All Episodes

November 25, 2025 • 17 mins
The following players are discussed:

1. Travis Sykora (RHP)
2. Eli Willits (SS)
3. Jarlin Susana (RHP)
4. Luke Dickerson (SS)
5. Coy James (SS)
6. Seaver King (SS)
7. Alex Clemmey (LHP)
8. Yohandy Morales (3B)
9. Brayan Cortesia (SS)
10. Ethan Petry (OF)
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning everyone. It is November twenty fifth, about nine
o'clock in the morning, two days before Thanksgiving here in
the United States, so it's probably the last time you
hear from me before Thanksgiving. So happy Thanksgiving everyone. Today
we're talking about the Washington Nationals Prospect. Good system, very

(00:21):
very good system it is. I've got twenty names to
go through today for you. If you're a member of
our Patreon site, you get all twenty names. If you're not,
you get the top ten, which is a pretty strong
top ten. I encourage you to join us at the
Patreon site patrioin dot com forward Slash Prospect three sixty one.

(00:41):
I've also got a couple of Dynasty teams left to
dole out, so if you're interested in that, join us
out at the Patreon site and get a chance to
get into the lottery of picking those teams up. Assigned
a couple last night, one more to assign this morning,
so we've got a dozen teams out there. So you

(01:03):
lose a player an unowner per team, and you got
a dozen dozen teams available to take. So a nice
little collection of opportunities for everyone if you are interested.
Plus you get daily notes for me not as daily
during the off season. Daily notes are more twice a

(01:25):
week top twenties that I submit, and then from time
to time I will write up trades and other kinds
of stuff. I'm starting to work on my draft targets,
which should be out sometime in December ish type thing.
And I still got to do all the sleepers and
all the organizations. I still have not done that yet.
Let's get on to the top ten here. I put

(01:48):
Travis Acora's number one in Eli Willitts's number two, so
i'll talk about them together. And Travis Acorda was the
clear number one at the start of the season and
up until July when he got hurt. Unfortunately got hurt.
It's Tommy John surgery, which puts a huge risk on
the arm. But going into his injury, he looked like

(02:11):
one of the best, if not the best, minor league
pitcher in baseball. I mean, six foot six, throws really hard,
great splitter, a seventy great splitter, so he's got all
of the tools and last season was dominant, and the
Nationals kept him in low A for the entire season,
trying to reduce that workload so he would stay healthy

(02:32):
and of course, it just never works. I mean, it's
just young kids that throw hard, just get hurt. It's
just the way it is. But I love this player
a lot. I think he's when healthy, he's a top
twenty five player in the minor leagues. It does put
a lot of risks just because he had Toma John surgery. Obviously,
I've been in several leagues. I'm holding on to him.

(02:54):
He'll miss most likely the entire season. Will we see
him in the fall league? Maybe? So it's usually twelve
to sixteen months recovery, So twelve months puts us in July.
Why rush the kids? So I just don't think we
see him again, maybe an Arizona Fall League for a
couple of appearances. Eli Will, it's look number one overall.

(03:17):
I get it signed for well under slot so that
the Nationals could use that money to go on, and
they did a good job saving a little money. It's
like Cooy James, who I like a lot. Miguel seem
Sim who is a young right hand at Pittrick. Didn't
make my top twenty, but I like that guy a lot.

(03:39):
But Will, it's and it could be just my bias
because I owned his father for years in a fantasy league,
and the physicality sounds a lot like his father. I mean,
it's a speed first player, great defense, looks like he's
a better hitter than his father, but there's real questions
about how physical the player is going to be with

(04:00):
out physicality. I mean, you get the dress justin Crawford's
of the world, who've got a lot of speed, but
there's somewhat one dimension and you're waiting for that power
to develop. We saw him in low A just briefly
for fifteen games. He hit three hundred three ninety seven
three sixty, so he did show some flashes of the

(04:22):
hitting ability, but I am worried about how much power
that's there. And I've seen the swing. The swing is
really not built for power, so it feels like it's
more of a doubles power. Now, it could be dead wrong.
I know people going into first year player drafts, I'm
going to put him high on their list. I totally
get it. I'm just sharing that my bias could be

(04:45):
his father, but also just doing the research and talking
with people, there is concern in the in the general public,
excuse me, in the scouting society that the power might
not develop and he was not supposed to be the
number one overall pick. Neither was Travis Bozana, right, And
these teams sometimes go with lesser players to save money

(05:10):
to kind of sign guys later in the draft. It's
funny because the National spill still spent well almost a
million dollars under their budget that they could have spent
on players, and a lot of times it just never works.
Even Holiday, in my opinion, was the best player coming
out of the draft was taken forth by the Rockies,

