NationalsProspects.com

Thursday’s News & Notes

Team Yesterday Today Probable Pitchers
Syracuse Lost, 5-3 vs. Louisville,
6:35 p.m.		 Espino (3-4, 3.39) vs.
Diaz (2-0, 2.45)
Harrisburg Lost, 7-6 vs. Hartford,
7:00 p.m.		 Mapes (5-3, 3.29) vs.
Senzatela (3-1, 3.45)
Potomac OFF DAY vs. Frederick,
7:05 p.m.		 TBD vs. TBD
Hagerstown Lost, 10-8 vs. Lexington,
7:05 p.m.		 Avila (4-3, 2.88) vs.
Garabito (0-3, 9.58)


Louisville 5 Syracuse 3
• Long 6IP, 7H, 3R, 3ER, 2BB, 3K, 2HR
• Belisle (L, 0-1) 1IP, 2H, R, ER, 0BB, 1K
• den Dekker 2-4, R, HR, RBI
• Skole 1-4, R, HR,

An early 3-1 Chiefs lead disappeared slowly as the Bats scored one in the 4th, then posted a picket fence in the 6th, 7th, and 8th for a 5-3 win. Jaron Long gave up two longballs but still turned in a quality start of three runs allowed over six innings on six hits and two walks. He struck out three. Matt Belisle failed to turn in a clean inning for the 8th time in nine innings on his current rehab tour as served up the decisive run on two hits in the 7th. The Matts den Dekker and Skole both hit solo HR’s for the only two extra-base knocks of the ten collected by the Syracuse offense. Roster move: Matt Belisle transferred from Harrisburg for MLB Rehab

Hartford 7 Harrisburg 6
• Lopez 7IP, 5H, 2R, 2ER, BB, 13K; 1-3
• Simms (BS, 1; L, 3-3) 1IP, 2H, 3R, 3ER, 2BB, 1K, HR (GS), 3-2 IR-S
• Difo 3-4, 2R, 2HR, 2RBI, BB
• Bostick 1-4, R, HR, RBI, BB, SB
• Baustisa 1-4, SB(30), CS(5)

Reynaldo Lopez struck out a career-high 13 batters over seven strong innings and left with a 6-2 lead. The Senators firemen brought petrol instead of water as they gave up five runs in the 8th, with John Simms doing his best imitation of Phil Simms trying to say something insightful as he let in two of three inherited and three of his own on two walks and a grand slam for the blown-save-loss. Wilmer Difo homered twice while Kevin Keyes and Christopher Bostick each homered once (all solo) to pace the ten-hit, five-walk Harrisburg attack.

Potomac – OFF DAY
Potomac will send four to the California-Carolina All-Star Game in Lake Elsinore, CA on June 21st. Meanwhile, the P-Nats return home on five-game skid to play the Keys for four this weekend before heading back out on the road to Salem for three next week.

Asheville 10 Hagerstown 8
• Bourque (L, 0-1) 3IP, 8H, 6R, 5ER, 2BB, 3K
• Torres 1IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Gutierrez 3-5, 3R, 2B, 3B, HR, 2RBI
• Page 2-4, R, 2B
• Wiseman 2-4, R, RBI

Three Hagerstown errors led to three unearned runs in a 10-8 loss to Asheville. Suns starter James Bourque’s first appearance since 2014 was a loss as the Tourists went home six times on eight hits and two walks over three innings. Taylor Guilbeau followed but was charged with four runs (one earned) on four hits over four innings. Kelvin Gutierrez was a single shy of the cycle as he doubled, tripled, and homered while driving in two. Telmito Agustin was the beer man as the only Hagerstown batter not to march in the 13-hit parade. The Suns struck out seven times and did not draw a walk.

36 Commments

  1. Whoa, Lopez. And half those Ks were against Dahl and McMahon, two primo prospects. Let the hype reignite.

    Any predictions for tonight? Mendoza and Tyler, if the mocks are to believed. I’d like to see Muller and Trammell or Nolan Jones.

    1. My picks are Bryan Reynolds and Will Craig if he’s available, Matt Thaiss if he’s not. I’m all in for college bats with power.

      1. This. If Will Craig is still there, grab him.

        Power bats and lefthanded pitching. And then the strongest arms.

    2. I go with BA mock 5.0
      Funkhauser and Manning
      Jim Callis is Zeus of the electric
      Media

    3. Lovely start by Lopez. 7 Innings; so 21 outs: 13 strikeouts, a caught stealing, a double play and six other groundouts. ZERO fly ball outs; and zero gopher balls. The boy appears to be rounding into some form.

