AS THE CROW FLIES

"It's so difficult to get a power arm of this nature picking that low in the draft. He's going to pitch in the top of the rotation, and we're going to continue to put power arms and pitchers in this organization."
(Dana Brown, via Chatter, 6/05/2008)

"We saw the pitcher as a gifted physical athlete. The more athletic you are, the more you can handle the little waggle he has behind his back. With stop-action pictures, frame by frame, we saw that the arm gets to the power position perfectly on time. He showed such a propensity to throw strikes and pound the lower part of the strike zone that we felt it was a nominal risk due to his size and athleticism."
(Mike Rizzo, via Nationals dot com, 6/05/2008)

Nats select Aaron Crow with #9 overall pick; select five other guys we've never heard of with #'s 55, 87, 121, 151, 181.

See video above for the "waggle" Rizzo mentions?

Nationals Farm Authority calls Day One: "Not great, but solid", so we'll go with that.

Meanwhile, enjoy the above video of Crow pitching in the Cape Cod League last summer, complete with Super Slow Mo Cam at the end, technology apparently stolen from MASN. Someone might want to notify their lawyers.