Last Night In Woodbridge
Lynchburg’s Gus Schlosser was on last night, tossing eight shutout innings in a 6-2 win over Potomac.
The 23-year-old allowed just a leadoff single to Adrian Sanchez, who stole second and took third on an error after a Ricky Hague flyout. Sanchez was erased on a 5-2 putout at the plate, with Xavier Nady reaching first on the fielder’s choice.
After Nady, it was nada. Twenty-two straight batters were retired — six by way of the K, ten on groundouts, and six flyouts.
Thus, while it’s tempting to go off on a rant about the foibles of Chien-Ming Wang (the Taiwanese John Patterson?) and Nady (0-for-3), it’s unfair to Schlosser. Even Nathan Karns would have probably lost last night.
Wang gave up three runs on three hits and two walks. His apologists, who are legion, will take comfort in the 10 groundball outs. But the three hits were two doubles and a triple, and none of them would have been turned into outs by a major-league outfield.
Robbie Ray, the originally scheduled starter, followed Wang on the mound and turned in three serviceable innings, working around a leadoff doubles in the 5th and 7th and a hit batsmen in the 6th before giving up a run in the 8th (home run) and two in the 9th (back-to-back singles and a double).
Ray had trouble locating his fastball and by the 9th, his fifth inning of work, the Hillcats were keying on his breaking pitches, with several fouls ripped into the third-base stands. He finished with three runs allowed on seven hits and no walks, though he did set down six on strikes.
Potomac broke through with two runs in the 9th against reliever Blaine Sims, as Kevin Keyes led off with an opposite-field double down the right field line, Adrian Sanchez singled and took second on an error (sending in Keyes). Ricky Hague followed with an RBI double, though the umpire saw it differently and called him out at second on throw in from left field.
With the loss, Potomac missed an opportunity to tie Lynchburg for the division lead, instead falling back to two games behind, tied with Wilmington and Frederick at 12-14.
The series finale is this afternoon, with Matt Grace (4-9, 5.91) starting for the P-Nats, facing off against Cody Martin (10-6, 2.80) for the Hillcats.
Now I am not confused any more…….. Got this info from a high ranking official in MLB. I now understand why the Nationals system is older than most and players are not being promoted as fast as we would think. The Nationals have done what MLB terms as “overdrafted”. They have drafted and signed so many players and they don’t have anywhere to put them. If you look at all of the roster they are packed. However, the Nats need to come up with a solution or stop holding back prospeects who need to be promoted and challenged. And HS talent that need at bats and experience to chase “the dream.”
Confused and NatsLady.
Mike Rizzo and Roy Clark take an entirely different tact in managing their minor league system. They believe in competition. That is makes players better. They also believe in graduating players from each level before advancing to the next level.
In some cases (as Luke will point out when its appropriate) they could be blocked by players who are better than them at their corresponding position above. If they become better than that player then a couple of things could happen. The player above could get traded, demoted, or released.
If its a player with some talent that has the right makeup and is willing to work hard the Nats are going to stick with him through thick and thin. Thus the recent promotion of older prospect Trevor Holder to Harrisburg as a starter. He is the same age as Nate Karns so, he isn’t THAT old yet.
Holder is an example of a player with tremendous makeup. He actually ended up pitching more college world series innings than did Stephen Strasburg. He’s a bulldog, both in the college sense since that is his alma mater’s mascot and in real life.
I meant to say different tact when compared to that of JimBo Jim Bowden of XMSirius.
Good stuff! If you are reading some of the moves that are being made in the post, WE have a problem or a soon to be problem. WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH ROOM TO PUT PLAYERS! We have “overdrafted”. I don’t disagree with you or Natslady on your comments but some hard decisions will have to be made on players 23 years old and still playing Rookie ball or Short Season. 24/25 years old playing Short Season or Low A. 25/26 years old playing Low A. 26/27 years old playing High A. 27/28 years old or older who are playing Double A and Triple A that are not protected on the 40 man roster. Trades, demotions and releases ARE IN ORDER! Good stuff
confused–that can be solved with trades if the players are quality prospects.
Wow, so Goodwin was promoted to Harrisburg! Goodwin probably would have started in Potomac if Taylor wasn’t blocking that spot, so this move kind of bring Goodwin back on schedule.
Perez is promoted to Syracuse and Souza to Potomac. All of these moves were inevitable. And for Souza, he should have been in Potomac several years ago after floundering in low A for so long. It’s just really unfortunate that Skole got injured when he did.
Also of note: Potomac misses yet ANOTHER highly regarded prospect.