NationalsProspects.com

Monday’s News & Notes

The Nats affiliates smacked 11 HRs (and only gave up two!) on Sunday as they took three out of four.

Team Yesterday Today Pitching Matchup
Fresno Won, 6-5 @ Las Vegas, 10:05 p.m. McGowin (1-0, 1.93) vs. Mengden (1-0, 2.45)
Harrisburg Lost, 5-4 (12 inn.) @ Altoona, 6:00 p.m. Crowe (2-0, 0.82) vs. Marvel (1-1, 3.09)
Potomac Won, 8-3 @ Lynchburg, 6:30 p.m. Reyes (0-1, 12.46) vs. Scott (1-0, 3.60)
Hagerstown Won, 11-3 vs. Lexington, 6:05 p.m. Adon (0-1, 6.23) vs. TBD

Fresno 6 Las Vegas 5
• Alvarez 4IP, 4H, 5R, 5ER, 2BB, 2K, HR
• Self (W, 1-0) 2IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 3K
• Adams (SV, 1) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• J. Wilson 3-4, 2R, 2HR, 4RBI
• Kieboom 2-5, RBI
• Stevenson 1-4, R, 3B, BB, RBI

Andrew Stevenson’s bases-loaded walk in the 6th stood up as the game-winning run as Fresno edged Las Vegas, 6-5. Henderson Alvarez started for the fist time this season and hit the wall in the 4th as he gave up all five Aviators runs on four hits, including a grand slam, and two walks. Derek Self tossed two scoreless to pick up the win, Dakota Bacus added two more for the hold, while Austin Adams confused everyone by not issuing a walk in the 9th for the save. Jacob Wilson singled once and homered twice while Carter Kieboom went 2-for-5 with an RBI to pace the Grizzlies’ attack.

Bowie 5 Harrisburg 4 (12 inn.)
• Braymer 6IP, 4H, 2R, 2ER, BB, 3K
• Barrett (BS, 1) 2IP, 2H, R, ER, BB, 0K, HR
• Mills (L, 0-1) ⅓ IP, 1H, 1R, 0ER, 0BB, 0K
• A. Sanchez 2-4, R, 2RBI
• Wiseman 1-2, R, HR, RBI, 3BB

Aaron Barrett gave up a one-out HR in the 9th to tie while both Ronald Peña and Jordan Mills gave up runs in extras as the Senators were beaten 5-4 in 12 innings for just their second loss of the season. Ben Braymer got the start and turned in a quality start of two runs allowed on four hits and a walk over six innings while striking out three. After a scoreless 7th by Taylor Guilbeau, Barrett matched the feat in the 8th before giving up the equalizer in the 9th. Peña couldn’t prevent a flyball after a sacrifice bunt in the 10th but was able to in the 11th. Mills fell victim to the double-sac to lose in in 12th. Adrian Sanchez went 2-for-4 with two RBI while Rhett Wiseman connected for his 6th HR to lead the Harrisburg offense.

Potomac 8 Winston-Salem 3
• M. Peña (W, 1-1) 5⅓ IP, 3H, 3R, 3ER, BB, 9K
• Bartow (H, 1) 2⅔ IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 2K, 1-1 IR-S
• Masters 3-4, 2R, 2HR, 2RBI
• Freeman 3-5, R, 2B, SB(5)
• Agustin 2-4, R, RBI, CS

Malvin Peña took a no-hitter into the 6th but fell apart to give up three runs, but the Potomac ‘pen held the 5-3 lead in a 8-3 win that split of the four-game series. Peña struck out a career-high of nine giving up a walk and three hits total. Frankie Bartow let in an inherited runner while getting out of the 6th but pitched a scoreless 7th and 8th to earn the hold. The P-Nats bats pounded out 15 hits, including a first-inning grand slam by Nick Banks and two David Masters solo shots. Masters and Cole Freeman led the hit column with three apiece, followed by Telmito Agustin and Jakson Reetz at two.

Hagerstown 11 Asheville 3
• Alastre (W, 1-1) 5IP, 1H, R, ER, 5BB, 4K, HBP, WP
• Fletcher 2IP, 0H, 0R, BB, 2K
• Pineda 3-5, 2R, HR, 2RBI
• Lara 2-4, R, HR, 2RBI
• Blash 2-4, 2R, 2HR, 3RBI
• Harrison 2-5, 2R, 2B, HR, 2RBI

The Suns smashed five HRs en route to an 11-3 thrashing of the Tourists. Tomas Alastre evened up his won-loss record at 1-1 with five wobbly innings, as he walked five, hit a batter, struck out four, but managed to escape with just one run and one hit allowed. Jamori Blash homered twice, while Israel Pineda, KJ Harrison, and Gilbert Lara each went deep once. The quartet combined to go 9-for-18 with eight runs scored and nine RBI.

21 Commments

  1. Adams has only issued one (uno) walk all season in five innings. Also only one hit, while striking out 11, a filthy K/9 of 19.8.

    Carter Kieboom is hitting .382. Difo is “hitting” .184. Am I missing something here?

    Two solid starts for Braymer now at AA. Sens rotation includes Braymer (18th round), Sharp (22d round), and Mapes (30th round).

    What’s it going to take for Fletcher to get Alastre’s rotation slot?

