Tuesday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Matchup |
| Fresno | OFF DAY | @ New Orleans, 8:00 p.m. | McGowan (1-0, 1.80) vs. Gallen (7-1, 1.70) |
| Harrisburg | OFF DAY | vs. Binghamton, 6:30 p.m. | M. Sanchez (3-0, 2.11) vs. Peterson (2-2, 4.14) |
| Potomac | Won, 6-1 | @ Salem, 7:05 p.m. | Lee (1-3, 3.40) vs. Diaz (2-4, 7.21) |
| Hagerstown | Lost, 3-2 (10 inn.) | @ Lakewood, 7:05 p.m. | Cate (4-3, 2.56) vs. Lindow (1-2, 3.27) |
Fresno – OFF DAY
After a 3-6 homestand that dropped them under .500, Grizzlies make the first of two road trips to the Central Time Zone with three against the New Orleans Baby Cakes and four against the Oklahoma Dodgers. Fresno, which has been hot and cold with streaks of three or more wins or losses eight times already, is just a ½ off the pace in the PCL Pacific Northern division
Harrisburg – OFF DAY
Harrisburg returns to the City Isle for a three-game series against Binghamton before heading back out on road for six against Reading and Richmond. The Sens have been killer at home (21-9) but ordinary on the road (14-12) but have reduced their magic number to nine vs. the second-place RubberDucks, ten vs. the third-place Seawolves, and seven vs. the fourth-place Curve.
Potomac 6 Salem 1
• Raquet (W, 4-5) 6IP, 4H, 1R, 0ER, 0BB, 4K, HBP
• McKinney (H, 2) 2IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Agustin 3-4, 2B, BB, CS
• Banks 3-5, 2R
• Freeman 2-4, R, 2B, 2RBI
Nick Raquet pitched a full six innings for the first time in 2019 while his teammates collected a baker’s dozen of hits in 6-1 P-Nats win over the Red Sox. Raquet allowed just one earned run on four hits, walked none, and set down four on strikes for his fourth win. Jeremy McKinney followed with two scoreless innings to earn his second hold. Nick Banks and Telmito Agustin both racked up three hits while Cole Freeman and Aldrem Corredor both drove in two with a single and a double to lead the Potomac offense.
Lakewood 3 Hagerstown 2 (10 inn.)
• Tapani 3⅔ IP, 2H, 2R, 1ER, 3BB, 6K, HR, 84-51 PIT-K
• Brasher 2⅔ IP, 0H, 0R, BB, 3K
• Vann (L, 0-1) 1+ IP, 1H, 1R, 0ER, BB, 2K
• Perkins 3-4, BB
• Dailey 2-5
• 2-for-13 RISP, 11 LOB
Hagerstown’s struggles in one-run games (10-15) and extras (1-4) continued with a 3-2 loss to Lakewood in 10 innings. Ryan Tapani needed 84 pitches to retire 11 batters as he issued three walks and struck out six while giving up two on two hits. Jacob Howell and Jared Brasher combined for four and a 1/3rd scoreless innings. The loss went to Chris “Chevy” Vann, who worked around a leadoff walk in the 9th but let in the free runner in the 10th on a single after the first batter sacrificed. Nic Perkins and Cole Daily combined for five of the Suns nine hits, of which just two came in thirteen chances with RISP.
Luke. Good first impression on the Spirit of St Louis. Wingspan that Charles L. Would be amazed by.
Now for the class of ’19 to flesh out the farm…
Chevy Vann and it’s alright with me … guitar solo
Jake Agnos 4 th rounder for Yankees from Haymarket VA. Same town as Nick – where are you?- Wells
Will Jeremy Ydens make Hagerstown next year or park in XST and retire ?? Right ?
Wow Rainey got the K on 99 mph
Andrew Lee Good start vs Salem. Cate deserves a better fate with his last three starts
Area scout same on Shaddy and Cronin ??
As with many teams. Nats scooped up some kids from Venezuela
Taking advantage of the unfortunate plight down there.
VEN, DR and Panama comprise a crowded roster @ the DSL academy .
Will Arias and Fernandez surface on GCL??
Matt Cullen. Roger Craig would say back in his Giants days about a guy like him — Hum, baby !!
Another Jackson. SS BYU Cluff….can he hit more than Juan Pascal ??
Cuff must have served a Mormon mission with years 2016-2019 but soph eligible
Luke. What was the name of the tall Cal Bear RHP who endured big many injuries right after the program was on eliminatiion watch ?
