I don't know if you have seen or not, but SI.com reported today that Nationals prospect Esmailyn Gonzalez is not who he seems. "Smiley" is actually Carlos Alvarez Daniel Lugo. More importantly, Lugo is actually 23, not 19. In minor baseball, that difference is HUGE. A 19 year old would be on track for the majors if he just finished rookie ball (which is what Smiley did last year, winning the batting title of the Gulf Coast League). A 23 year old, on the other hand, should AT LEAST be in AA. And yes, there is a large difference between the two leagues. So, while Smiley may have been the 10th best prospect before this revelation, he probably won't even rank in the top 30 now. Remember that a lot of these rankings are based on projectability. The reason that he would be so much higher as a 19 year old is that we can project that he will grow into a bigger body. At 23, you're basically at your ceiling.
Needless to say, this leaves me a tad frustrated. This is an embarrasing situation for the Nationals. It also shows how wrong "The Plan" has gone. We all heard Stan Kasten and Jim Bowden's proclamations that the Nationals were going to be an international force in the market in an effort to rebuild their farm system. Now, that just seems like an ironic joke. Not only did the Nats not sign ANY big name international players this past year, but Bowden and special assistant Jose Rijo are being investigated by the FBI. And now the biggest haul of this era, Smiley, is a fraud.
But it goes deeper. Smiley signed for $1.4 million. The next biggest offer on the board was $700,000 from the Rangers. Hmmm...... Maybe the Nats just knew something that NO ONE ELSE in baseball knew. Or maybe they knew that Smiley wasn't 16. Maybe ol' Jimbo and Jose Rijo decided they would pay the $1.4 million, as long as they got a little bit back. I'm not saying....but I'm just saying....
Hopefully, this will wake everyone up out of the dream that the Nats are just going to magically be better in three years because Bowden repeatedly chants "Farm system, Farm system, Farm system..." The Nats actually have to make an effort if they want to make this "plan" work. Not signing Aaron Crow last year wasn't a great sign. But I was willing to chalk it up to some punk kid. Now not anymore. I think that the Nationals have no true direction right now. Trader Jim is making moves that are taking the team sideways, not forwards. He trades Jon Rauch for a young second baseman named Emilio Bonifacio. He proclaims him as the Nationals second baseman of the future. And then trades him the next off-season for Josh Willingham and Scott Olsen. Huh?
My point is that enough is enough. I think that at the bare minimum Rijo must be fired from this incident. I would advocate that this should be the end for Trader Jim as well. Let Kasten pick his own man (remember, Bowden was inherited when Kasten was appointed President by the Lerners). Get someone in here who will actually make a true commitment to building a farm system. I have had enough of Bowden's obsession with toolsy outfielders (see Dukes, Milledge, Hood, etc.).
The whole situation sort of makes you miss Odalis Perez's bitching, doesn't it?
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