(05:31):
which is a horrible landing spot for him. And Nick
Kurtz or JJ Weatherhole's Weatherholes were the best players in
the twenty twenty four draft and they fell and the
Guardians went with Travis Bazana because they like guys that
can hit. Turns out maybe he can't hit that much.
So I think when you pick number one, you go

(05:55):
with the best player on the board. Don't get cute,
And I think the Nationals got a little cute here.
We'll see. You know, they were without their general manager,
excuse me, you know, their front office president when they
made the selection. That could have been the controversy with
him that in these scouting departments wanted Eli Willison. He

(06:19):
wanted to go in a different direction, probably Ethan Holiday,
because the Nationals have always never shied away from Scott
Bar's clients. But I'm totally speculating there, but I think
will It's going to be a good player, good fantasy player,
but I worry it's going to be a handful of
home runs, lots of stolen bases, and a guy can hit,
and in baseball parlance, that's a really good baseball player.

(06:41):
But you want guys that have power. They are the
guys that hit at the top of the lineup. Maybe
not number one. Maybe will It's could be a leadoff guy.
But you do worry that there's some fourth outfielder risk there,
or in his case, I guess he's a short stup.
He couldn't move to the outfielder, so there could be
some utility concerns there if he just doesn't have enough

(07:03):
pop at shortstop. Harlan Cecina comes in at number three.
Former Padres, so many former Padres all throughout major League
baseball in the minor leagues, the Nationalist has done a
really good job. Secena could not throw strikes when he
was traded. He's starting to put some things together. It's
still a little inconsistent, but if it all comes together,

(07:25):
this could be a top of the rotation at worst
a mid rotation starter. And if he can't dow enough strikes,
it's it's a profile for a lockdown type of closer.
I love Harlan Cesina, and again it's it's big boy.
It's a big arm, high end velocity. If you could
just throw enough strikes, then you're and he can move

(07:48):
into a rotational role. Luke Dickerson comes in at number four.
I fell all over Luke Dickerson. A lot of people
did gout to a scorching start and the Complex League
and then got promoted to Low A and you know,
still did okay, not as well as we would have hoped.

(08:09):
After this they're really strong. So it was only six games,
hit a home run, stolen base, worse walks and strikeouts,
and it gets to to Low A and it was
you know, two O four, three oh nine, three nineteen,
so he just kind of it was kind of a wow,
you know, after the scorchrom start and it just you know,
is high in exit veloccity, so everything looked really good
in those first six games. I still like the player.

(08:34):
I still think there's definitely something there. Seventy great speed.
I think the power is going to develop good feel
for hitting. So it's it's kind of in that Eli
Willetts type of world, and Eli Willets is extremely expensive
and Luke Dickerson is not. So if you're looking for
value and you're fishing in the Washington Nationals world, Luke

(08:56):
Dickerson might actually have have similar skills set and be
a lot cheaper there, and I think it is definitely
going to have more power. Koy James was taken in
the third round, sign for nearly two million dollars ever slot,
so it was effectively first first round money. Who is
Koy James? High school kid shortstop, probably going to move

(09:19):
over to third base, good swing, a lot of power,
not a ton of speed. So yeah, this twenty twenty
five draft was heavy high school kids, heavy high school
shortstop and underdeveloped physical kids with good speed, good contact skills.
I think that's the generality of all those guys. Koy
James is a little different than that, not quite as athletic,

(09:42):
definitely going to have to move to third base, kind
of in that Brady House world. And Brady House got
promoted and you know, it showed some flashes, but quit
frankly didn't play all that well. I think Brady House
could be a solid corner infielder for your fantasy team,
and I think Koy James could basically be the same

(10:03):
kind of type type of player, but it's going to
take him a little while to move on and to
move up. I think definitely he would be one of
my targets in kind of fourth fifth round because you're
gonna be able to get him at pick one. Nobody's
gonna be thinking about him in first year player drafts
unless they're listening to me, Babylon. I'm sure somebody else
will Babbylon about him, but that Quoy James's guy that

(10:28):
I'll probably be targeting uh in first year player drafts.
Number six receiver King. I think when I wrote this
up well before the Fall League, I saw him in
the first week in Double A and the swing was terrible.
It was really stepping in the bucket. What I mean,
I step into the bucket. That means you open up
your front side and you and you just swing for

(10:52):
the fences, right, big leg kick swing for the fences.
It was terrible, right, and it's he's not a big
physical kid, so it's like, what is this guy trying
to do well? There was reports coming out of Harrisburg
that the coach's coaching staff was really working with him
to try to get him back to more of a
level swing, more power to all fields, because he does
have good power, and in the Fall League there was