    4. I am hoping for the BA one of the main ones out there. Manning sounds like a huge upside play and Funkhouser seems to be coming on.

      Anyone seen law’s latest? He has a new one up this morning.

      I am hoping for a Giolito like surprise and us getting one of Groome or Manning.

      1. Law has them going for Carter Kieboom and Dane Dunning, which I assume would both be a bit underslot since he also says they’ll try for a later deal with Illinois prep OF Jordan McFarland. I like both Kieboom and Dunning generally but hoping for a higher talent that falls for one of these picks. Don’t know anything about McFarland

        1. McFarland is only #374 on BA. He’s a right handed power hitter that can run. He has a weak arm, so he’d be a LF.

          Thanks Wally. I’m still hoping for Groome/Manning.

      2. Frankie Piliere says Groome is fre falling and the Braves think he might be there for them at 40. I hope the Nats jump in and snag him. What a steal that would be.

        1. Why is he free falling? Law has him at #7 to Miami.

          I like his profile too, but if he is falling due to a $5m bonus demand, I’d rather spread the wealth more than sign him and 10 college seniors.

          1. I’d be conflicted on this one. I’m generally not keen on overspending on high schoolers, but by many accounts, Groome is THE best player in the draft, the true 1/1. But for the Nats to come up with something close to $5M would be the majority of their pool money and perhaps leave them taking more marginal players across the early rounds and likely not signing all of them. It would be a very Rizzo-like move, though.

  2. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Rey Lopez, in all the hyped glory we’ve been expecting for two years. Both he and Giolito seem to be hitting their strides, although even Giolito hasn’t posted the 12 & 13 K outings that Lopez has over the last couple of weeks. I imagine the talk of making Lopez a reliever will start to recede.

    Memo to Rizzo & Co. on draft day: you don’t need to take a college starting pitcher in the first round. You’ve got these guys, about the same age as the college kids. They’re pretty good. You need power bats.

    1. I wouldn’t be surprised to see both in the pen going into Sep and then [hopefully] playoffs.

      As for the draft, I really think you have to go BPA. So many kids don’t make the show that you can’t discount that even further by trying to fill an org need. And I think prep pitching is going to be the value where they pick.

      1. I don’t see the “value” of overpaying a HS kid to forego college and then having to invest in extra years of training him to see if he develops. Giolito was a special case, a potential 1/1 who had fallen from the combination of injury and Boras. But they’re not going to get that level of HS pitcher at the end of the first round.

        1. Always go for the best available talent. HS or college. Position player or pitcher. There are just so many players that miss in the MLB draft that you can not draft on organizational need because the best power hitter or college pitcher available when you select may not be an MLB caliber player. If you draft a player that will become an above average MLB player you can always trade that player for another that does fill an organizational need, but if you draft a player that cannot play on the MLB level the pick was wasted.

          If the best available player is a CF with a solid hit tool, but no power take him even if the organization already has Goodwin, Bautista, Stevenson and Robles. Same if the best available is a power pitcher.

          The key is maximizing MLB caliber talent. It’s the only thing that matters.

          1. Often, the reality is somewhere in between drafting on need or drafting on the best available. Say you’ve got 3 players to choose from that the org absolutely loves and considers lucky to still be on the board. Then you go with the position of need.

  3. The data on the all star selections is telling:

    Hagerstown has three international products – one a “bonus baby (Robles)”, one a scouting gem (Gutierrez), one a converted position player and developmental success (JRodriguez), two college products (Rivera), one of whom was thought to have fallen and scooped up for high round money (Schrock).

    Considering the system’s rep of being depleted at the corners, the all-star selections of Gutierrez and Ward are notable, especially with Franco now cooling his heels in XST. Potomac selections were ALL draft selections, three of which from college and recent picks. And two of them, (Brinley and Keller) were lower round picks, and one (Stevenson) seemingly drafted higher than ranked — therefore another scouting success.

    This data supports other data points, such as the w-l records and the performance successes of so so many of the draft picks.

    The HS pipeline is the international pool. Since it is unregulated and will be only for a limited time, it behooves the Nats to exploit the affordable and accessible talent before a draft is imposed by the majors. Now that the Nats have inspired confidence in their international scouting and Dominican Academy, their additional investment this year will flush HS aged players into the system to enter GCL in 2018. There is already enough talent to sustain the lower levels from previous quantity signing.