Amazing this year Cal has two number ones
No idea. Kinda busy with a certain website during the college baseball season 😉
Texas State. McMahan. Austin Williams school. Scout Gonzalez gets a kid out of Texas .. again …
Someone brought this up earlier, but it does appear as if Nick Banks has, at least temporarily, worked something out. Since April 25 (past 29 games), Banks has batted .317/.378/.520. However, it’s not the first time Banks (like Wiseman and many before him) has gotten hot and not been able to sustain the good performance. Last year, from April 12 to May 15 (26 G), Banks similarly batted .298/.347/.511 in Hagerstown. He then cooled off immensely for a month, but still got a promotion to Potomac, and caught fire again and batted .322/.361/.514 from mid June to early August in 39 games. That’s 65 games (more than half his games played) with an OPS north of .900!! And yet Banks’ final batting line was merely .262/.308/.387 with his OPS south of .700, meaning his OPS in his other 55 games was well below .500. It’s the same case this year. Banks batted .127/.226/.218 in his first 16 games.
All players get hot and cold, but unless Banks can find even a modicum of consistency and not go from outrageous boom or bust fluctuations, he can’t be considered a prospect. It also doesn’t help that he’s a 24 year old in A ball. (Sounds a lot like Rhett Wiseman, eh?)
The Cool Papa Boone visit effect ?
Doesn’t Jacob Scavuzzo look like a released guy from AAA Friars who could look good on F- troop ? R/R LF
Will I beat the commenters here to this line. ? Will Drew hit above the Mendoza line ? GCL assignment for him for sure
This is Raquet’s 2nd straight very good outing if I’m remembering correctly, after a rash of bad ones in a row. One more and we have a trend.
After a terrible beginning to his season, Raquet has given up 1 run or less in 3 of last 4 starts, and over his last 16 innings, he has been scored on in only one of them. Not ready to claim that Nick is a future MLB starting pitcher yet, but it does appear that Raquet has found his groove, at last for now.
Also, glad to see Rizzo is continuing his Jackson-first draft strategy. With Tetreault, Reetz, Stoeckinger and now Rutledge, we have to have a majority of Jacksons in baseball, right?
Also, what the heck was going on at the turn of the millenium that produced so many Jacksons?
Will — Ha!
Will that means Andrew Jackson in a far future presidents deadhead Race
Will, that one was for you without the comma
Nice twist to the JR story : Ross Detweiler taught him a pitch so the Detweiler pick pays off more
I’m surprised Detweiler had another pitch. He only used the one here.
Some guys teach better in older age than pitch in their younger years
According to this the name has been steadily rising in popularity, so it may be awhile before we’ll be running on empty…
Section 103 in Nats park
The same as Tristan fro the folk lore.
George Carlin would give you an interesting reply if still alive.
Friday night Gator starter to bullpen – Dyson. Interesting bulldog type.
Rutledge reminds me a lot of Alex Meyer. Maybe we can flip him for the next Denard Span.
It was probably me who keeps holding out the faint hope for Nick Banks. I confess, I was really excited when he fell to the Nats in the 4th round, thought he was a steal. Of course I felt the same about Wiseman! Those are actually good comps to keep in mind today as the Nats pick #94 and #123 and (I hope) will be looking for outstanding college hitters who have fallen a bit due to some perceived flaw.
Speaking of 3d round picks and faint hope, should we be encouraged by a couple of good starts by Raquet? I’ve thought he was an overdraft from the day he was picked, but that doesn’t mean that I still wouldn’t like to see him turn into a viable player. (Also disappointing that last year’s 3d rounder, Schiller, didn’t even rate starting the year at Hagerstown. Of course last year’s 1st rounder may still be in the GCL . . . when and if he ever pitches.)
Well, guys it’s barely June dawning so there is much turf for the horses left to finish out the seasons race
Maybe Detweiler teaching JR changeup changes the Alex Meyer comp ….
There’s a good scouting report on Luis Garcia, Wil Crowe and Taylor Guilbeau on FanGraphs: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/prospect-dispatch-trenton-vs-harrisburg/
Summary: Garcia does not project as a starter (but with a big age qualifier). Crowe could be decent, but probably nothing special. Guilbeau could prove to be an interesting groundball machine in relief (who knew he was hitting 97 MPH?!?).
Nats going hard after bullpen arms. The next three pitchers drafted after the 1st rounder Rutledge all throw hard and are projected as relievers at the MLB level:
– 4th round pick: Matt Cronin closer for Arkansas
– 5th round pick: Tyler Dyson removed from Florida rotation throws 95+ weak secondary stuff leads to the projection that he will be a bullpen arm
– 7th round pick: Todd Peterson closer for LSU
Could Cronin comp be Mike Dunn??
Luke. Dixon Anderson. Cal RHP
Ah, yes. Another one of those “law firm” guys (two last names)…