Baseball America says Nats have strong power arms, catchers among top 30 prospects

As I continue to focus on the depth of the Nationals minor league system, we turn our attention to Baseball America's rundown of the club's top talent. We already listed the top 12 Nationals prospects according to the publication. But what is interesting is to look at how Baseball America perceives the Nationals' talent from 11 to 30. Editor-in-chief John Manuel says two things jump out to him when he looks at the rest of the list of Nats prospects: catchers and frontline impact starters. "I believe the Nationals have some catcher depth," Manuel said. "That's an ephemeral thing in baseball. It comes and goes. You think you have catchers and all of a sudden, poof, they could be gone. The Nationals have four catchers in their top 30. None are in their top 10, but Pedro Severino, Jakson Reetz, who they drafted in 2014, has a chance to be in the top 10 next year, Spencer Kieboom and Raudy Read. "Kieboom is pretty interesting. I always thought Kieboom was just going to be an organizational soldier when he was in college at Clemson, but he has started to be a little more interesting than that. He can hit. He hit .300 with some pop (last season). I also like that fact that he played for the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic one of these (past) years. A backup profile, but they have some interesting depth there." Manuel and others have also noticed how the Nationals have continued to build and stash power arms in their system, and elite throwers at that. "This is an organization that as a philosophy has power arms. Every organization likes power arms, and this is one that has got some," Manuel noted. "And they have a chance to have some real impact arms. Lucas Giolito is in the small clutch of top pitching prospects in the minor leagues. Reynaldo Lopez is one of the jump-up guys of the year. Our guys, J.J. Cooper and Josh Norris, two of our main minor league writers, gushed about him." The Nats' top pick this past summer has been coveted by the organization's scouting brass for quite some time. Manuel said Giolito, Lopez and Fedde could be difference-makers right now if they had to, similar to freshmen starting from their first game on campus. "They have three starting arms who you could look at and it's not outrageous to project those three as mid-rotation starters or better," Manuel said. "There's a lot of obstacles in their path, but those are three special arms. They have (A.J.) Cole, (Nick) Pivetta and others. It's not so much that they have depth, they have impact potential. "That's the kind of farm system that I like. If I had to choose, I'd rather have five or six guys that have a chance to really be impact guys than have 25 inventory-type prospects, guys that have a chance to be big leaguers, but aren't really studs. "I prefer the Nationals' approach to say the Astros, who have potential starters, but are more about depth and inventory. You win with stars, you win with impact talent. The Nationals have some impact talent." Next, we will spotlight the left-handed pitchers still in the Nationals system, and which ones are in the top 30.