Destin Hood Nats Prospect # 10

The team he turned down? The #1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide, the very team getting set to face the Texas Longhorns in the BCS National Championship Game Jan. 7.

That's good news for us though, and good news for Hoods future, which appears to be much brighter on the baseball field than the grid-iron.

Hood  was the Nationals seventh ranked prospect last season after a short stint in Gulf Coast League towards the end of the summer after he signed. In 25 games in the GCL Hood showed relative promise for a kid out of high-school. Destin batted .256/.333/.349 with seven extra-base hits. Hood also swiped five bags. Not bad for an 18 year old.

Hood excelled again in his second stint in the Gulf Coast League in 2009, as the athletic outfielder batted .330 with an on base percentage of .388. He also slugged an impressive .614 for an OPS of 1.001. Hood however seemed overmatched in the same year at Vermont, where the 19-year-old batted only .346/.302/.333 in 38 games for the Lake Monsters. Hood stuggled to make consistant contact, striking out 45 times in 138 at bats, and only drawing 11 walks.

For Hood, the name of the game is patience and development. At 6-2, 195, hood posses a long and strong body. He's a great athlete for a baseball player and was even clocked running a 4.4 40-yard-dash durign his high-school football days. But while Hood has all the tools to be a very succesful MLB outfielder, he has to learn to play baseball at an advanced level, and get by on more than just his tools. He will need to learn pitch selection, how to work the count, how to swing depending on the count, how to predict what pitch is going to come.

Right now, Hood is completley raw. But the Nationals are hoping that he can project to be a talented athletic outfielder who can play strong defense and hit for power, in the mold of a Torri Hunter or a Mike Cameron. Don't be surprised to see Hood slip down this list before he rises back up, as right now his talent level is graded all on potential. The results will come, just be patient.