    The Nats demonstrably excellent college scouting – 5 college draft pick all stars, and only one of them a first rounder — (2,4, and THREE outside the regulated first ten slots) reinforces my impression that the team should be heavy college unless a “thought unsignable” special talent like a Ward, Reetz, or Watson falls to them with extra bonus money or well below slot.

    Gather resources saved from signing pick 28&29, draft aggressively and bid aggressively after round 10, using money left over on premium HS or college junior talent.

    Recall Byler, the 9th rd pick they did not sign a couple of years back. he signed as a senior and had a great pro start, then got suspended for PED. Schrock’s signing, in my eyes, was learning a lesson from the Byler whiff.

    To me, the draft of 2015 was such a leap forward from the Jake Johannsen fiasco that we should be giving it more credit and accolades. Of course, there are those stuck in the mindet that the Nats are presumed to draft players simply because they have had injured arms. That’s just stupid and I don’t see it happening unless it is a top 5 arm and a TJ.

    1. Maybe the scout behind Jordan McFarland is same
      Area scout behind David Kiernen. Just thinking ….
      Grissom ….

      1. Pulling a name out of obscurity? Perhaps scouts like to know they are important and leak to people who labor at the temple of ESPN. My guess is that the scout perhaps peed in a stall next to Law at the winter meetings, they exchanged cards, and now the faithfully private Rizzo will ask someone to do some explaining….

      2. Would Thaiis be first lefty swing catcher
        Since expis drafted Brian Schneider ??
        Interested to see where ten win lefty from
        IU Hoosiers lands

  4. Ward’s defensive progress is news to me. Very important development that signals a promotion is nigh (after the all star break). all of these things do impact organizational draft days priorities.

  6. So what to make of Matt Skole? He got off to an awful start the first 2 weeks of the season (6-for-47, .122, 0 HRs) but since then is hitting .291 (47-for-161) with 7 HRs.

    He turns 27 this summer so he isn’t a kid. He seems like he’d be no worse than Clint Robinson as a LH power-bat, 1B, but with a better glove (only 1 error at 1B at AAA in over 700 chances). He was also once very highly regarded and could even blossom into someone with Justin Bour type pop. I mean, a 5th round pick isn’t one to just throw away.

    Obviously he’d have to be added to the 40-man, but if he keeps hitting, does he have a shot at a bench role anytime soon or is he resigned to hover just below the bigs?

  7. I’ve been in Skole’s camp for years, based also on his ability to take a walk and his propensity for the big hit in the late inning. But he has been notoriously streaky — not as bad as Martinson, but bad enough. I’d like to see him sustain this success, although I have been watching.

    More importantly, he has yet to convince me that his everyday power has fully returned from before the elbow injury of two years ago. So his thump bears watching,

    With that said, one key distinction between him and Robinson is that last year, Skole proved he could play a surprisingly adequate 3B, and of course his 1B defense has improved quite a bit. Robinson is affordable and proven. Skole would have to make up quite a bit of ground yet and more importantly demonstrate that he can sustain his skills in a bench role. Perhaps if he has a very successful year to come, that will be what September is for.

    1. Robinson is a poor defensive player at first and even worse in the OF. Skole’s improvement is encouraging. Still don’t think he has played himself into the Nats’ future plans, even as a bench player. With another solid couple of months, he could change the front office’s thinking, but if I had to bet, I would bet against Skole ever playing any kind of significant role for the Nats (at best an emergency call up if the Nats suffered a rash of injuries at the corner infield spots).

      1. Agree on all except clint is not bad @ 1 b.
        We were so used to automatic Adam L @ 1 b.
        White Sox miss his skills. Abreau suddenly
        Playing like in a Cuban beer league team
        In Havana !

      2. I agree. The problem with a young guy potentially being worthy of a bench role these days is that there are only four slots available and contending teams prefer to have those go to proven veterans. Robinson has proven he can take walks and hit the occasional dinger as a pinch hitter, and that’s his primary role.

        Best hope for Skole is being selected in the Rule 5 draft this year as I don’t think he’s eligible for free agency until after next year.

        1. I won’t disagree with the defensive comps, since I think Clint is a butcher with the glove, including (or especially) at 1B, but I have to disagree that Skole could step in and replace Clint’s offensive production. Skole has far more swing and miss in his game than Robinson ever did or does, and that is a very predictive stat for major league success. Clint is a quality bat. Should be a dh/ph, but he is a quality bat.

  8. By the way boooo if Nats take Spencer’s brother.
    Congrats to brinley msking Carolina League
    All stars with the three lefty swingers . Nice
    Story and entourage with out the Classic car .
    Kudos to austin davidson @ hagerstown. Keep
    raking

Comments are closed.