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Hagerstown, Potomac Eliminated From the Playoffs

So LongBoth Potomac and Hagerstown lost last night and were eliminated from the playoffs to close the books on the 2016 Washington Nationals minor league season.

Lynchburg 3 Potomac 1
• Crownover (L, 0-1) 6+ IP, 3H, 2R, 1ER, 2BB, 4K
• Orlan 1⅔ IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 3K
• Abreu 2-4, R, 2B
• Page 1-3, BB

The P-Nats never led this one, falling behind 1-0 after four innings and 3-0 after seven. They got the tying runs to the plate in both the 8th and 9th innings, but plated just one run with Bryan Mejia’s two-out double in the 9th. For the game, Potomac was 1-for-9 with RISP and left on seven. Osvaldo Abreu was the sole batter not to whiff as the P-Nat batters fanned 12 times total, including three times swinging in the 1st.

Matthew Crownover did his part, pitching into the 7th and giving up two runs (one earned) on three hits and two walks while striking out four, but was saddled with the loss. Gilberto Mendez came on with a runner on first that reached on Raudy Read error and retired just one of three batters before Lynchburg sent him packing with a two-run homer that proved to be the difference. R.C. Orlan got the last five outs in as many batters faced, but the offense couldn’t match his effort.

The loss was the first time Potomac had failed to reach the Mills Cup finals since 2011, when the P-Nats fell to the Keys 3-2 in the then (much more fair) best-of-five Divisional series. Lynchburg will now face the defending Carolina League champs Myrtle Beach, which upset (well, see previous parenthetical) Salem to win both Game 3 and the C.L. South Division series, 2-1.

Lakewood 5 Hagerstown 2
• Watson (L, 0-1) 4⅔ IP, 6H, 3R, 2ER, 2BB, 4K
• Peterson 1IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 0K
• Sagdal 2-4, R, HR, RBI
• Beckwith 2-3, RBI

Likewise, Hagerstown fell behind 2-0 before they even came to bat and were never able to catch Lakewood, which took the game, 5-2 and swept the series, 2-0. Tyler Watson, who was making just his fifth Low-A start, was predictably knocked around for three runs on six hits and two walks over four and 2/3rds innings to wear the “L.” Jake Johansen got the last out of the 5th and pitched into the 7th before he ran out of gas. He left with runners on first and second but Mariano Rivera could not strand them as he gave up a two-out, two-run triple that effectively put the game out of reach.

Offensively, the Suns did little after Ian Sagdal led off the game with a HR to cut the deficit to 2-1. Blake Perkins followed with a single but a double play stopped the momentum, as did twin-killings in the 5th and 6th innings. Hagerstown managed just seven hits total and drew just one walk. The heart of the lineup – nos. three through seven – went 0-for-17 and accounted for four of the six batting strikeouts and both runners stranded in scoring position with two outs.

The first-round exit was the first for Hagerstown since 2012, when they were also swept by Greensboro. Lakewood gets an extra day off as they await the outcome of the Sally South series, which was tied up when Rome blew a 3-0 lead and lost 4-3 to Charleston to force a Game 3 tonight.

15 Commments

  1. Luke, thanks for getting us through another season!

    Sounds likes an impressive performance by Crownover, just no offensive support.

    Any thoughts from the masses on the organizational POY awards? The best players in the system were Turner and Glover, but they usually don’t give the awards to guys who have been promoted. Schrock was probably the second-best hitter but beat the rush on the POY curse and got traded early. I guess the hitter competition might come down to Robles vs. an Orange repeat, perhaps with some attaboy consideration for Goodwin or Skole. For pitcher, I guess it would be Mapes vs. Voth.

    1. I think Fedde or Glover for Pitcher of the Year. Turner didn’t spend enough time in the minors for me. Schrock was the easy answer u Gil the trade; no idea now.

      1. I thought about Fedde after I posted. Here’s how close it is, with Fedde’s full-season stats across two levels:

        Fedde: 3.12 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, .254 Avg. against, 123/29 K/BB

        Mapes: 3.19 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, .263 Avg. against, 78/39 K/BB

        Voth: 3.15 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, .232 Avg. against, 133/57 K/BB

        Here are the minor-league-only numbers of three others:

        Giolito: 2.97 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, .239 Avg. against, 116/44 K/BB

        Lopez: 3.21 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, .220 Avg. against, 126/35 K/BB

        Cole: 4.26 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, .266 Avg. against, 109/35 K/BB

    2. Fedde will almost certainly be pitcher of the year. His full season stats were better than Voth’s and I don’t see them giving it to a reliever.

      Turner was named an International League postseason all star, so he may still get the nod for player of the year. If not, my money is on Robles because of how much younger he was than the competition all season.

    1. Any news on Lee’s affliction? I never heard anything, but he didn’t pitch past June. I think he already had a TJ in his past, so a second one wouldn’t be good. He also had a big power bat in his past, so he could also end up a second-career guy.

  4. More for my own curiosity than to prove anything, here are some hitter numbers from across the system, minor-league stats only, ranked by OPS. This isn’t everyone, but I tried to hit many of the ones of note, mostly concentrating on the full-season guys:

    Soto: .368/.420/.533/.973 29/17 K/BB
    Marmolejos: .289/.370/.475/.845 113/64
    Turner: .302/.370/.471/.842 72/37
    Sagdal: .303/.362/.474/.836 90/36
    Schrock: .331/.373/.449/.823 42/31
    Davidson: .272/.377/.443/.820 46/49
    Robles: .280/.376/.423/.798 77/32
    Goodwin: .280/.349/.438/.787 106/46
    Skole: .244/.337/.437/.774 119/36
    Page: .267/.348/.419/.767 99/53
    Ward: .252/.348/.412/.760 121/56
    Gutierrez: .296/.349/.401/.750 75/35
    Wiseman: .255/.325/.410/.735 104/42
    Stevenson: .276/.332/.374/.706 95/44

    1. I posted BA/OBP/SLG/OPS and then K/BB. The ones who really jumped out at me in a positive way are Davidson and Sagdal, neither of whom have been heavily discussed.

  5. Just wanted to thank Luke and all the other commenters for a fun season. I learned a lot and really enjoyed the discussions. And thanks to everyone putting up with my calls for Matt Skole to be rewarded with a call-up!

    1. Great discussion all year, FG! And at this point, unfortunately, I think Skole might actually be a better hitter than Zimmerman. 🙁

      1. Yeah, who thought at the time this would be such an albatros of a contract.
        Zimmerman looks done and he’s blocking Skole and next year someone else.

        1. Heh. “Blocking” Skole. Okay.

          Thanks to Luke and everyone for a great season of discussion! I look forward to the recaps and AFL.

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