New Regime Hopes to Remake Farm System By Preston Williams Wednesday, July 19, 2006 Assessments of the Washington Nationals' minor league system read like movie blurbs from a box-office bomb: "Barren," says Florida Today. "Tattered," reports the Los Angeles Daily News. "Dry," intones MLB.com. Other recently published descriptions of the team's talent pipeline: "depleted," "in disarray," "lacks both marquee prospects and depth," "a shell of what it used to be," "stripped down to the bare bones" and "bereft of talent." The scouting department and minor league system that once produced Randy Johnson and Vladimir Guerrero has been almost ignored since 2002, when Major League Baseball took over ownership of the franchise when it was still based in Montreal. In each of the past four years, Baseball America has rated the Nationals' farm system 24th or lower out of 30 teams, including 30th in 2004. It is an organizational weakness that incoming team president Stan Kasten addressed on the day the Nationals' new ownership was announced: "The questions we should be asking: Are you going to be spending money right away on the minor leagues? Are you going to be spending money on scouting? . . . And the answers to all those questions are yes." Minor league systems are more about developing big leaguers than winning games. But in recent seasons, the Nationals' system has done little of either. On the Nationals' 25-man active roster, only catcher Brian Schneider, second baseman Jose Vidro, third baseman Ryan Zimmerman and pitchers Chad Cordero, Roy Corcoran and Mike O'Connor are products of the team's farm system. And from 2003 to 2005, the franchise's six North American-based minor league affiliates posted one winning record while finishing a combined 275 games below .500. The lone winning farm team during that span was Class AAA Edmonton, which managed a 73-69 record in 2003. The organization's current affiliates -- New Orleans, Harrisburg, Potomac, Savannah, Vermont and a Gulf Coast League team -- are a combined 201-229 this season. Years of losing have damaged morale among many of the franchise's farm-system players. "It kind of hurts a little bit," said Class AA Harrisburg left-hander David Maust, who has played in the system since 2001. "We've got some good guys in the organization. . . . Who are [the critics] to say, and who are they to know?" "People say, 'Oh, you can't make a trade with them because they really have nobody' " in the minors, Potomac infielder Trey Webb said. "It's because of you being part of a losing organization for the past years." The draining of the organization's talent pool began in 2002. With his money-losing franchise teetering on the brink of possible contraction by Major League Baseball yet vying for a wild-card berth with a 41-36 record, then-general manager Omar Minaya traded first baseman Lee Stevens and three minor leaguers -- infielder Brandon Phillips, left-hander Cliff Lee and outfielder Grady Sizemore -- to Cleveland for ace right-hander Bartolo Colon and minor league pitcher Tim Drew. Colon went 10-4 with a 3.31 ERA for Montreal, but the Expos finished 83-79, 12 1/2 games out of wild-card contention. Colon was traded in a three-way deal involving the White Sox and Yankees for pitchers Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez and Rocky Biddle, utility player Jeff Liefer and cash after the season to trim payroll. Drew appeared in 13 games for the Expos before signing with Atlanta in 2004. Meantime, the traded prospects have flourished. Phillips is the starting second baseman for Cincinnati and is batting .294. Lee is 9-6 for the Indians. Sizemore is Cleveland's starting center fielder and has 16 home runs and 44 RBI. Also in 2002, the Expos traded two minor leaguers -- outfielder Jason Bay and right-hander Jim Serrano -- to the New York Mets for infielder Lou Collier. Collier had 11 at-bats for the Expos. Bay went on to become the 2004 National League rookie of the year with the Pittsburgh Pirates and has 21 homers and 70 RBI this season. Serrano is pitching in South Korea. --

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