Cole and Ray Are On Their Way To Hagerstown
Nats' 2010 H.S. arms are headed to Maryland
The news that even I didn’t believe at first should make the impatient hungry Nats fans happy: A.J. Cole and Robbie Ray are coming to Hagerstown, with Cole starting tonight and Ray starting on Monday, according to MASN’s Byron Kerr.
MiLB.com has not listed these transactions, nor the ones necessary to make room for them on the roster. Taylor Jordan will reportedly go to the 7-day DL for one of the pitchers, but there is no indication what the other move will be.
Adam Kilgore is reporting that Roger Bernadina will be back in D.C. to replace an ailing Rick Ankiel, but the move has not been made official yet, and thus, the corresponding moves to backfill him in Syracuse are not known.
UPDATE: Michael Aubrey has been activated from the DL, taking the place of Bernadina.
Today is a travel day but it’s a tight schedule to go back and forth from Harrisburg in time for Mother’s Day festivities tomorrow, so further updates might not be made until late this evening.
Looking at the move from Hagerstown’s standpoint, sending McKenzie down to work on his control would make sense. Bringing up both Cole & Ray leaves me concerned about Solis’ injury status.
If Bernadina is called up, Syracuse could have either Bynum or Aubrey ready to come off the DL. Tagging a ‘ripple-effect’ callup for an OF is tough, because not many of them are hitting, save for some kid down in Hagerstown… You know the one; what’s his name?
Im official worried about Solis. I also wonder if and when Wang will begin minor league rehab
@jeff: Unofficially, you can forget about Wang. He’s strung the Nationals along for $3M in salary, but I really doubt they’ll ever get any return on investment.
Bin I have been down to Nats camp trust me when I tell you , Mr Wang works his tail off, I really dont know anything about him medically but trust me he is working like a dog
Thanks, Mel, didn’t know that.
@WithBinM,
Mightily concerned about Sammy Solis who might have been expected to be in Harrisburg well before Bryce Harper (~smiles~).
Wang is a reliever if he ever makes it back for blatantly and apparently obvious reasons. The Nats have plenty and then some knocking over the Coffey and skewering the Gaudin with a guivre.
According to the always loquacious (at least on twitter) Keith Law the move to Hagerstown for Ray and Cole is aggressive … but shouldn’t be questioned.
If Harper moves to Potomac, as almost everyone expects, I guess we will continue to see, as Sue observed, more transferrals between X-ST and the minor league clubs as opposed to ripple effect promotions. I think Meyers and Selik would be more of the “norm” as pitchers can progress more rapidly than position players? But promotions are only happening for position players due to injury and are usually “temporary fixes”. Harper might very well be the very first (and perhaps the last) real positional promotion when it occurs.
Per Hendo’s reminder Ben Goessling from a May 3rd update:
Sammy Solis, the Nationals’ second-round pick last year, is close to starting with a minor league team after rehabbing a groin injury, and could jump to Single-A Potomac.
Interesting top 3 rotation in Hagerstown? Well worth the price of admission. Cole, Ray, and Solis.
Update on the Chiefs and Yuniesky Maya the almost 30 year old top pitching prospect from Cuba.
The guy was great for about six innings allowing only 2 runs in that last inning. The reasons he was removed? His odd penchant for losing concentration (see the balks he has made.)? He made a ‘lazy throw’ to first and it ended up an error with a man on second base. He had thrown 96 pitches.
Then came Colin Balester? The TB Rays affiliate Durham Bulls were pretty impressed by the performance of all three SYR starters.
In the case of Yunesky Maya every single one of his pitches were around the plate. Changing speeds with curves and breaking stuff from 70 to high 80’s. Heaters in the low 90’s to 94 max. His stuff appears so un hittable he doesn’t have to throw hard.
He really does look like Livo the younger (better velocity) at this point. Except for losing focus/concentration at times he appears ready to start for the Nationals. I’m not sure what that is all about.
Word is Solis is completely healed from the groin injury that has nagged him. He will be starting in extended spring training on Monday against the Tigers in Lakeland. The Nats have been cautious with him and he should be ready to head north in about 3 weeks. With Cole and Ray in Hagerstown and Solis in Potomac, the Nats finally are adding pitching depth in their minor leagues that they have lacked in the past.