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Wednesday’s News & Notes

Team Yesterday Today Pitching Matchup
Syracuse Won, 3-0 @ Lehigh Valley,
10:35 a.m.		 Fedde (1-0, 2.25) vs.
Irvin (1-1, 3.86)
Harrisburg Won, 5-3 vs. Hartford,
10:30 a.m.		 Estevez (0-2, 5.23) vs.
Lambert (1-1, 2.11)
Potomac Won, 6-5 vs. Wilmington,
7:05 p.m.		 Crownover (1-2, 3.49) vs.
A. Hernandez (2-0, 1.35)
Hagerstown Won, 8-6 @ Greensboro,
12:00 p.m.		 Alastre (0-1, 6.00) vs.
Braley (1-2, 4.09)

Syracuse 3 Lehigh Valley 0
• Voth 5IP, 2H, 0R, BB, 8K, 91-56 P-K
• Adams (SV, 3) 1IP, 2H, 0R, BB, 3K, WP
• Marmolejos 2-3, R, BB
• Wilson 1-3, R, 2B, BB

Five Chiefs pitchers combined to strike out 16 and shut out the Iron Pigs, 3-0. Austin Voth returned from his hopes being raised Washington to toss five scoreless inning with two hits and one walk issued while striking out eight. Chris Smith, Jimmy Cordero, and Tim Collins each put up donut to earn a hold while Austin Adams careered through the 9th, loading the bases with nobody out then striking out the side for the save, his third. Jose “Orange” Marmolejos pealed off two singles and a walk while Jacob Wilson doubled and scored a run to lead the Syracuse offense. Roster moves: C Matt Reistetter placed on the 7-Day DL, retroactive to April 27; 1B Mark Reynolds reassigned from Auburn.

Harrisburg 5 Hartford 3
• Reyes (W, 2-2) 6IP, 4H, R, ER, BB, 3K, WP
• Hernandez 2-3, 2R, HR, 2RBI, BB
• Johnson 2-4, 2R, 2B
• Gamache 1-4, R, HR, 3RBI

Harrisburg scored all five runs on the longball as they jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the 1st and held on for 5-3 win over Hartford. Luis Reyes spun six innings of one-run ball on four hits and a walk while striking out three. Kaleb Fleck let in the second Yard Goat run over two innings for the hold while Roman Mendez coughed up the third and final Hartford run on a HR for the rulebook save. Dan Gamache connected for the Earl Weaver special in the 1st while Yadiel Hernandez provided the game-winning margin with a two-run HR in the 7th to power the Senators attack.

Potomac 6 Wilmington 5
• Crowe (W, 4-0) 5⅔ IP, 4H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 6K
• Pantoja (SV, 2) ⅓ IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Soto 2-4, R, HR, 2RBI
• Agustin 1-3, R, HR, RBI
• Reetz 1-4, R, HR, 3RBI

The P-Nats also went medieval on the buttocks of the Blue Rocks pitchers with three homers in a six-run 3rd and held on for 6-5 win. Telmito Agustin started the barrage with a solo shot to right field. After a groundout and an olé by Wilmington’s shortstop, Juan Soto hit it to the right of the “hit it here sign” in right-center for a two-run homer. Jakson Reetz completed the sortie with a three-run blast to LF. Wil Crowe won for the fourth time with five and 2/3rds innings pitched, two runs charged on three hits and an error misruled as a hit, three walks, and six strikeouts. Hayden Howard and Jordan Mills combined for the final three runs allowed over three innings before Jorge Pantoja came on to get the 27th out and the save.
Roster moves: LHP Taylor Guilbeau reassigned from Hagerstown.

