Washington Nationals Minor League Profile: Jake Noll

By Fansided and Ricky Keeler/FanSided via District on Deck
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One of the players that were named a Washington Nationals MILB All-Star on Wednesday was second baseman Jake Noll

On Wednesday, Minor League Baseball unveiled their list for who were the best Washington Nationals prospects by position during the 2016 season. There were some of the names you would expect like Trea Turner, Victor Robles, and Juan Soto that are known as some of the Nats top players/prospects.

Today, I want to talk about the prospect that had the best second at second base according to Minor League Baseball. Last June, the Nats drafted Jake Noll in the seventh round out of Florida Gulf Coast University. Noll made his professional debut in July at short-season Auburn and finished the year at low-A Hagerstown.

In that article on MILB.com, the Washington Nationals director of player development, Mark Scialabba, talked about how Noll’s strong first year as a professional:

“He controls the strike zone well, has good discipline and a quick, compact stroke with gap-to-gap strength. We already like what we’ve seen, and we think he’s got a bright future ahead of him.” (h/t Michael Avallone, MILB.com)

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    While he was at Florida Gulf Coast, Noll won the Atlantic Sun Player of the Year in 2016. He had a slash line of .367/.427/.620 with 12 home runs, 61 RBI’s, and an .OPS of 1.047. He was tied for the conference lead in home runs, led the league in runs scored (58) and hits (87), and was second in doubles (20) and RBI’s.

    After playing seven games in the Gulf Coast League, Noll played the next 18 games with Auburn and excelled as he hit .318 with a home run and seven RBI’s. His best game with Auburn was on July 21 when he went 4-for-4 against the State College Spikes. Out of his 21 hits, only four of them went for extra bases.

    At the beginning of the month of August, Noll got the call up to Hagerstown, where he hit .249 with three home runs and 15 RBI’s in 32 games. Like at Auburn, Noll had another four-hit game (September 5 against Asheville) and he had eight multi-hit games.

    Noll is not listed on the Washington Nationals top 30 prospects according to MLB Pipeline. With that being said, there is only one prospect on that list (Osvaldo Abreu) who plays second. Daniel Murphy is under contract for a couple more seasons, so that position is filled for now. However, in a couple of years, maybe Noll makes a rise up the farm system and continues to impress.