9:38 PM
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