Tuesday’s News & Notes

15 Commments

1. Hey, hey, a 4-0 day. My guy Andrew Lee got battered a bit, though, although it is interesting that of the eight outs he recorded, five came via strikeout. Voth had a bumpy outing as well. Another impressive start for Long at AA, and another good long-relief run for Crownover at Hagerstown. He’s logged as many innings as a starter and presumably is still considered one in the grand scheme of things.

   And Robles lives! And hits! BA is now .341, OPS at a terrific .429. Looks like he’ll have a happy 19th birthday in two days.

   And Turner continues to do whatever it takes to win ball games. The big club will be facing an interesting decision with him in a couple of weeks.

2. It’s interesting to see Difo’s continued transformation into an exact replica Rafael Bautista. He’s offering absolutely no power (Difo: .048 ISO vs Bautista: .055), high walk rate (11.8% vs 11.8%), reasonably low strikeouts (12.5% vs 13.8%), huge stolen base numbers (16 SB vs 19 SB), the only difference is that Difo’s been less lucky with his BABIP (.269 vs .336), which explains the difference in batting average.

   The confusing thing is that this has never really been either players’ profile. Both never walked this frequently, and both displayed more power in the past (albeit Difo more than Bautista).

   Is this what we can expect of them going forward? Or will Difo regain some of that magic he captured in 2014-15?

   Scouting reports suggested Difo’s power was legit (http://www.baseballprospectus.com/prospects/eyewitness_bat.php?reportid=203), but basically since this report was penned (April 2015), Difo has lost all his power.

   1. Didn’t Difo have a wrist or hamate injury last year? If yes, that may partly explain the power outage. Those affect hitters differently. It’s at least good to see him improve other areas to compensate.

      While known as a pitching org, seems like the position players are off to a better start this year. Interesting to watch it develop.

      1. Good call. I’d forgotten that Difo was injured, as it was almost the last game of the year.

         While it appears that he didn’t break him hamate bone, it was one of the ones connected to it, which may have the same knock on effects.

         I’ll keep that in mind to temper my expectations for the rest of the season.

   2. The more you look at Difo, the more you should buy low and scale up expectations. He is playing SS, a less familiar position, and he is making his errors. But he is getting his reps. His bat is really heating up.

      I don’t subscribe to the Bautista comparison. Difo has far more pop. What they do have in common is that Bautista had a broken finger last year (early) and Difo had a broken hand (year’s end). Dusty told Difo not to go for home runs, that they will come. And they will. What is very very refreshing to see is that Difo’s stolen base numbers outpace even his career high and are competitive with the best of a highly talented bunch of basestealers. Consider that the Nats have Bautista and Stevenson in the system and Turner pending promotion. And Difo is white hot right now, finally. His on-base average over the last twelve games is near 450, and his strikeouts have really come down. Just the right time for him, because if Turner gets promoted, with Ryan out of the system, Difo has a clear path to Syracuse. Good for him, and for the Nats and their Dominican program. A fine young man who is a leader and a dynamic talent.

3. Ward put on another show, now up to .316/.405/.564. Two more weeks of this and I think he’ll get the bump with Marmolejos.

   Bryan Mejia took another walk!

   And Brinley continues to be lights out- 19 K, 3 BB, 9 H, 15 IP.

   And Isaac Ballou continues to get disrespected. He’s put up better numbers than Den Dekker, Caleb Ramsey or anyone else not named Turner or Goodwin in Syracuse, and consistently demonstrated an ability to play very good baseball. Solid defence, a remarkable consistency to bat .290/.370/.420 at whatever level the Nats have promote/demoted him to any given week, and good baserunning skills. Though it seems the Nats value him as organizational filler rather than a prospect.

   1. There is not that much of a difference between AA and AAA. Den Dekker is on the 40 man roster; he is not going to AA. Ramsey’s and Ballou’s numbers at Cuse are essentially identical (.305/.377/.767 BA/OBP/OPS for Ramsey — .296/.387/.795 for Ballou), and Ramsey is a year older. Ballou will play every day at Harrisburg (he batted 3rd for them last night), if he puts up solid numbers someone will give him chance.

4. Also, I don’t want to jinx it, but has Jakson Reetz finally woken up?

   There’s a decent article on milb about him and his (very) recent improvement at the plate: http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20160516&content_id=178554074&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb&sid=milb

   1. Thanks for the link, Will, was noticing Reetz as well. Hope the light bulb stays on.

      Gotta love what Ward is doing. Michael Taylor needed the full 2 years at Potomac but Ward seems ready for the bump.

      Ho Hum, Robles had another 2-4 night. It’s getting time for him to get challenged, maybe as a birthday present.

5. Reetz’ run has to be something unprecedented – reaching base nine straight times (3 walks) after posting a .145 BA. His OBP is over .400 for the year. At his age, he can point to patience even amidst struggles getting his hits. Nice to see signs of life from him, especially given the tailing production from Ready and Kieboom.

   I’m hoping the Nats bring in serious catching talent among the power bats they should be drafting in a few weeks.

   1. Agree Gil
      And more LH starters
      Hart @ IU?

   2. The truth is there are about 26-27 teams in baseball that are short on catching talent. Just look at the ages of some of the players at AA & AAA.
      That’s why we pay so much attention to the ones we have, it is not easy finding them.

      1. Excellent point Mark and Jeff. I do not buy the pundit hype on the Nats taking a lot of HS talent. Talent/quantity.hat is what the International signing program is for and the Nats are poised to dive in with authority this year. Far better cost/benefit on younger players internationally and drafting for combination of talent/quantity. Let the draft high schoolers be people they feel are way undervalued, like Perkins and Reetz, draft signable at or lower than slot talents high like Stevenson, save the money to splash on a gem that falls (Schrock) and late round college commits that scouts tell them have a high price tag, but a price tag (Watson).

         I can’t get over the number of college talents the Nats have brought into the system in the 2015 draft. They so restocked the infield and righthanded bullpen; were it not for Hearn going down, there would be that much more promise on the lefthanded starter front. My personal top 50 has 12(!!) players 11 of whom were college products – who were drafted in 2015. And the system was not barren to begin with. Imagine if we come close to that in 2016. Fuggetaboutit!

         1. What happened to Hearn? I missed that

            1. “Minor foot fracture,” according to Byron Kerr via the twitters last week

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