Hagerstown 8 Greensboro 6
• Tetrault 3⅓ IP, 7H, 4R, 4ER, BB, 4K, HR
• Braymer (W, 3-0) 3⅔ IP, 5H, 2R, 2ER, BB, 2K, HR, 2-1 IR-S
• McKinney (SV, 1) 2IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 5K
• Sundberg 3-5, 2R, RBI
• Freeman 2-5, R, RBI
• Franco 2-5, R, 2B, 2RBI

Hagerstown dug out from a 6-0 hole with a pair of four-spots in the 6th and 8th innings for 8-6 win over Greensboro. Jackson Tetrault struggled again with four runs allowed on seven hits and a walk while fanning four over the three and a 1/3rd innings. Ben Braymer was slightly better (2R, 3⅔ IP) and was the pitcher of record when the Suns took the lead. Jeremy McKinney was lights-out as he retired all six batters he faced, five by way of the K, to earn the save. Yasel Antuna was the beer man in the 12-hit parade, which was highlighted by Luis Garcia’s two-run HR to take the lead, and Nick Banks’s solo shot for the insurance run; both were hit with two outs in the inning. Roster moves: LHP Max Engelbrekt retired; RHP Steven Fuentes demoted from Potomac.
Hager

19 Commments

  1. Juan who? Luke, any first impressions on the new golden child? What about thoughts on Crowe, who one would think will be Harrisburg-bound soon.

    Kudos to Voth for channeling what you know had to be great frustration into another excellent start. WHIP 0.68, ERA 0.76, with 30 Ks in 23.2 IP.

    With Stevenson and Bautista currently on Half Street, is there any reason not to give Yadiel Hernandez a look at AAA? He’s now slashing .328/.438/.522.

    Last but not least, best wishes to Max Engelbrekt, the funky lefty who was the 40th-round pick in 2017. He had a couple of injury layoffs in college and will turn 25 at the end of the summer. Hope he enjoyed his taste of pro ball.

    1. Given that the Nats view Harrisburg and Syracuse interchangeably (they regularly promote from both levels), I don’t see how a promotion to AAA would mean much/make much of a difference to Yadiel Hernandez. I still think he’s a better option in Washington than Moises Sierra. At least with Hernandez, there’s the chance he’s better than .240/.290/.370 that Sierra has been in 500 big league plate appearances.

    2. He doesn’t look 19 that’s for sure and has a much better feel/approach at the plate than the guys 4-6 years older than he is. Haven’t really seen enough of him defensively to make a judgment, though he’s already better than Wiseman.

      I’d like to see Crowe against some of the better offenses but until the 6th he looked really good. The “hit” that he deflected to Mejia, who botched it despite the ball hitting him in the glove, rattled him and that’s not a good sign from someone who’s supposed to be more advanced than your typical 2nd year pro. But that’s nitpicking…

      1. It would be good news if Soto is solid enough defensively to stick in the OF. Of course since the big club currently defines “solid enough” as “Matt Adams,” the bar is awfully low! Offensively, there was scuttlebutt even last year that some in the organization were calling Soto’s approach and swing the best they had seen come through the Nat ranks in a long time. We’ll see. Early results are promising!

        Gio still gets rattled by errors. Maybe he’ll get over it one day . . .

  3. Woohoo!
    Think that this is the first day this season when the affiliates have all swept the board in terms of winning?

  4. Potomac’s catchers have been quietly really good this season.

    Reetz is batting .275/.422/.412 (including .350 over this past 10 games)
    And Barrera is batting .308/.341/.487.

    While Reetz’s name has been known around here a lot longer than Barrera’s, Reetz is still almost 1.5 years younger than Barrera. That’s the benefits of drafting HSers. They can stall for several years and still prove to be useful prospects (see Michael Taylor and Steven Souza for more evidence).

    Davidson is still mashing in Harrisburg. His numbers now through 8 games are .429/.515/.750.

    Finally, Jeremy McKinney looks like he might have some value for a 31st rounder. 8.1 IP, 14:1 KK:B, 5 H, 0 ER so far. Give him another month in Hagerstown, but, like Crowe, he needs to be promoted aggressively .

  5. Give respect to Ryan Sullivan at NatsGM for observing the body work Reetz put in, the tick up in his bat speed, and its likely translation to production. He was saying this when Reetz was plodding along with marginal numbers.

    Potomac really is a team of many Interesting players.

