Monday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Probable Pitchers |
| Syracuse | Won, 3-1 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 5-0 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Potomac | Lost, 3-2 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Hagerstown | Won, 8-2 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Auburn | Lost, 4-2 | @ Connecticut, 7:05 p.m. |
Crownover (0-4, 5.00) vs. Alexander (0-2, 0.82) |
Syracuse 3 Pawtucket 1
• Cole (W, 3-5) 7IP, 3H, R, ER, BB, 6K, HR
• Martin (SV, 7) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Ramsey 2-3, BB, RBI
• den Dekker 1-3, 2B, 2BB, RBI
The sun don’t shine on the same dog’s [prosterior] every day, but don’t tell that to the PawSox, who dropped all seven games to the Chiefs in a home-and-home series. It was a 3-1 win for Syracuse with A.J. Cole giving up the lone run on a home run and three hits total over seven innings. He walked one and struck out six while notching his third win. Caleb Ramsey and Matt den Dekker both reached base three times and drove in a run as the Chiefs registered eight hits total on the afternoon.
Roster move: RHP Aaron Barrett option voided, placed on Washington 15-Day DL retroactive to August 6.
Erie 5 Harrisburg 0
• Bates (L, 4-3) 6⅓ IP, 4H, R, ER, BB, K
• Harper ⅔ IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 1K, 1-0 IR-S
• Goodwin 2-4
• Pleffner 1-3, BB
The Seawolves silenced the Senators bats, limiting the Harrisburg nine to just five hits as they lost the series finale, 5-0. Colin Bates took the loss despite allowing just one run on four hits and one walk over six and a 1/3rd innings. Erie broke open the game with a pair two-run rallies in the 7th and 8th innings to put the game away. Brian Goodwin singled twice and struck out once while Shawn Pleffner singled and walked but the rest of the lineup was just 2-for-22 with nine whiffs.
Carolina 3 Potomac 2
• Spann 5⅔ IP, 5H, 2R, 2ER, 5BB, 7K
• Walsh (BS, 1) 1⅓ IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 0K, 2-2 IR-S
• Self (L, 3-5) 1IP, 2H, R, ER, 0BB, 2K
• Bautista 2-3, 2R, HBP, SB
• Norfork 1-3, 2B, BB, CS
After slugfests on Friday and Saturday night, the series finale was pitcher’s duel that ended with some smallball as the Mudcats edged the P-Nats, 3-2. A safety squeeze after a pair of singles and a sacrifice sent in the gamewinner against losing pitcher Derek Self. Matt Spann started and pitched into the 6th, giving up five hits and five walks. He left with a 2-0 lead but Jake Walsh let in both inherited runners with a single to the first batter he faced. Rafael Bautista reached base three times and scored twice as Potomac was held to just five hits and three walks on offense.
Hagerstown 8 Delmarva 3
• Bach (W, 5-3) 5IP, 4H, R, ER, 3BB, 5K
• K. Perez 2IP, 1H, 1R, 0ER, 0BB, 0K
• Mejia 3-5, 2R, HR, 2RBI, SB
• Marmolejos-Diaz 2-4, R, 2B, 2RBI
• Abreu 2-4, R, BB, 2RBI, SB(25)
Hagerstown scored four in the 3rd and never looked back as they pounded Delmarva, 8-2 to complete the four-game sweep. Connor Bach won his fifth game with five innings of one-run ball on four hits and three walks. He struck out five. The top third of the order combined for seven hits, four runs, and six RBI, led by Bryan Mejia, who was 3-for-5 with a home run. Osvaldo Abreu also reached base three times with two singles and a walk and stole his 25th base.
Connecticut 4 Auburn 2
• Borne (L, 1-2) 4⅔ IP, 7H, 4R, 4ER, 2BB, 2K
• Johns 2⅓ IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 3K, 1-0 IR-S
• Jefferies 2-3, RBI
• Encarnacion 2-4, R, 2-2B
The Tigers roared for four in the 3rd and held off the Doubledays for a 4-2 win. Grant Borne was charged with all four runs on seven hits and two walks over four and 2/3rds innings to suffer the loss, his second. Sam Johns and Cody Gunter combined for three and a 1/3rd scoreless innings of relief. Randy Encarnacion doubled twice and Jake Jefferies singled twice to account for four of the eight Auburn hits on the afternoon.
In July and August, Rafael “Beer League” Martin is has made 16 appearances pitched 17.2 innings 10 H 1 BB 22 Ks and has a WHIP well below 1.00.
