Nats' Prospects Have Been Grim

Members of the Potomac Nationals, a Class A affiliate of the Washington Nationals, warm up before a recent game at Pfitzner Stadium in Woodbridge. (By Preston Keres -- The Washington Post)

"Look at any organization that signed Latin American players from 2002 to 2005, take all those players out of their system, and tell me what you've got," Brown said. "And that's what you're looking at with us."

Kasten's plan is to revitalize the farm system within a few years. That's what happened when Kasten was in charge in Atlanta, where the Braves have won 14 consecutive division titles, largely with homegrown talent.

Washington had four of the top 70 selections in the June amateur draft and chose high school players with its first six picks. There also is speculation that the team might swap big leaguers such as Alfonso Soriano and Livan Hernandez for additional prospects before the trading deadline at the end of the month.

"We went young this year," said Brown, with obvious satisfaction, calling himself "a kid in a candy store" now that the team's new ownership group headed by the family of Theodore N. Lerner has lifted the financial restrictions of recent years.

The team made inroads internationally earlier this month by signing coveted 16-year-old Dominican shortstop Esmailyn Gonzalez to a contract that includes a $1.4 million signing bonus.

In the past year, some reorganization has already occurred -- General Manager Jim Bowden has promoted Bob Boone to head the player development department and, among other moves, hired former big league manager Davey Johnson as a special consultant who will scout players inside and outside the system -- and the Nationals also have been more active in Latin America this season, with Jose Rijo, a former major league pitcher and a special assistant to Bowden, running an academy in his native Dominican Republic.

"We have a presence, where before we were just piecing it together," Brown said. "It was more like having replacement players in the Dominican just to keep the operation going. Now we're going to really build it the right way because we have the facility and are aggressive at signing players."

A different philosophy going into the draft and creating inroads into Latin America are just the first steps.

"We're now marching to a different beat," Brown said. "You win in the minor leagues by just flooding the system with talent. Just continue to pour talent into the system until it overflows. That's when you develop top-end players. The guy in the middle, he's going to have to learn to fight for a job. When it's competitive at the minor league level, that means your big league team is going to be better."