(11:17):
reports I saw some of a swing of Swingle completely different.
It was definitely more power to all fields. So I
ranked him six. He's probably going to in my top
five hundred be a lot higher than it's going to
be a lot higher than that, just because things in
my opinion have changed since when I published and wrote

(11:38):
this list up, and once I get him out onto
the site and loaded up, I don't go back and
change things just because I saw stuff in the Fall League.
But based on what I saw in the Fall League
and what I've heard subsequent to writing this up, I
think sever King is his star might have fallen, but
now as it started to rise agin just because the

(11:59):
Nationals is a good job at getting him to start
to hit to all fields, and I think that's really
really important. Alex Clemy a Guardian drafted guy, left handed pitcher,
power stuff. If he throws enough strikes, which he just
hasn't five and six walks per nine in twenty twenty five,

(12:22):
through didn't throw many strikes in twenty twenty four. So
I mean that's what we have. We have a guy
that is wild, right, but great stuff from the left side.
He's a project. He was a project with the Guardians
and project with the Nationals. And think about Harleans Asena
Travis Acord to a certain extent. I mean, the Nationals
have done a really good job at taking these wild

(12:43):
arms and harnessing that possibility and getting them throw more strikes.
And I'm not suggesting you go run out and pick
up Alex Clemy, but I'm also suggesting that you keep
a really close eye on it, because he could turn
into the next Harlan Cesina Yoyo Morales now in triple A.

(13:04):
It's pretty amazing that he's getting that close. And if
I take a look at the the Nationals roster is
really really young. I mean it is a prospect guy
for somebody like me who just you know, writes about
prospects for a living to see their their lineup, and
it's not a very good line up. James wood Is

(13:26):
twenty three c J. Abrams twenty five, Dale and Lyle
twenty three, Dylan Cruz twenty three, old man Lewis Garcia
Junior twenty five to five, Cabert Ruiz twenty seven, Brady
has twenty two, Robert Hassel twenty four, Nice Nunyas the
former Miami Marlins kid twenty five years old. That is

(13:48):
their starting lineup according to roster resource. So you got
Yoyo Morales who could take over first base, which is
for Lewis garcias, which I'm not sure that makes a
ton ton of sense for him to be at first base.
So I think there's an opportunity for Morales to see
some time in the big leagues in two thousand and

(14:09):
twenty six. He's okay. It got him as a top
fifteen first basement twenty five home run upside, there's going
to be some swing and missing this game. More of
a three true outcome player there, but interesting guy with
big boy power. Bring on. Cortesia comes in at number nine.
He was nearly a two million dollars sign the international market,

(14:31):
and the Nationals are not afraid to spend big in
the international market. In Cortezia three twenty five, four to
forty one, three sixty eight, twenty two stolen bases. He
did get caught thirteen times, so it's not a He's
not a burner by any stretch, but I think the
power is eventually going to develop. It's eighty seven point

(14:52):
five mile hour exit velocity. He did walk as much
as he struck out. That's what you love about him.
So there could be something there with and no one
is talking about this guy. And I pushed him all
the way up to nineteen. Let me see where I
have him in my top one hundred tier. Bring that up,
go to the team national loops. I got a scroll

(15:15):
the way down to the bottom for that, and I
got a two seventy two up from three ninety one
in August, So big fan there. I think there could
be something there. And then coming number ten as Ethan
Petrie outfielder, pick number forty nine, another over signed guy,

(15:35):
second round out of South Carolina. Oh, I sorry, slightly
under underslot, so basically almost nearly slack. So they signed
some of these high school kids overslots, So I got
that a little, got that wrong there, But there's twenty
five plus home run pop. They're good on base percentage,
not a ton of speed, some swing I miss in
this game. So kind of know who these players are.

(15:57):
Typical corner outfielder you could hit with twenty five home
run power. Is it a guy that I'm interested in?
I think these guys are a dime a dozen, uh,
and it's so hard. You can line twenty of them
up and four of them are gonna make it in
the other sixteen or not. And they all look so similar.
So I'm gonna wait till Ethan Petrie kind of matures

(16:22):
a little bit. Let's see what we have. Let's see
how that hit tol develops. That is our top ten.
I'm going to let the general public go and finish
up the bottom ten, which is a really strong bottom
ten by the way, particularly the eleven through fifteen is
really really interesting. Tails off there at the end. But
if you're interested in all twenty, join us at the

(16:42):
Patreon site ptreo in dot com. We also have some
leagues that spots and leagues that I'm trying to fill.
You're gonna get more extended work from ten. From a
draft prep standpoint, You're gonna get my my draft rankings
and my basically who I'm going to be drafting by

(17:05):
position as I do my prep for my NFBC draft
that will be coming up anyway, Join us out there
for everybody else, hang on and we're back in just
a minute.
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