David Huzzard: No early pick for Nationals, but Murphy good consolation prize

Unlike years past, and by now I mean years passed, the Washington Nationals do not hold the first overall pick in tonight's MLB First-Year Player Draft. They don't even have a top-10 pick. They do, however, have two picks in the first round, but will have to be a little patient. The Nationals currently hold the 28th and 29th overall selections in this year's draft. But despite the lack of an "early pick" in the sport's yearly mid-season opportunity to improve an organization, the Nationals' offseason acquisition of second baseman Daniel Murphy continues to be the selection paying dividends.

Murphy has a batting line of .376/.415/.610 and I could stop writing right here. Batting average isn't the best indicator of talent, but when a player has batted close to .400 for the first two months of the season it is impressive, and Murphy hasn't just hit the ball, he's hit it for power. This was the best signing the Nats didn't want to make this past offseason. Murphy was the Nats' third choice to be their 2016 second baseman and that's only from the information that leaked to the public.

Before signing Murphy, the Washington Nationals lost out on Ben Zobrist when he went to the Cubs to play for Joe Maddon and a trade was nixed for Brandon Phillips when he wouldn't waive his no trade clause. Zobrist is doing quite well, hitting .325/.436/.508, and there could be a debate as to who you'd rather have, but Phillips is not in that debate. Judging by fWAR, Phillips is the 21^st ranked qualified second baseman in baseball sporting a shiny 0.0 fWAR. So if you were wondering what the R in WAR looked like, look no further than Phillips' .267/.304/.426 batting line and slightly above average, but flashy, defense.

The Murphy signing isn't the first time the Nationals fell into a good decision. They once wanted to trade away Jordan Zimmermann, Danny Espinosa, Drew Storen, and Derek Norris for two years of Zack Greinke. The Nats got the best years of Storen's career, used Norris to trade for Gio Gonzalez, still have Espinosa as their current starting shortstop, and got six excellent seasons and a first-round draft pick from Zimmermann. The best moves often end up being the ones not made and that was the case with the Greinke trade and it's the case with Murphy.

While watching the draft tonight, remember the Nats had a first-round pick out of the sandwich round, but they used it to bring Murphy to Washington and so far he's been the backbone of the Nationals' offense and a great compliment to Bryce Harper. The Nationals lost out on at least two other second basemen before settling on Murphy and he's having as good a season as anyone in baseball. It's hard to argue the Nationals would be better off with the first round pick, Zobrist, or Phillips when we can see and know what Murphy has done and meant for the team.

David Huzzard blogs about the Nationals at Citizens of Natstown. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidHuzzard. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our regular roster of writers.