March 07, 2012; Melbourne, FL, USA; Washington Nationals pitcher Matt Purke (50) pitches during the spring training game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Space Coast Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Barr-USA TODAY Sports

Purke was a highly regarded prospect coming out of high school, and was selected by the Texas Rangers 14th overall in the 2009 MLB Draft. Purke’s agent and the team agreed to a $6 million deal, but the MLB wouldn’t approve the payment from the nearly-bankrupt Rangers, and Purke went on to Texas Christian University. He delivered on his promise in his freshman year, going 16-0 with a 4.2 K/BB ratio, blowing hitters away with his 97 MPH fastball. He won the 2010 National Freshman of the Year Award.

In his sophomore year, however, his continuing battle with injuries began. He was limited to 50 innings pitched with shoulder bursitis, and slipped to the Nats in the third round, 93rd overall, in the 2011 MLB Draft. Despite his draft slot, the Nationals gave him a $4 million Major League deal, confident that he would return to the form that had made him an expected top-5 pick before the season. Unfortunately, that confidence may have been misplaced, as Purke pitched poorly in the Arizona Fall League and did not debut in the minors in Low A until May, as he spent his spring in extended Spring Training strengthening his arm. He then made three starts, with a 5.87 ERA in 15.1 IP, before going on the DL with a shoulder injury for the rest of the season.

Verdict: The Nationals Director of Player Development, Doug Harris, recently said about Purke: “I don’t think we can say we have seen Matthew for who he is just yet.” With all of his injuries, Purke has certainly not been given an opportunity to demonstrate the skills that made him so highly regarded in the past. If he can stay healthy, at least for this season, his prospect stock should shoot up, and he could yet be a great MLB starter. If this year becomes his third straight lost to injury, however, it would be hard to see him ever getting to the majors.

After slipping in the draft and signing a big MLB contract, Matt Purke is finally back on the mound. (Image Credit: Brad Barr-US PRESSWIRE)

Purke threw five innings, allowing five earned runs on seven hits (including a home run). He walked five and struck out one, taking the loss as the Suns were beat by the Greensboro Grasshoppers 5-3.

Since the season began Purke has been at the team’s Extended Spring Training complex in Viera, Florida working on strengthening his shoulder. It is generally believed that he could move quickly through the organization’s minor league system, perhaps being MLB-ready as early as next season. Washington signed Purke to a $4 Million Major League contract prior to last summer’s deadline.

March 15, 2012; Melbourne, FL, USA; Washington Nationals right fielder

With Spring Training entering its second week and teams starting to make their first rounds of cuts, most of the top prospect lists have already been published. We published ours back in December. Of course, with Washington falling at the very end of each alphabetical list, the Nationals’ rankings usually are the last to appear. So we’ve got a few more to share with you.

First up, Jonathan C. Mitchell of MLB Dirt examines his Top 16 Nationals prospects with, you guessed it, a 1-2 punch of Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon. Unsurprisingly that pairing’s place on these lists has been universal this prospect season. His Top 5 were rounded out by Alex Meyer, Brian Goodwin, and Matt Purke. Mitchell offers up some thoughts on all 16 players to make his list which are worth a read. The list is a little outfield and left-handed pitcher heavy, which seems accurate after all the winter’s moves and losses.

Following with one more team prospect list, Nathaniel Stoltz at Seedlings to Stars published his top prospect list for the team. Stoltz, one of our resident prospect gurus here at FanSided, does his final team rankings a little differently. He names the organization’s best prospect at each position – C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, three OFs, five SPs, two RPs. He caps it off with a “best of the rest” Top 10 ranking for a grand total of 25 players. I’m not sharing his rankings here, it’s worth your time to give his post a read.

A quick noteworthy update before we finish off with some final prospect thoughts. Stoltz also published a quick update on the Rule 5 selections. As you likely recall, a pair of Nationals prospects were selected in the MLB phase of the draft. Outfielder Eric Komatsu has apparently been looking good in the Cardinals camp and there’s some belief that given the opportunity he could stick with the team all season. As for right-hander Brad Meyers, he has yet to pitch in a game for the Yankees. I’d guess the chances are high that he’ll be offered back to the Nationals in the next two weeks as I can’t envision the Yankees trying to keep him on their 25-man roster if they haven’t seen him throw against live batters yet.

Finally, Wally Fish, also from S2S, took a stab at compiling a number of the Top 100 prospect lists and used that data to compare division members against one another. His look at the NL East concludes that the Braves seem to have the strongest system, but Washington doesn’t appear to be far behind. The two are ahead of the rest of the division which is a positive. It is actually the conclusion of a long seven-part series that he’s been working on for the past few weeks, comparing a number of prospect rankings lists. If you want to know which prospects to keep an eye this season, especially those of you fortunate to see the minor league teams with regularity, all of the material the guys at S2S produce is very informative and makes for a great read.