It was a fleeting honor but one the Nationals can take some pride in anyway. Baseball America released its annual prospect handbook this week, and Washington’s farm system was ranked No. 1. Yes, the same organization that rated dead last in 2007 out of 30 teams — and higher than 21st just once since 2005 — was at the top of the heap. Yes, two of its four best prospects have been traded since the book was published. Such is life in print media. But while Brad Peacock (No. 3), A.J. Cole (No. 4), Derek Norris (No. 9) and Tom Milone (No. 13) went to Oakland in the Gio Gonzalez trade, they weren’t developed in vain.
“This Gio trade is a testament to our pro scouts identifying this is the guy we need,” Nats general manager Mike Rizzo said. “Our amateur scouts drafted the guys to get us the depth in the organization, and our development guys developed those 41st-rounders [Peacock], 10th-rounders [Milone], fourth-rounders [Cole and Norris] … to give us good enough prospects that it intrigued Oakland to make this trade.”
– Brian McNally
