Good Morning Washington Nationals Fan,

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, July 10th.

This is Richard, and believe it or not, this is my first-morning briefing this season. Haden is off today.

Today’s top story is obviously the Nationals drafting LSU outfielder Dylan Crews.

Be sure to follow The Nats Report on Twitter for all the latest headlines and more.

Leading today’s Morning Briefing: Washington Nationals draft Dylan Crews

It was a HUGE weekend for the Washington Nationals. I am not talking about the weekend series win over the Texas Rangers, but I am talking about the future of the Washington Nationals. Besides two Washington Nationals prospects participating in this year’s Future Game in Seattle, the Washington Nationals made it official and drafted Dylan Crews after the Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Paul Skenes at No. 1 overall in the 2023 MLB Draft.

I am not going to bore you with the stats of the newest Washington Nationals’ Dylan Crews you can read them here, so let’s get right into why this all matters.

Why it matters: I am extremely happy with this pick, and honestly, either pick would have been a perfect addition to the Nationals. Adding a power bat to the lineup and the outfield is icing on the cake. Yes, Paul Skenes would have made the Nationals starting pitching rotation go from an A to an A+, but you can never have enough power bats in the lineup. I would like to see more of a well-rounded team instead of just one major focus. Crews is a player who could well be the next face of the franchise or at least one of them. This pick makes trading Juan Soto last year to the Padres a bit easier to deal with.

General Manager Mike Rizzo discussed his strategy on how the team plans to develop their first-round pick. Rizzo says that the team would go slow to start Crews off in the system, and that means they won’t start him at Double-A right when he enters the Nationals farm system. Right after the draft pick came in we posted a Twitter Poll asking Nationals Nation where they think what level Crews is going to debut in, and the results seem to match what Rizzo said. 44.9% of the votes went to Crews making his nationals debut in Fredericksburg. Crews’ debut anywhere within the Washington Nationals farm system is going to be a must-view game! [The Nats Report will be at that game and will provide you with one of the best analyses on the Internet].

According to TalkNats, “Crews spoke with the media last night after being drafted and discussed his first two years at LSU that he was a lead-by-example” player, and then this past season he became a vocal leader.”

Washington Nationals prospects shine at this year’s Futures Game in Seattle

Besides all the All-Star and MLB draft news this past weekend, two of the Nationals up and coming prospects shined at this year’s MLB Futures Game in Seattle. Last year’s Futures Game featured Nationals prospects Cade Cavalli, a pitcher, and Darren Baker, a second baseman. Currently, Baker is awaiting his Major League debut while playing second base for AAA Rochester. On the other hand, Cavalli, after playing in last year’s game, was called up from AAA Rochester in late August to make his Major League debut before undergoing Tommy John surgery.

This year’s Washington Nationals prospects that were at this year’s game were Brady House and James Wood. Brady was even hitting in the cleanup spot during the game. Wood went 0-1 with a walk while, House went 1-1 getting a hit. The game was called after the seven-inning as the NL Futures beat the AL Futures.

In the Clubhouse is back!

Your season analysis is back with In the Clubhouse with TheNatsReport. You can get analysis on every Nationals series live on Twitch and then listen to it after on your preferred podcast platform. We will also be doing a live show providing analysis on the first round of the draft on Sunday!

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