2019 Rosters for the Affiliates Revealed

40 Commments

1. One thing to consider in the PCL: offense in that air elevates compared to the EL.
   Some bats should advance as do the weeks and months

   1. Maybe it’s time for Tom Cruise to do another Jerry McGuire sequel where modern sports figures are made fun of.
      Boros made fun of again
      Plus that kid grows up to be pitching phenom
      Cruise sequels all his vehicles lately

      1. Cliff Pennington with his Texas Longhorn pedigree has been destined to sign with Rizzo / Nats

         1. Adventures on the pillows. FP needs to copyright that !

   2. Would love to see Sanchez flight itinerary heading east !

   3. Cane. Without looking up on baseball – reference . Was Mario Sanchez a PTBNL in a minor minor Rizzo transaction last year ??

2. Looks like Carter Kieboom might get a taste of the majors … albeit its likely they’ll start off with Adrian Sanchez to play for Turner. I guess they’ll give CK some time to settle in at Fresno probably playing a lot of shortstop as the big club flails about and tries to right the sinking ship before it gets scuttled.

3. So who are the emergency bullpen options in Harrisburg?

   Every reliever with big league experience- and there’s quite a few- (Williams, Rainey, Adams, Copeland, Cordero, Hoover, McGowin, Nuno, Espino, etc.) are in Fresno.

   Fedde is the only arm in Harrisburg who has thrown in the majors already, but the Nationals remain insistent he start games, and Bourque is the only other on the 40 man. But given he’s only got 19 IP above A ball, I’d expect the ten or so named above would be ahead of him in the pecking order.

   I’m not surprised they’re using a catcher and starter in a break-in-case-of-emergency role in Harrisburg, but I am surprised they haven’t divided a few major-league-capable relievers between AA and AAA, especially because relievers have truly become fungible between AAA and the majors these days. How many times did Trevor Gott alone get bounced between Syracuse and DC last year? 10? 15 times? Then add the options to Grace, Adams, Collins, Suero, Solis, etc. and you’re looking at many dozens, if not hundreds, of transactions per year on the bullpen alone. Add to that, our bullpen just might be worse than last year (yet again, thanks Rizzo), and we’re looking at A LOT of activity.

   I feel really bad for Williams. He’s inevitablly going to have a ton of transcontinental flights back and forth between Fresno and DC only to fill out the bullpen numbers for a day or so.

   1. Four for Gott, eight if you count both ways. I somehow doubt that these rosters will stay the same if indeed the Nationals will require 16-17 transactions per month.

      1. Tomorrow Luke this blog will explode like a rally vs the Nats bullpen

4. I hope Williams is already on a flight for DCA right now (to replace Suero, who he clearly beat out in the spring), and that Kieboom is on the flight with him. With the poor start to the season, they can’t afford to screw around with Difo and Sanchez starting at SS.

5. I do count both ways, since a promotion/demotion doesn’t necessitate a later move the other way. 8 for Gott. 7 moves for Suero. 4 moves for Collins. 4 for Adams. 9 for Voth. 3 for Cordero. 4 for Solis. That’s 40 moves, and I’m probably leaving off a few other relievers on the AAAA carousel, to bring it well past 50 transactions relating to the bullpen. It’s clearly the most active position for promoting minor leaguers.

   They clearly value the proximity of Harrisburg, as evidenced by stashing Kieboom and Fedde there, but I find it strange they didn’t do the same with any relievers. I’d have split 5 of our AAAA bullpen arms, say Cordero, Adams, Williams, Espino and Bourque in Harrisburg, and sent the other half: Rainey, Copeland, Hoover, McGowin, and Nuno to Fresno. Hell, it might even work out for the better if we’re playing on the West Coast at the time.

   But either way, mark my words, there’s going to be a ton of bullpen movement again this season, as Rizzo’s proven himself incapable of building a bullpen for a decade now. And this isn’t just a Nationals problem. A record number of pitchers in MLB were used last year, a record which has been broken in each successive year since 2011.

   But given Rizzo’s repeated mistakes with regards to bullpens over the past decade, I’m not willing to give him the benefit of the doubt here. This will have repercussions. Either a flight will get delayed/cancelled, a player will be fatigued by taking a red-eye in time for a day game, or players (whoever becomes the Voth of this season) will just get frustrated with all the futile travel. But it will have an effect on the big league team this season, where a recently promoted Fresno pitcher will perform worse (or be unable to perform being stuck in some airport). I hope that day comes late into the season, but with 50 or so moves needed, and a best case 8 hour travel each time to DC, it’s bound to happen, and probably not irregularly.

