For those that may have missed it, the Nationals and Yankees were the only teams that lost the rights to their first-round picks (Seattle has more time with college-senior Josh Fields) as the deadline passed on Friday night.
It's hard to find too much fault with the Yankees for failing to sign Gerrit Cole. They took a player who had a lot of leverage with a college scholarship on the table and did their best to bring the player into the organization. The news was also somewhat offset by their ability to get supplemental pick Jeremy Bleich signed.
For the Nationals though, a team that is still trying to re-build a farm system that was stripped bare by the ownership of MLB, failing to sign Aaron Crow is a disaster. Even if you take Jim Bowden's side of the story at face value, his comments raise some concerns about the direction of the organization.
First, while reading this side of the negotiations is fascinating (albeit one-sided), I'm not sure it's good business for Bowden to be airing so much of it in public. It seems obvious that Bowden is doing damage control with a fan base that is clearly disappointed, but what if the Nationals have to deal with Hendricks' brothers in the future?
An even bigger concern for me is this Bowden quote in reference to the Nationals signing 15th-round pick J.P. Ramirez at the last minute:
"We had enough money to get Ramirez because we didn't sign Crow."
Given how profitable the Nationals have been, there is no good reason for the Ramirez signing to have been an either or proposition, especially when you see how much money both the Royals and Red Sox spent on their 2008 drafts.
In fairness to the organization, I think the Hendrick brothers share in the blame here. It seems they overplayed their hand, and as a result, Crow risks injury and leaves several million dollars on the table. Luke Hochevar followed a similar path after being drafted 40th in the 2005 draft, and moved himself up to the top pick in 2006. But, Crow was drafted ninth this season, so there isn't a lot of room to move up.
For the Nationals, the attention already turns to next year's draft. They are currently battling it out with Seattle and San Diego for the top pick and the right to likely draft Stephen Strasburg, who many people are comparing to Mark Prior. They'll also have the number ten pick as compensation for not signing Crow, but this consolation also means that they'll have to open up the purse strings for two top ten picks. As a fan, you have to hope that this doesn't lead to signability pick.
08-17-2008 11:54 AM 
