Friday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Matchup |
| Fresno | Lost, 3-2 | vs. Iowa, 10:05 p.m. | TBD vs. Alzolay (1-1, 3.12) |
| Harrisburg | Won, 4-3 (10 inn.) | vs. Reading, 7:00 p.m. | Fuentes (3-0, 1.29) vs. Romero (0-3, 7.84) |
| Potomac | Won, 7-1 | @ Fayetteville, 7:00 p.m. | Teel (2-0, 2.90) vs. Hansen (4-1, 1.19) |
| Hagerstown | Postponed | vs. West Virginia, 7:05 p.m. | Peguero (2-4, 2.63) vs. Florido (2-2, 3.95) |
| Auburn | Opening Day | @ Batavia, 7:05 p.m. | TBD vs. TBD |
Iowa 3 Fresno 2
• Voth (L, 3-5) 7IP, 5H, 3R, 2ER, BB, 7K; 1-2, 2B
• Copeland 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Kieboom 1-3, R, BB
• Snyder 1-4, R, HR, RBI
An unearned run in the top of the 1st proved especially costly as the Cubs edged the Grizzlies, 3-2 and even the series at 1-1. Austin Voth lost for the fifth time despite his best outing of the year: three runs (two earned) on five hits and one walk while fanning seven. Scott Copeland and Fernando Rodney both put up a goose egg to keep Fresno within striking distance. Alas, the Grizzlies were limited to five hits, including a double by Voth and Brandon Snyder’s 13th HR. Carter Kieboom was the sole batter to reach base twice with a single and a walk.
Harrisburg 4 Richmond 3 (10 inn.)
• Crowe 6IP, 5H, 3R, 3ER, BB, 9K, HR
• Mills (W, 1-1) 2IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 1K, HBP
• Garcia 3-5, R, RBI
• Sagdal 1-3, BB, RBI
Harrisburg got three runs in the 8th—two on a wild pitch and an error—to tie it at 3-3 and prevailed in 10 innings, 4-3 over Richmond. Wil Crowe gave up all three Flying Squirrels runs on five hits and a walk but struck out a career-best nine in six innings. Jonny Venters and Aaron Barrett each put up a goose egg while Jordan Mills worked around a leadoff double in the 9th and a hit batsman in the 10th to win his first game of the season. Luis Garcia, who’s slashing .349/.391/.395 in June (10 games), drove in the gamewinner with his third single. He scored the tying run in the 8th when the aforementioned wild pitch bounded off the backstop and towards first base and Richmond pitcher Sam Moll threw wildly trying to throw out the runner (Hunter Jones) at the plate.
Potomac 7 Fayetteville 1
• Johnston (W, 6-7) 6IP, 4H, R, ER, 0BB, 8K
• German 2IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Canning 3-5, R, HR, 5RBI
• Corredor 2-3, R, BB, HR, 2RBI
• Reetz 1-2, 2R, 2BB
Gage Canning and Aldrem Corredor both homered and drove in all seven runs as the P-Nats drilled the Woodpeckers, 7-1 in the series opener. Kyle Johnston bounced back from two horrific outings to notch his sixth win and sixth quality start with… wait for it… six innings of one-run ball on four hits, no walks, and eight whiffs. Jackson Reetz singled once, scored twice, and drew two walks as Potomac collected nine hits and five walks total while overtaking Frederick for third place in the C.L. North.
Hagerstown vs. West Virginia – PPD
After just one rainout in April and one in May, Hagerstown got rained out for the second time this week. They’ll make this one up on Saturday with a twinight doubleheader starting at 4:05 p.m.
Auburn – OPENING DAY
Our copyeditor can’t seem to find the Doubledays roster, but yesterday the Nationals announced the signing of 20 picks, not including top pick Jackson Rutledge or 3rd and 4th Rd. picks Drew Mendoza and Matt Cronin, who are still busy making their coaches rich with players on partial scholarships with the College World Series.
Earlier in the season there was a worry that Luis Garcia was ‘Rhineharted’. He seems to have found his footing and he’s still so young.
A few more solid starts at all three levels. Good thing to see.
It’s also a good thing Luke isn’t reporting daily on the DSL Nats. They look like they could be historically lousy, just completely failing at the fundamentals. I know the DSL is generally an educational league with 16-17 year olds basically learning how to play the game, but compared to the rest of the league, these guys appear way less developed than everyone else.
The hitters are collectively hitting below the Mendoza line: .199/.262/.287. And they aren’t some defensive whizzes, having committed 18 errors in 10 games. The pitching isn’t any better, with a team ERA of 5.86, 1.66 WHIP, 29 wild pitches, and 12 HBPs in just 78 IP.
There are a few players performing well, but most of them are older (late 18-19 y.o.), while the younger players have been clearly outmatched at the level. We have two 16 y.o. batters, they both hitless so far this season, and our two 16 y.o. pitchers have ERAs of 10.80 and 54.00…
The team’s record is now 1-9, and things don’t appear likely to turn around any time soon. I’m curious what the worst DSL record is for a season.
Is it this summer that the Nationals can finally spend freely after their over-spending penalty from a few years back? Better late than never, especially as it looks time to tear down the big league club and begin a rebuild of the farm system.
Finally, it should be noted that the DSL Nats futility is doubly bad because we only have one DSL team, when half of MLB teams have their talent split between two teams. The Nationals like to claim that they’ve turned things around post-Smiley, but we are still lagging behind the majority of other teams in our ability to sign and recruit international talent.
Amen
In recent seasons, the Nats have started debuting their better Latin prospects stateside in the GCL rather than in the DSL, so I’m not going to lose too much sleep over the poor DSL performance at this point. Also, I suspect that with limited international pool money the last couple of seasons, the Nats have put nearly all of it toward a few good players. The current DSL crop likely signed for virtually nothing. Yes, that’s putting all of the eggs into a very few baskets, but they didn’t have much choice, the way the pool money works now.
So . . . the debut of Jeremy de la Rosa may be more important in the long run by itself than anything that’s happening with the DSL team.
I think you’re probably right. The only guys on that roster I’m interested in at all are Viandel Peña, Braian Fernández, and Karlo Seijas, and the fact they haven’t played in a game yet makes me think they’ll be Stateside this year even if they haven’t officially been taken off the DSL roster.
What does bug me is that last year’s 3d round pick, Schiller, as a college player, wasn’t deemed good enough for Hagerstown. He had darn well better come out blowing folks away at Auburn. (Unless he’s secretly and mysteriously hurt, of course.)
Also curious to see if Denaburg surfaces at Auburn or GCL . . . or if he surfaces at all!
Err, Schaller, not Schiller. Anyway, just checked the Auburn roster, such as it is, and he is on it. As of right now, there are only three position players listed — two catchers and a 2B. Should make for some interesting defensive alignments!
There must be a process routine where a drafted player passes a physical then gets assigned to auburn or the WPB back fields of GCL
Strohshein should be the big thumper in the middle of Doubledays lineup .
Some Nats scout must have seen Pearson McMahon in St Johns River FL area as a prep.
Let’s see how Afonso Fonzi Hernandez and Nelson Riddle Galendez pan out this summer .
In a day or so we should see how the lefty bats are added to auburn and GCL
Melendez , Renda and Ahu should join auburn
While the big hope is Jeremy DeLaRosa joins Arias and B Fernandez ( R/R) , Hernandez join GCL and Leo Emilliani