   I’ll be happy to see if this doesn’t evolve into a problem, and will gladly eat my words in that case, but you can bet I’ll point it out when it does happen 😉

   1. Nashville with a tan would have been sweet music for Nats farm

6. I’d call Reid Schaller not making the Hagerstown roster a disappointment. He was a 3d-round pick, although he did have limited college experience due to arm issues. I was hoping that Andrew Karp (6th round) could be ready for that level as well, and also the perpetually recovering Ryan Williamson. I also thought we might see Eric Senior at Hags, considering all the good things our friend Forenicane heard about him in WPB. Perhaps he’ll be the next man up if/when someone from the Hags fast-rising OF quartet gets promoted.

   Curious that Agustin got left at Potomac. Seems like the organization doesn’t view him as highly as some of the prospect lists. There’s not exactly overwhelming OF talent standing in his way at Harrisburg.

   And yes, that’s an aggressive push of Garcia, who doesn’t turn 19 until May.

   Oh, and where the heck is Andrew Istler? I thought he should have been an NRI to the MLB camp, but he’s not even on one of the minor-league rosters. Maybe he’s had an arm issue or something. Forenciane did report seeing him in camp.

   1. Betting people would bet on Pablo Cruise O”Conner to slide up to W- bridge fast ?

7. What about outfielder O’Koyea Dickson? Was he released? He got into a couple ST games. I figured he’d for sure be in Fresno.

   1. He’s been re-assigned to Auburn, which is strange, because when he was signed he was assigned to Harrisburg. Seems like it’s a bit of roster machinations, and in a few weeks he’ll reappear in AA.

      1. Guys get parked to manipulate roster depth

8. And yes, the Hags roster is loaded. That’s much of the future of the organization right there.

9. Congratulations to Wilmer Difo for, somehow, getting yet another chance to fail as an everyday major league player and Adrian Sanchez for, somehow, getting another major league callup.

   Guess Carter Kieboom will just have to pay his dues in Fresno for a while. I assume once the Nats are out of it, they’ll call him up — maybe? Not sure what it will take for Austen Williams if the bullpen giving up like 20 runs less than a week in doesn’t do it, but he also deserves to play.

   Oh well. The minor league season should be fun to watch, at least.

   1. They’re going to leave Kieboom down long enough to push back his free agency clock. The whole master plan is to groom position player prospects for a lower cost lineup while blowing hundreds of millions on starting pitchers who lose dozens of wins because the bullpen is built using the change that has slid down into Mark Lerner’s cushions.

      1. Karl like in the Natural film : back to the night court shift , old man Judge ‍⚖️

10. It’s no time to be worrying about the #%%@@!! service time clock! Difo is not a competent starter for a contender, which he proved beyond a shadow of a doubt last season while getting an incomprehensible 456 plate appearances. Carter Kieboom hit very well in the spring in MLB games, including two homers in one off a sure-fire Hall of Famer. They can’t start Difo for two months. They just can’t. That’s insanity.

11. I had a soliloquy started , Luke , but my dog called for a walk and the screen went away.
    Recently I watched The Natural in a flight traveling for work with its varied themes of hero worship , Homeric full circles and resurrections and stinging
    Portrayals of greedy , mind control ownership and media monkey grinder PR.
    Ironically I am wearing an old RL Polo with the number 3
    Which leads me to my comment : I have never had a hero worship vibe on Harper through the 7 years Iike the earlier youthful salivating over the talent which pushed through Montreal especially Hawk , Rock , Eli, TheKid ( I don’t think I will cry myself to sleep if Harper passes before me like Carter did RIP)…bad Vlad.
    Anyway. Robert Duvall was brilliant as Max Mercy in The Natural as the 1939 media spin doctor. Now we have ESPN spinning the Nats into a lower eschelon mind set behind their April pre season favorites.
    As for the kids on the farm. Baseball brass rarely pushes the envelope with talent.
    Perhaps rosters are never truly settled like cement until Opening Night when the curtain drops and the Baseball wizards of oz churn their spin doctoring .
    I was thinking last night with Harper in the dugout that in previous decades you rarely saw talent bounce between rivals like the Dodgers and Giants even after 1976
    Fascinating historical factoid from last night. Reggie Jackson in huge trade to Orioles where he did not report for a month.
    And he bypassed Montreal later.
    I have no idea what I am trying to say here. Maybe there are more important things in life than seeing a 30 million dollars year guy get excited about baseball after years of being driven by Werth , Zimm11 and many others.
    Time to enjoy the maturation process in Soto, Robles and the next wave.
    We will be watching STL Cards style of baseball versus bash bash bash

12. I’m not panicking, and neither should the fan base. Maybe it’s because I live in New York, where Mets fans were crowing last year about their 11-1 start and then, of course, the rest of the season happened.

