Nats preparing for a different type of draft

Nats preparing for a different type of draft
The Nationals have an off-day on the schedule today, but for nearly everyone in the organization with the exception of the players, today is no day off. The First-Year Player Draft is tonight, making today Nats general manager Mike Rizzo's favorite day of the year. He calls it his Super Bowl Sunday. This draft is very different for the Nationals than ones in seasons past, largely because, due to their improved record last season, they will no longer be picking within the top 10. It will also...
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What if ... the Nationals hadn't drafted Ryan Zimmerman?

What if ... the Nationals hadn't drafted Ryan Zimmerman?
Long before the hope embodied by Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper, Ryan Zimmerman was the face of the Nationals. When the team was still trying to gain a foothold on the D.C. sports scene, when vestiges of the Expos hadn't yet been eradicated from towel carts and equipment bags, it was Zimmerman who provided optimism for the future. His selection as the transplanted team's first draft pick in 2005 was a watershed moment, an opportunity for then-general manager Jim Bowden to select a player...
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So who will the Nationals go for at No. 23?

So who will the Nationals go for at No. 23?
So we have gone over a few possibilities for the Nationals with the No. 6 selection in the Monday draft. Let us now look at a few picks later on. There still will be a ton of talent on the board at No. 23, which is the Nationals' second pick in the first round. And, if the Nationals dig into the fruitful college pitching available in the top 10, would they turn to a position player, specifically an outfielder, with that No. 23 choice? Jim Callis, executive editor at Baseball America, says...
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Will Buck Showalter have input in the Orioles' draft?

Will Buck Showalter have input in the Orioles' draft?
There have recently been some rumblings in baseball circles and some reporters have been wondering whether Orioles manager Buck Showalter will have any input into the team's selections in the upcoming First-Year Player Draft. The theory is that Showalter wants to win now and doesn't have time to wait around for a high school player to get to the majors. Thus, he would want the Orioles to draft a closer-to-ready college player with the fourth pick of the first round "The X-factor for the...
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Will Yoder: An early look at the June draft

Will Yoder: An early look at the June draft
The last two seasons have been unique for the Nationals in that they have realistically had to do little to no research for their first-round pick in the June first-year player draft. They became the first team in history to have back-to-back first overall selections, and they were fortunate enough to have those picks somehow coincide with two of the most hyped pre-draft prospects of all time. As a result, in 2009 and 2010, the question was never who the Nats were going to pick, but whether or...
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