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Sunday’s News & Notes

The Quick Rundown…

Team Yesterday’s Result Today’s Game Pitching Matchup
Syracuse Chiefs Won, 3-2 vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 7:00 p.m. Erik Arnesen (0-2, 4.91) vs.
Andrew Brackman (2-5, 6.75)
Harrisburg Senators Lost, 4-3 vs. Akron, 7:00 p.m. Brad Peacock (7-1, 2.28) vs.
Matt Packer (2-6, 5.19)
Potomac Nationals Won, 2-0 vs. Salem, 1:05 p.m. Paul Demny (2-6, 4.50) vs.
Ryan Pressly (4-5, 4.50)
Hagerstown Suns Suspended:
Top 2nd, 1-1		 @ Lakewood, 4:05 p.m. Robbie Ray (2-0, 0.30) vs.
David Buchanan (7-3, 2.68)
DSL Nationals Lost, 7-3
@DSL Mets1		 OFF DAY N/A

Syracuse 3 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 2
• Milone (W, 4-4) 7IP, 8H, R, ER, 0BB, 8K, HR
• Balester (S, 1) 1⅔ IP 2H, 0R, BB, 2K
• Zimmerman 2-4, R, RBI; 2 PO’s
• Marrero 2-3, RBI, BB
• Valdez, J. 2-4, R, HR, RBI

Ryan Zimmerman took his rehab tour up to Syracuse against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees and delighted the home-team radio announcers to the refrain of “Can we keep him?” Zimmerman made a stellar play to gun down a runner at home on a fielder’s choice and made a pretty grab down the line but a tough throw that Chris Marrero caught with his ever-improving glove. “Watch out NL EAST!” exclaimed the announcers. Both Zimmerman and Chris Marrero had key two-out singles to lead a late two-run rally that put the Chiefs ahead 3-1 before Collin Balester pitched an inning and 2/3rds innings for the save. Starter Tom Milone was his usual calm, cool, and controlled self in allowing a bit of contact on eight hits, but allowing just one run on a solo HR, no walks and striking out batters in key situations, eight in all to even his record at 4-4.

Akron 4 Harrisburg 3
• Ollie Perez 5⅓ IP, 7H, 3R, 2ER, 0BB, 7K
• Martin 1IP, 0R, 0BB, K
• Lombardozzi 2-4, R, 2B, HR, RBI
• King 1-4, R, HR, RBI
Once again, Harrisburg got off to a strong offensive start early with a leadoff HR by Steve Lombardozzi, and an unearned run on a Tyler Moore groundout following Josh Johnson’s reaching base on a through-the-wickets error on Beau Mills. Stephen King homered in the bottom of the second to give Harrisburg a 3-1 lead. Unfortunately, it would not be enough. The shell of Ollie Perez, whose velocity topped off in the mid 80s, gave up three runs, one of which was unearned in the first inning following a two-out passed ball on Derek Norris. Jimmy Barthamier continues to struggle in AA. He gave up the decisive run in relief despite striking out four batters in two and 2/3rds innings pitched.

Potomac 2 Salem 0
• Holder (W, 3-7) 7IP, 6H, 0R, 0BB, 4K
• Nelo (S, 4) 1⅔ IP, 0ER, 0BB, K
• Hood 3-4, R
• Ramirez 2-4, R, 2B

A season-best start for Trevor Holder and a three-game home win streak for Potomac, Last Night In Woodbridge.

Delmarva 1 Hagerstown 0 — SUSP. T2
The rains came in the top of the second with the score tied at 1-1, with Delmarva’s Tyler Kelly channeling Rickey Henderson for a leadoff HR off A.J. Cole. They’ll pick up play next week when the two teams meet in Hagerstown to close out the first half. The Suns magic number remains at eight with second-place Greensboro winning last night in Kannapolis.

DSL Mets1 7 DSL Nationals 3
• Moscat 4⅔ IP, 5H, 2R, 2ER, 2BB, 4K, HR
• Barrientos (L, 1-1) 1IP, 1H, 3R, 1ER, 1BB, 1K
• Difo 2-5, R, SB
• Eusebio 2-4, R, 2B

A three-run seventh broke a 3-3 tie as the DSL Nationals dropped a 7-3 decision to the DSL Mets1 squad for their third straight loss. Felix Moscat started and went the first four and 2/3rds, giving up two runs on five hits and two walks while striking out four. The D-Nats put 12 in the “H” column on the scoreboard, with Wilmer Difo, Diomedes Eusebio and Aladin Reyes each collecting two hits.

23 Commments

  1. I’m sitting on pins and needles….Suns have not won a 1st half title since 2005 and have never won a SAL title (according to the SAL webiste). I’m hoping we have something to celebrate in a few days!

    1. I think “best case scenario” for Lombardozzi is that he jumps to the front of the leadoff line as a second basemen in the event that Ian Desmond is moved. If both Desmond and Espinosa remain, I feel that Lombardozzi’s got a hard road to hoe in the organization and may best be served by moving elsewhere as a blocked trade piece. He looks like he can crank out .750-.800OPS fundamentally sound ball at AAA as well. If only he had another position besides 2B! Since short and 3rd aren’t working for him, I wonder if he could channel his inner Willie Harris and learn some outfield in winter ball to make him stickier on an MLB roster.