    This is not on the Lerner’s “cheapness.” Bryce Harper has a great game, good for him. It’s 4 games in! As for the BP, yes Rosenthal looks like an empty tank and a couple of others have not impressed. So? It’s April!

    No one seems to notice that Juan Soto has 9K and is hitting less than .200. Certain things will turn around that can’t be blamed on Rizzo.

    Difo vs. Kieboom? I say Difo. I remember the Nats playing well the last time he was starting at SS for an extended stretch in 2017 after injury. He’s no all star, but he’s not Adrian Sánchez. Difo is a winner. Let’s see what happens, without panic. Kieboom needs AB to get ready, and especially if he is going to have the pressure of playing SS on a team trying to win.

    1. Let’s keep something in mind. Difo , Raffie and Meijia had skill sets to lead GCL to a flag one year
       Difo was MVP in Sally League. He has same skill sets worth bench Uber utility spark plug
       I wonder what Max Mercy would have drawn last night after a 8-3 game
       Patience across the board. Robles maturation , awaiting the wheel of game repetition to allow guys to get ins groove. Bullpens evolve.
       Oh to be humble and patient like a bird dog scout who has covered the roads like a semi truck driver of decades

13. As for Harper, I acknowledge that my prejudice is to believe that the Washington Post is a readily, willingly duped rag used by politicos, the intel community, and sports figures alike. So I’m not buying Harper’s self-serving Svrluga
    Shayt.

    That said, it hurts to have Harper star on a winning team, but Harper is an up and down player. Like the hot chick you see in someone else’s home who was once yours – from afar, you see the rockin bod and drool, and forget about how when she was living with you, she had bad breath, was spoiled, and didn’t support you and was a constant source of stress. I’m sure he believes what he told Svrluga, just like the hot chick thinks she’s perfect because she’s used to hearing it from people she doesn’t live with. Good riddance to Harper and go Nats.

    And another thing – Austen Williams is quite cheaper than Kimbrel. And may have a longer career ahead of him as well.

    1. Amen !! Cane. You hit that out of the park.
       Keep in mind Melanie Griffith who once caused a broken marriage. And now the autumn years are not too kind.
       I love the line from John Ritter (RIP)80s film. Skin Deep: God has a sense of humor and He is a gag writer. Right, Max Mercy??

    2. Fore, I’m with you on Austen vs. Kimbrel. Kimbrel’s at the tail end of his career. All Austen Williams did in S.T. was get everybody out.

       The ‘hot woman’ analogy to Harper is classic, and true.

       1. Cane as in the end of Voltaire’s Candide. The old woman is bent over in the garden as the young lad asks the old man who chased the younger version of said woman all over the world .. if you had your life to live all over again what would you do different ?? The old man replies : I would have cultivated my garden …

14. I’m still laughing about Melanie Griffith in autumn. Plastic surgery has a way of turning plastic.

    1. Cane you should fly to Montrose Colorado. Autumn years hitting numerous at that altitude and poor surgery choices

15. Two walkoff wins.
    Today come from behind after a most deflating BP meltdown
    Keep the faith! The signs are there…

    1. Cane and others. I am sure there might be revolving door bullpen cameos from the likes of Hoover , Copeland and maybe even Andrusek after AW builds up his frequent flier miles .w

16. Perhaps Copeland, but I reckon we’ll see others. even Joe Ross, in BP roles before then. There are arms stacked in AAA like Nuno and even Austin Stagefright Adams. Can’t do worse than infinity ERA.

    1. I meant before Hoover it Andrusek. At that point you go to AA and bring Bourque around..

       Which reminds me, once RC Orlan got out of the Nats orbit, he got helium with the Indians. He’s close to finally making it. Some of those HiA to Mid minor arms just need a chance over the likes of the retreads.

       1. I noticed RC is pitching for the Clippers this year. Strangely Tyler Clippard will join him… 11 years after he was a started for Columbus. AJ Cole is also on the staff.

          1. Jefry Rodriguez is there too.

17. Chandler Day is at Hagerstown and I really think he is going to open some eyes (whenever he gets in). As for the bullpen, they are going to need to get someone called up. Davey is chewing through relievers pretty quickly. A Williams/Suero swap is needed soon (if Rosenthal doesn’t end up on the DL first).

18. Perhaps if Clippard has an opt out date we will be seeing him. He seemed to have burned a bridge with some public comments but this is far from a Shawn Kelley situation.

    I think Bud Norris would be on the radar as well. When you see how Justin Miller is pitching, you have to ask, why not?

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