Baseball America: Nats are winners

Discuss it in our Harper thread

Baseball America, the authority on baseball prospects and amateur baseball, declared the Washington Nationals a winner on deadline MLB Draft day.

Here is what they had to say;

It's impossible to say who had a good draft and who had a bad draft when many of the best players have yet to play a professional game. But it is possible to judge who had a strong performance around the signing deadline that just passed, and who didn't.

WINNERS

• Nationals: Washington has drafted and signed premium talent each of the last two years with the No. 1 overall selection. Despite dealing with hyped players in Stephen Strasburg and now Bryce Harper, the Nats didn't change the game with their contracts. Strasburg set draft bonus and contract records, but within reason; Harper got the largest guarantee for a position player, by $400,000 over a contract signed nine years ago. Neither contract was outrageous, and both got done. The Nationals also added pitching depth by going over slot to sign players in the second (Sammy Solis, $1 million), fourth (A.J. Cole, $2 million) and 12th (Robbie Ray, $799,000) rounds.

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