    Yadiel Hernandez has been better than advertised. He takes a walk, and his power is emerging even though he is small. At 200k, one has to credit Rizzo for the low cost investment in someone that age-ists refuse to allow is capable of improvement. Yet, like any other prospect, if you believe in your coaches, an organization has to believe they can unlock even more tools. Hernandez was on fire later last year, in AA, so with all of the movement of the outfielders in AAA, one would think he ought to land there and get a good look with Stevenson, Bautista, Robles and Sierra all off the field.

    Sierra looked great in the spring, but he is looking AAA-AAAA now. Next! Enter Mark Reynolds……

    Kudos to Randy Knorr on the great start.

  6. Agree with KW on Engelbrekt. His tenure is pretty normal for a 40th rounder.

    Makes the story of KLob that much more impressive.

    Worked with a guy who played 4 years in the Mets org. and he said 20 years on the memories never leave you. Wish Max well.

  7. Kudos to Austin Voth. After last season, I had totally given up on him as a prospect. Could not have been more wrong.

    His numbers to start this season are as good as anyone in MILB:
    23.2 IP 13H 3 BB (!!!!!) 30Ks 0.68 WHIP 11+ Ks per 9 innings 10 to 1 K to BB ratio. Just ridiculous.

    Last season was mostly a series of disappointments on the prospect front (outside of Robles), but there has been a complete turnaround for most of the Nats top prospects. Can’t wait for Robles (and Romero) to get back. Fun to see the organization prosper.

    –

    1. I think last year our higher level prospects didn’t do particularly well outside of Robles, Raudy Read and Wander Suero who broke out. But on the lower levels quite a bit of guys emerged. Daniel Johnson, Yasel Antuna, Luis Garcia, Blake Perkins and too an extent Juan Soto and Carter Kieboom though they both missed most of the year.

      So far this year Perkins has been solid and Soto might be better than advertised. Dare I say he’s on Vlad Jr. like hit level and he’s considered an 80 grade hitter by many. More walks than ks.

      Kieboom is off to a slow start. I hope he gets going because I think he can hit.

      Antuna and Garcia still very young look a little overmatched in low-A thus far.

      Daniel Johnson looks like he may be hearing adjusting a bit to AA but the power he showed last year in lower levels has been pretty non existent thus far.

      1. Actually, in a rating that is quickly seeming laughable, the Fangraphs’ guys, in their preseason prospect list, had Soto with a 30 current hit grade, 55 ceiling. Recalibrating, recalibrating . . .

        1. (And by the way, that preseason Nat list STILL reads as “A’s Top Prospects.”)

        2. In one of the chats, one of them acknowledged he would rise in the mid-season rankings.

          I’m personally not sure they saw any of the Nats prospects in person, given some inconsistencies in the rankings and commentary (Longenhagen in west coast based, so he wouldn’t have seen any besides the few in AZFL, and McDaniel is just coming back from a job with the Braves, not sure how much scouting he’s been doing recently), but then again maybe they made some errors as they were extremely pressed on time and just mailed the whole system ranking in anyway.

        3. Speak of the devil, McDaniel was just asked this today:

          Cruze: Is Juan Soto the next prospect to ascend to the Vlad/Acuna tier?

          Kiley McDaniel: Not quite that level of tools, but could turn into 60 bat/power and 50 D in RF. Short track record so waiting to see a bit more, but there’s top 10-15 overall prospects (60-65 FV) that are that type of player.

          1. This still seems light on Soto. I understand because of small sample. But I could definitely see him ascending to Vlad Jr., Acuna like territory. He shows a better approach than Acuna (albeit with nowhere near the tools) and a similar approach to Vlad Jr. All Soto has done is hit .300+ at every level hes been to and is showing that he may walk more than k. It’s not like Vladdy has plus speed or gold glove defender written on him. He’s that highly rated based solely on bat, power potential, and approach. I’m not necessarily saying Soto is as good but he’s shown similarities. The ultimate power potential was the biggest question entering the season for Soto. So far so good as it appears he’s found it much more than before evidenced by his 8 homers.

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