The Washington Nationals wrapped up the three-day first-year player draft Wednesday evening, the final tally for their 40 rounds 14 right-handed pitchers, six left-handed pitchers, five catchers, eight infielders and seven outfielders. They selected 26 college players, 11 out of high school and three from junior college.
And one day later the team had already agreed to terms with second-round pick Tony Renda, a second baseman out of the Cal-Berkley, as well as fourth-round pick Brandon Miller, an outfielder from Samford University, according to scouting director Kris Kline. Renda will go to Single-A short season Auburn to begin his professional career.
Third round pick and Scott Boras advisee, Brett Mooneyham, a left-hander from Stanford, is also expected to sign “relatively quickly,” Kline said.
The gem of the draft, of course, is right-hander Lucas Giolito, a hard-throwing right-handed high schooler who missed most of his senior season with elbow trouble. The Nationals took him anyway, feeling the risk was far outweighed by the reward his talent could bring. GM Mike Rizzo will be tasked with getting him to sign.
“You’ve got to look down the road a little bit,” Kline said. “But if you think about having Giolito and (Stephen) Strasburg and Gio (Gonzalez) and Jordan Zimmermann at the front of your rotation… now you’ve got some depth again in the pitching.”
The Nationals traded away three of their top pitching prospects this offseason when they sent A.J. Cole, Tommy Milone and Brad Peacock to the Oakland A’s in the trade for Gonzalez. But with last year’s draftees like Alex Meyer and Matt Purke, along with guys like 2010 draftee Robbie Ray, Kline said they focused on pitching this draft to help rebuild some of that depth.
“That’s kind of what we tried to do primarily,” Kline said. “We tried to focus on big bodies and better velocity and even with the guys that we took late in the draft, this was a year where I asked all of our crosscheckers and area scouts to identify, in their mind who they’re gut guys were. Who they felt were big leaguers. And those are the guys we took. We’ll hope for the best and we’ll see how it plays out.”
With Giolito at the top of their class and only $4.4 million to lock up their top 10 picks, the Nationals feel they were able to nail down the signability of enough of those picks to where they’re confident they’ll be able to bring them all in under the cap.
“Absolutely,” Kline said. “I think we actually will either break even or come in a little under the wire in the end.”
Here is the full list of players the Nationals selected in the 2012 draft:
RD PICK PLAYER POS B/T HT WT DOB SCHOOL
1 16 Lucas Giolito RHP R/R 6-6 230 7/14/94 Harvard-Westlake HS (CA)
2 80 Tony Renda 2B R/R 5-8 180 1/24/91 University of California-Berkeley
3 111 Brett Mooneyham LHP L/L 6-5 235 1/24/90 Stanford University (CA)
4 144 Brandon Miller OF R/R 6-2 215 10/8/89 Samford University (AL)
5 174 Spencer Kieboom C R/R 6-0 220 3/16/91 Clemson University (SC)
6 204 Hayden Jennings CF L/L 6-0 170 10/16/92 Evangel Christian Academy (LA)
7 234 Robert Benincasa RHP R/R 6-1 180 9/5/90 Florida State University
8 264 Stephen Perez SS S/R 5-11 175 12/16/90 University of Miami (FL)
9 294 Derek Self RHP R/R 6-3 205 1/14/90 University of Louisville (KY)
10 324 Craig Manuel C L/R 6-1 205 5/22/90 Rice University (TX)
11 354 Brian Rauh RHP R/R 6-2 200 7/23/91 Chapman University (CA)
12 384 Carlos Lopez 3B R/R 6-2 220 1/18/90 Wake Forest University (NC)
13 414 Elliott Waterman LHP L/L 6-5 230 11/24/90 University of San Francisco
14 444 Jordan Poole RF R/R 6-3 210 9/11/91 Chipola Junior College (FL)
15 474 Brandon Smith CF R/R 6-3 195 5/1/94 Woodbridge HS (CA)
16 504 Ronald Pena RHP R/R 6-4 210 9/19/91 Palm Beach State College (FL)
17 534 Blake Schwartz RHP R/R 6-3 200 10/9/89 Oklahoma City University
18 564 David Fischer RHP R/R 6-5 200 4/10/90 University of Connecticut
19 594 Bryan Lippincott 1B L/R 6-3 210 9/26/89 Concordia University (MN)
20 624 James Brooks SS R/R 6-0 185 10/12/88 University of Utah
21 654 Austin Chubb C R/R 6-1 220 4/17/89 Florida Southern College
22 684 Will Hudgins RHP R/R 6-4 200 2/12/90 University of Notre Dame
23 714 Casey Selsor OF L/L 6-1 190 2/23/90 University of Texas-San Antonio
24 744 Kevin Dicharry RHP R/R 6-4 200 11/27/89 University of Texas
25 774 Freddy Avis RHP R/R 6-2 195 11/3/93 Menlo HS (CA)
26 804 Skye Bolt CF S/R 6-1 170 1/15/94 Holy Innocents Episcopal HS (GA)
27 834 Cody Poteet RHP R/R 6-1 183 7/30/94 Christian HS (CA)
28 864 Hunter Bailey SS R/R 6-0 180 5/17/89 Oklahoma State University
29 894 Leonard Hollins RHP R/R 6-3 185 7/31/91 Chipola Junior College (FL)
30 924 Robert Orlan LHP R/L 6-0 200 9/28/90 University of North Carolina
31 954 Michael Boyden RHP R/R 6-0 180 6/18/90 University of Maryland
32 984 Michael Mudron LHP L/L 5-11 190 2/4/90 California State San Bernardino
33 1014 Mike McQuillan 2B L/R 5-11 175 10/2/89 University of Iowa
34 1044 Jake Jefferies 2B S/R 6-1 180 8/7/93 Foothill HS (CA)
35 1074 Cory Bafidis LHP L/L 6-0 190 8/22/90 Texas Wesleyan University
36 1104 Max Ungar C R/R 6-3 200 8/10/94 Charles E. Smith Jewish School (MD)
37 1134 Tyler Watson LHP L/L 5-11 160 6/9/93 Georgetown HS (TX)
38 1164 Jared Messer RHP R/R 5-11 185 7/14/91 Malone College (OH)
39 1194 Mitchell Williams C L/R 5-10 186 8/16/94 Coosa HS (GA)
40 1224 Ricky Gutierrez CF R/R 6-1 170 2/15/93 American Senior HS (FL)
