Baseball Prospectus No. 4 Nats prospect: Reynaldo Lopez

There has been a lot of offseason buzz regarding right-hander Reynaldo Lopez. A lot of people had not heard much of the Dominican hurler, but he made a big splash at the end of the season with low Single-A Hagerstown.

Lopez went 5-1 with a 0.63 ERA in his final 10 starts, nine of them with the Suns.

He is the No. 4 Nationals prospect, according to Baseball Prospectus.

No. 4: right-hander Reynaldo Lopez

Chris Mellen, the co-director of the Baseball Prospectus prospect team, believes Lopez is a very intriguing prospect. Mellen said his mid-Atlantic member of the prospect team, Tucker Blair, watched Lopez a lot and has reported "very good feedback" on the young pitcher.

"The velocity really kicked up over the last few months. A mechanical tweak worked," Mellen said. "He got through some injuries from the early season. His fastball is operating in the mid-90s mph with ability to touch a little bit higher, very heavy fastball, he's able to get a nice plane on it. It's got downward movement, he's able to throw it in the lower zone, where it's extremely lively. That's on the positive side."

Mellen expects the Nationals to stretch out Lopez this season to see if he can maintain his velocity and command, plus stay healthy for an entire campaign.

"On the concern side, it's a player that you haven't really seen over a course of an entire season, over 30 starts," Mellen cautioned. "Is that fastball going to play and his stuff going to play at the level from April to September? We don't know. We are going to see that. That's naturally a progression. He's only 20 years old. There's going to be more strength added as he grows into his mid-20s."

But that was not enough for Baseball Prospectus to drop him lower in the rankings. They love the potential Lopez has demonstrated at such a young age.

"We are cautious with him, but the high prospect number speaks to his potential, it speaks to his stuff and it speaks to the feel for pitching he has shown so far," Mellen said.