National's Losing Faith In Brian Goodwin

Just a little more than a year ago Brian Goodwin was ranked as the top prospect in the Washington Nationals organization.  He was in AAA baseball primed to take over centerfield in Washington in the spring of 2015.  A so so beginning in AAA was met with a shoulder injury which required season ending surgery.

The spring of 2015 the National's dropped his ranking to 14th and sent him to Harrisburg Pa to AA baseball.  This entire season has been a year to recover from his injury and surgery.  His batting average has never  been above 244.  This is not the numbers that send you back to AAA.  Just this past week the Nationals readjusted their top prospects list and Brian  has fallen all the way to 24th.

Is this a matter of healing and getting healthy or has Brian reached in baseball his highest level? It surely looks as if the Nationals think he has fallen from the  summit.  If you recall the Nationals Orgaization said 1500 at bats was the point where every minor league player needed to reach in order for them to judge any players future improvement.

If you include all fall ball and every bat Brian has had he is nearing 1500 minor league at bats.  It seems as if the Nationals are viewing that his batting average will never be high enough to get him to the Big Leagues

Brian has played 85 games and batted 320 times and today is batting 225.  He has sent 7 home runs out of the park and he leads Harrisburg in triples with 4 which still shows when he hits it he has speed to get around the bases.  He is not getting on base enough to make Washington hungry to get him to the Nationals.

Benton Moss has suffered his second loss of the season with one win so far this summer playing for Hudson Valley in the New York Penn Rookie.  He does have a very respectable 3.08 ERA which Any pitcher in baseball would want.  He has pitched in ten games starting four and a total of 26.2  innings pitched.

Collins Cuthrell batting average has slipped to 268 playing in 41 games so far in Florence Kentucky. He leads the team in home runs with seven even though several players have played more than twice the amount of games as Collins. He has driven in 29 RBI in those 41 games.

Hobbs Johnson pitching in Buloxi MS now has a record of 7-4 having started 19 times and had one complete game.  His ERA is 3.35  having pitched 94 innings.  He has struck out 78 and walked 48 which is still high.  That is right at one walk per two innings pitched and he needs to get it to one per three or more innings pitch.  3.35 is a decent ERA but imagine if less people were on base by the free pass his ERA could be below three and Milwaukee will be very interested in moving Hobbs up to AAA.