The Nationals Report

Elijah Dukes, he of the gun-picture message, of the chest bumping in the Dominican League, is a Washington National in exchange for a PTBNL.

Keep yourself informed here for now, Kyle will be on here later with the run down.

UPDATE: PTBNL is Glenn Gibson a la ESPN

Some quick stats:

Drafted in 2006, 4-3 record in 12 starts, with a 3.10 ERA. This is guy is young talent, and part of the Vermont Lake Monsters pitching staff that performed extraordinarily well the first half of their season.

Baseball America:

Background: The son of former major league lefthander Paul Gibson, Glenn showed off his superior feel for pitching at short-season Vermont. He might have been the New-York Penn League's best pitcher until his final two starts, when he tried to pitch while sick and saw his ERA balloon from 1.74 to 3.10. It was later discovered he had mononucleosis, causing him to drop about 20 pounds and reversing his solid progress in the weight room.

Strengths: Gibson's savvy makes his stuff play up. He pores over hitting and pitching charts before every start so he can exploit weaknesses, and he mixes speeds and locations very well. He can throw his plus changeup in any count for strikes, his slow downer curveball can be above-average at times and his fastball can touch 91 mph and has late movement.

Weaknesses: Gibson's fastball sits in the high 80s and isn't overpowering, which limits his upside and margin for error. He still needs to add strength to his frame, particularly his lower half, to improve his durability and velocity.

The Future: Gibson is ready for a full-season league and should begin 2008 in low Class A. He looks like a safe bet to reach the big leagues as a back-of-the-rotation starter.

Snap judgement: This isn't exactly Dukes fornothing as it was rumored to be. Gibson isn't one of the high profile names, but he was number 8 prospect and this guy did say he was going to kill his wife, and it could be assumed he meant it. This is the classic "troubled player with loads of talent for talented youngster who won't develop for years" trade, and sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't. This does bring up a quandary of too many outfielders in the mix, as all of the players we picked up need playing time to be effective. The smart thing to do would be to send the odd man out to Columbus for seasoning (my vote for Dukes), and let the remaining players start almost every game. The likely thing is that AK, as well as Cordero or Rauch are on their way out of town. I hope not, because AK's home-away splits last season were night and day, and this guy needs a chance to hit in a non-death valley.