College Splits: Washington Nationals 2010 Draft Recap

Washington Nationals 2010 Draft Recap

June 18, 2010

Bryce Harper only slugged .893 against lefties. Huge hole in his game. Definitely overrated.

First in a parade of Nationals picks from Texas, Rick Hague is a tough nut to crack. He was moved from shortstop mid-season after making four errors in a single game, but despite all that, he actually rates as one of the better shortstops by our metric. To us, the bigger concern is his 18.2 percent strikeout rate.

Two picks later, the Nats went back to Texas for another shortstop, this time Texas State's Jason Martinson. Nothing spectacular with the bat, but we're looking at another sparkling defender: +5 this year, +6.5 last year.

Notice a pattern yet? Five more picks go by, and Washington takes Blake Kelso, shortstop from University of Houston. Offensively, he looks like Martinson. Defensively, he looks like Stephen Strasburg's future best friend. With 16 defensive runs above average in three years, he's second only to Greg Garcia in this draft class.

Draft Class Breakdown

Here's a general idea of who they took, and where they got 'em. To compare to other teams and MLB averages, check out this post at THT Live.

  Pos    4YR  JC  HS  Total  
  RHP      6   3   4     13  
  LHP      4   3   3     10  
  C        4   1   0      5  
  1B       0   1   1      2  
  2B       1   0   1      2  
  SS       4   0   1      5  
  LF       0   1   0      1  
  CF       2   1   1      4  
  RF       2   3   1      6  
  OF       0   1   0      1  
  DH       1   0   0      1  
  Total   24  14  12

Splits for Nationals Draftees

1 - Bryce Harper, College of Southern Nevada

51 - Sammy Solis, University of San Diego

83 - Rick Hague, Rice

116 - A.J. Cole, Oviedo HS (FL)

146 - Jason Martinson, Texas State

176 - Cole Leonida, Georgia Tech

206 - Kevin Keyes, Texas

236 - Matthew Grace, UC Los Angeles

266 - Aaron Barrett, Ole Miss

296 - Blake Kelso, Houston

326 - Neil Holland, Louisville