Nats draft HS shortstop Willits with No. 1 pick

ATLANTA -- The Washington Nationals made a astonishing enactment with the No. 1 wide prime connected Sunday, drafting precocious schoolhouse shortstop Eli Willits, the lad of erstwhile large league outfielder Reggie Willits.

The Nationals, navigating a large organizational shakeup implicit the past 7 days, had been wide expected to draught either Ethan Holliday, different precocious schoolhouse infielder, oregon LSU left-hander Kade Anderson.

The Los Angeles Angels selected Tyler Bremner, a 6-foot-2 right-hander from UC Santa Barbara, with the No. 2 wide pick, which represented the highest the squad had selected successful the draught since 1997.

Anderson went to the Seattle Mariners with the No. 3 pick, portion Holliday, the lad of erstwhile outfielder Matt Holliday and member of existent Baltimore Orioles 2nd baseman Jackson Holliday, went to the Colorado Rockies astatine No. 4.

Willits led Fort Cobb-Broxton High School successful Oklahoma to their 3rd consecutive rubric this past play and had antecedently committed to Oklahoma. A 6-foot-1 switch-hitter, Willits is hailed for his bat-to-ball skills and sheet subject and is considered a beardown antiaircraft shortstop.

The slot worth for the No. 1 prime is simply a grounds $11,075,900 this year.

It was lone a week agone that the Nationals fired wide manager Mike Rizzo, who was successful his 17th twelvemonth atop shot operations and had a large manus successful selecting Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper successful the different times that the franchise held the No. 1 prime -- successful 2009 and 2010, respectively.

Nationals manager Davey Martinez was besides fired past week.

Bremnar sits astatine 93 to 96 mph with his fastball, portion besides boasting a changeup and slider, and posted a 3.49 ERA with a Big West-leading 111 strikeouts successful 77 1/3 innings this season.

Anderson was named Most Outstanding Player astatine this year's College World Series, going 2-0 with a 0.56 ERA successful 2 starts successful Omaha. Prior to that, helium led Division I with 180 strikeouts and 119 innings and was a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist, pursuing successful the occurrence of erstwhile LSU Tiger and past year's No. 1 pick, Paul Skenes.

Holliday, the Oklahoma Gatorade Player of the Year, batted .611 with 19 homers, a 1.295 slugging percent and a 2.038 OPS successful his elder twelvemonth astatine Stillwater High School successful Oklahoma. Holliday projects to play either shortstop oregon 3rd base.

The draught is 20 rounds for the 5th consecutive clip this year, with Rounds 1 to 3, representing the archetypal 105 picks, taking spot connected Monday.