Pretty impressive numbers. He deserves a callup come Sept. 1
He’ll almost certainly be called up–otherwise it makes little sense to keep a 31-year old rookie RH reliever on the 40-man roster all season.
He had his cup of coffee earlier.
GG and group forum. Let’s list the perimeters
In which hitters advance a level next spring
And pitchers. Hitters no doubt should be hitting
Better than .260?? Jeff Gardner a good example .
Low BA but Uncle Lou would like his doubles
Production aka Matty Page.
Pitchers fall under a numbers bunch game
After awhile.
Thoughts opinions on this rainy Monday
Late night LA action.
Play Robinson versus the old team of his .
Unique. Travel off day for all farm clubs
Except our interesting X2 days.
How about some topics from left field ??
Mejia continues to pour it on despite his inability to take any walks whatsoever. You’d think he’d at least draw an intentional BB or two the way he is hitting. He, Robles and Turner deserve consideration for the Nats’ minor league player of the year award despite only playing half a season. Sadly, none of the full season guys are worthy of it.
My bet is they’ll give it to Turner to help hype him up as Desmond walks out the door.
Karl, I suggested Turner, Robles, or Stevenson as the org hitter of the year, so I’m with you on favoring the short-season guys. Jeff, sorry, but I can’t get behind Keyes. Power is his whole thing, and his SLG for the year is only .385, with 10 HRs. I’d probably give it to Martinson and his 18 HRs tougher defensive position over Keyes. But they’ve got nothing on Turner or Robles. Plus having Robles follow Difo would be a good shout-out to the Dominican program, which seems to be the healthiest pipeline right now, particularly for hitters.
Jeff, I started thinking about your suggestion of a discussion of hitters moving up and I mostly just got depressed! Vettleson, Goodwin, Skole (who did move up), Wooten, Kieboom, a bunch of guys for whom we once had a lot of hope are now mostly just hanging on. I give Ward a pass since he was so young for A+, but he’ll be back at Potomac. Bostick did pretty well at Potomac but looks like he’ll start again at Harrisburg next year. I’m considering Turner and Difo in another class, of course, both due to “graduate” soon.
Farther down the system, I expressed my concern about Page’s lack of power yesterday, but he’s made enough contact to move on to Potomac. I’d also start Stevenson at Potomac and plan to be aggressive with getting him on to AA. I was hoping Wiseman could be on a similar path, but he hasn’t done enough yet to escape Auburn so will probably start at Hagerstown. And of course we’ll all be watching how fast Robles can move. I know he’s very young, but I’ll be disappointed if he doesn’t make it Woodbridge next year. Several of you guys know the younger players much better than I do, though, particularly the Latin players, so I’ll be interested in your movers to watch.
Just my $0.02.
K. There is the fact that nobody thumps the ball
Above A ball like keyes. If Moore sticks around
Keyes could bring a player in trade return.
Page playing 1 b is worth the trouble giving him
1 b glove
Thoughts in anything ?
My dog needs another outdoor stroll , Luke
Just to be clear, I’ve got nothing against Keyes. When I first saw him at Potomac in 2012, he really drew your attention, as he had the body of a major-leaguer. He looked like he might be breaking through last year, with 24 HRs, but he’s only got 10 this year, in his age 26 season. We’ll see. I agree that there has been very little thump in the upper minors (or in the system as a whole, really) other than Keyes and Skole, but neither have done much to announce that they’re on track to be major-leaguers, either.
Karl. I can agree with that but keyes deserves
Some kudos for his light standard bulb crashing power
When most guys in harrisburg have not taken
Advantage of the small park .
Does Desmond in compensation tables reward
With two comp picks or one ? Late season fade
Trade to Mariners ??
Group forum question. : where does Eusebio
Fit in the audition line for hags 2016???
Could his have bat will travel carry him to potomAc
By this time next season ??
He’ll certainly start in Hagerstown next season, but I worry that he’s found his ceiling in the NYPL. Like Bryan Mejia, Eusebio doesn’t walk at all (special congratulations are in order, since Diomedes took his first walk for Auburn last night). That could work for a speedy middle infielder, but it won’t for a power hitting 1B. He got found out in his stint earlier this season in Hagerstown. And at nearly 23, he’s already too old for the level.
But you never know. Players are able to reinvent themselves all the time. Maybe it works for Eusebio, but I’m not optimistic.