    1. Regarding Fletcher, I’m not opposed to keeping some of these ’18 college arms in relief, but I’d have thought the ones they kept in the bullpen would have had a more aggressive development plan. Let’s see how long 23 year olds Teel and Fletcher last in Hagerstown. It seems though that ’16/’17 draftees are similarly blocked in Potomac (McKinney, Bgucki, Raquet) despite performing very well.

      Once there’s some movement in Fresno, I think we’ll see a system-wide shuffle, probably in early May, once the Nats have to decide whether to cut the cord with dead weight relievers on the 40 man (Rosenthal, Sipp, Grace, Cordero, Rainey).

  2. Wiseman can’t stop homering! Glad to know LeCroy reads the comments here and moved Wiseman to 6th after my comment yesterday.

    The Nationals suddenly appear to have depth at the upper levels. With Kieboom, Hernandez, Noll, Stevenson and Keller, and maybe even Jacob Wilson in Fresno, and Wiseman, Ward, Davidson, Kieboom and maybe even Garcia at Harrisburg all poised to contribute non-terrible replacement ABs. What a change! Since in past years we gave serious playing time to guys like Difo, A. Sanchez, Sierra, Matt Reynolds, Bautista, De Aza, Heisey, Drew, Raburn, Den Dekker and Clint Robinson. All but a couple of those guys were minor league free agents, who hit like minor league free agents. Good to see that some farm products could have an impact if our starters go down with injuries…. or maybe we’ll continue to trot out the same tired options with Difo and Sanchez. At least we’ve got choices now?

    1. More likely, we’ll just trade Wiseman/Davidson/et al for another crappy relief pitcher, and watch them turn into legitimate starters for bad teams, à la Steven Souza.

    2. Tired options? I’ll bet the Nats’ pitchers are very happy to have Difo’s glove in the lineup whenever Turner is not available or needs a day off. Defense is every.bit as important as offense in the SS position. The Nats are lucky to have a backup SS with a superior glove who can play the other infield positions just as well.

      1. Forinsicane Factoid.
        5 errors in 3 affiliate levels on Monday with Fresno yet to first pitch
        2 errors in Hags not very crucial with 11 Sun tallies

  3. I’m with KW on Austin Adams, maybe the light bulb has gone on. Heaven knows the big club needs to throw out some new arms.

    More good news on Pineda.

    1. On Adams, I’ll believe it when he takes the mound in DC and doesn’t look like he’s about to have a cow. Of course, with the dumpster fire the Nats bullpen has becom he’ll probably get another chance soon.

  4. KJ Harrison is looking like he might be something more than a late season throw in. Not only is he mashing the ball (.400/.438/.633), but so far he’s significantly reduced his strikeouts, which seemed to be his achilles heel. Only 5 K in 32 PA so far (15.6%), that’s half of his rate last season, which is a really good sign (albeit in a small sample). Also amid Wiseman’s power surge, he’s also managed to lower his K% marginally on last year’s.

    On the other hand, while we’re seeing a record number of HR from our batters across all levels, we’re also seeing record numbers of strikeouts. C. Kieboom (29.3% K%), Ward (42.9%), Canning (29.5%), Blash (32.4%), Rhinesmith (27.8%), Pineda (23.7%), Meregildo (31.8%), Corredor (28.3%), which are all above career numbers.

    1. The strikeouts should stabilize as they adjust to their new competition levels. If the numbers are still that high in a month, I’ll be concerned. Of course, I’ll also be concerned if Carter Kieboom is still a minor leaguer in a month.

  5. Before we get too excited about the HRs, we should remember that our AAA team plays most games in the equivalent of Coors field. Personally, I’m intrigued by Lara. Has he taken that next big step forward? If so, he could be a real prospect.

  6. Harrison, Lara, and Condra-Bogan are all looking like intriguing returns for the salary dumps. Changes in latitude, changes in attitude . . . Meanwhile, Istler seems to have entered the witness protection program.

    I’ve never thought of Difo’s defense as “special,” certainly not “special” enough to offset .184. They can’t afford to start Difo for two months, not in the midst of a tight race.

    If Austin Adams keeps doing what he’s doing, he should be in the majors by the end of the month. What have they got to lose? Compared to Rosenthal, he has pinpoint accuracy!

  7. So this just happened ?
    Canning to Potomac and Connell off XST to Hags ?
    This may have been the first
    Predictable bump up of spring

    1. And Canning cranks one in his first Carolina League game. I think the ceiling isn’t much above fourth outfielder, but I also don’t think the floor is much lower.

      Wiseman looked like he might be worth taking seriously last year in Potomac, and so far this season, he looks like the real deal. John Sickels wrote in his 2017 preseason ranking that he thought Wiseman could really go somewhere if he made just a couple adjustments. Well, now he’s leading MiLB in home runs and has an OPS over 1.600. He’ll come back down to Earth, obviously, but for a guy who was criticized a year or two ago for not having a “carry tool”, well, I think he’s found his carry tool. He could end up being a quality trade chip, like Daniel Johnson was last year, but I’d like to see him put pressure on the Nats to move Juan Soto (who is not exactly a graceful outfielder) to first base. The big club could really use a cheap, 25-year-old lefty middle-of-the-order bat in 2020.

  8. Some of the pitching promotions may play out where some guys get shifted to the pen Ike the guy on the bump for POT now and the ones upcoming take the ball from inning one onward

Comments are closed.