    2. For Lombardozzi I think is best case is to be a major league leadoff hitter, playing second. I think he will turn out to be a great utility player, especaly if he learns to play outfield, and first.

  3. Desmond would seem to be blocking others who are doing well now or with very high ceilings — Kelso and now Rendon to name two. I guess this a good problem to have. Lots of pressure though on Desmond to hit and defend, although his defense does seems very much improved. And Riggleman seems to like his attitude — or is that just Riggs saying positive things about all this players? And will Riggs be around come next spring?

    1. To me Riggs says positive things about all of his players. Desmond is starting to feel like a utility guy. Is it likely that he solves the OBP issue? Teach him some outfield over the winter and see if he can become a utility guy while we move Espinosa to his rightful home at shortstop.

    2. I doubt that Desmond will block Rendon — in fact, I’m certain he won’t. If Rendon can play second, which he and others think he can, the Nats will not hesitate to shift Espinosa to SS and play Rendon at 2B.

      The more I read about Lombardozzi, the more intrigued I become. His numbers at AA are better than Espinosa’s and he is doing it at a younger age, hence the question.

  4. Anyone know anything about this Cuevas guy in Potomac, he is tearing up the Caolina legaue. I know nothing about him

    1. A DSL grad, member of the ’08 championship team. Kind of streaky, both on offense and defense. Decent fielder. Good speed (tripled to LF today). Only 22 but getting the OG treatment with Hague at Potomac, Martinson at Hagerstown, though he’s played more of late and will likely play more with Hague done for the year.

      1. Stupid question, but what is the OG treatment? I havent been following the minors long enough to know. Thanks!

          1. Are there any specific paterns to look for, or do you just look at age, playing time, and stuff like that. sorry for all the stupid questions

  5. A couple of questions:
    1. When does Chris Marrero get a shot in the bigs? He is tearing the cover off the ball at Syracuse and we could use his offense in Washington.

    2. Are they going to use Mathuess while he is up? I would like to see what he has.

    BTW – Arnesen gets another quality start in Syracuse.

    1. I think if Morse or an outfielder goes down, we will see Marrero in the bigs, and I think we could see Mattheus today, with Clippard unavalible

    2. If the Nats bring Marrero up anytime soon, it would mean they’re pretty desperate.
      It’s been exactly 9-10 days now that Marrero has hit this year at something above mediocre. 10 days out of a 10 week season does not qualify you as “tearing the cover off the ball”.

      The good news out of Syracuse today was a terrific performance from Arnesen.

  6. re: OG

    Most OGs are too old for the level (Newsome) or bounce between levels (Martinez, Ivany, Arnesen). The term is less pejorative than “roster filler” and some folks use “soldier” instead of “guy” to denote that they’re like “grunts.” I like OG because it sets up references like this one from the cult classic “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka” where the perp died from “overgold.”

    1. I like results. Ceilings and projections do not take into account certain intangibles that produce winning results. Arnesen may be an OG, but he currently has a better AAA ERA than Detwiler, Milone, Stammen, Maya, Martin, and Meyers. I know he has only pitched three games for Syracuse this season, but he finished second in ERA for Syracuse last year among starting pitchers. I just think he deserves more consideration.

      1. I like Arnesen as much as the next guy, but the more knowledgeable fan should know that ERA is a very imperfect statistic. I use it in much the same way that folks still refer to batting average: in conjunction with more modern metrics. I’ve come to prefer FIP, but it’s hard to list in the probables because it’s just too labor-intensive to look up to 14 pitchers on Fangraphs.com

        That said, Arnesen’s ERA may be 3.57 for his admittedly small sample size of 17.2 innings, just a shade better than Milone’s 3.58, however the gap between their FIPs is huge: 3.48 vs. 2.13 for Milone, which has a pool of data that’s nearly four times larger (70.1). Milone’s FIP is lower because he is better than Arnesen at the three aspects of pitching are under his control: not walking batters, striking them out, not allowing HRs (these are often referred to as the Three True Outcomes in the sabermetric community).

        Defense-Independent Pitching Statistics (DIPS) are relatively new, though Bill James probably gets a huge assist by suggesting more than a generation ago that what’s often perceived as good pitching is actually good defense. But even James gives the credit to Voros McCracken for doing the heavy lifting and presenting one of the most seminal essays ever to explain why that is.

        But lastly, I’ve seen both Milone and Arnesen pitch in person several times, so my judgment is not strictly based on stats.

    1. He’s not playing again till 2012, shoulder surgery after his headfirst slide in April.

  8. I know Zimmerman pitced great tonight, but I was dissapointed to see Coffey coming in to relieve him. I would really like to see Matthues get his shot and see what he has at the big league level. He pitched great in Syracuse and H-burg.

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