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Wednesday’s News & Notes

Team Yesterday Today Pitching Matchup
Fresno ALL-STAR BREAK ALL-STAR BREAK N/A
Harrisburg ALL-STAR BREAK ALL-STAR BREAK N/A
Potomac Won, 7-6
(10 inn.)		 @ Myrtle Beach, 7:05 p.m. Cate (1-1, 4.50) vs. Patterson (0-0, 0.00)
Hagerstown Lost, 7-5 vs. Lexington, 7:05 p.m. Alastre (3-8, 5.72) vs. Heasley (6-4, 2.72)
Auburn Lost, 10-9
(12 inn.)		 vs. Connecticut, 7:00 p.m. N. Gomez (1-1, 1.83) vs. Jimenez (1-1, 4.50)
GCL Nationals Lost, 6-3 vs. GCL Astros, 12:00 p.m.  

Fresno – ALL STAR BREAK
Tonight, the I.L. takes on the P.C.L. in El Paso with Fresno’s Yadiel Hernandez expected to start as the DH and Dakota Bacus to be available in the ‘pen.

Harrisburg – ALL STAR BREAK
Likewise, the players selected by “the coaches” will converge in Richmond. Tres Barrera, Ian Sagdal, and Rhett Wiseman are likely to come off the bench while Aaron Barrett will regale his fellow relievers in the ‘pen about what it was like to be in the minors before everybody had smartphones.

Potomac 7 Fayetteville 6 (10 inn.)
• Raquet 5IP, 5H, 4R, 4ER, 2BB, 3K, 2HR, HBP
• Bartow (W, 1-2) 1IP, 0H, 0R, BB, K
• Freeman 3-5, R, 2B, RBI
• Meregildo 2-4
• Banks 1-3, 2R, 2B, 2BB, RBI

Jakson Reetz delivered a two-out, two-run, game-tying single in the 9th to enable Potomac to walk off in the 10th, 7-6 and sweep the rain-shortened series. Nick Raquet went the first five and gave up four runs on five hits, including two homers, while walking two and fanning three. Cole Freeman reached base three times with two singles and a double as did Nick Banks with a double and two walks; both drove in one to lead the P-Nats attack.
Roster moves: Sources are telling us that Nick Banks will not make the trip to the Redneck Riviera tonight but will instead head to City Island tomorrow.

Lexington 7 Hagerstown 5
• Peguero (L, 2-7) 5IP, 5H, 3R, 2ER, BB, 2K, HR
• Troop 3⅓ IP, 7H, 2R, 2ER, BB, 2K, 2-1 IR-S
• Rhinesmith 1-3, 2R, BB, HR, RBI
• Connell 1-4, 2R, 3B, RBI
• Vickers 1-3

As they usually do, errors and unearned runs proved to be the difference as the Legends took the opener from the Suns, 7-5. Francys Peguero lost this one on his own with three runs (two earned) on five hits (one HR) and a walk over five innings. Justin Miller was charged with two unearned runs after two-out triple was followed by an error. After hitting his pitch count, Alex Troop was summoned to get the last out and he did, but not before an infield pop was allowed to drop for another unearned run to put the Suns into a 5-2 hole. Hagerstown got one back in the 7th and two in the 9th before Jackson Cluff struck out with the bases loaded.
Roster moves: RHP Francys Peguero, OF Armond Upshaw, IF Trey Vickers activated from 7-Day I.L.; LHP Jackson Stoeckinger placed on the 3-Day T.I.L.; RHP Justin Miller reassigned from the GCL for MLB rehab.

West Virginia 10 Auburn 9 (12 inn.)
• Rutledge 2IP, 3H, 3R, 2ER, 2BB, 1K, HR
• McMahan (BS, 1) 2IP, 2H, R, ER, 3BB, 1K
• Segura (BS, 1) 1IP, 0H, 1R, 0ER, 3BB, 2K
• E. Lee (BS, 1; L, 1-1) 1⅓ IP, 2H, 2R, 0ER, 2BB, 3K
• Masters 2-3, 3R, 2B, HR, 2RBI
• Jo. Sanchez 2-6
• Peroni 2-6, R

Like the president with a four-piece jigsaw puzzle, this took more than five hours to complete as the Doubledays fell in 12 innings, 10-9. Jackson Rutledge continues to “work on stuff” as the Black Bears savaged him for three runs on three hits and two walks over two innings. One team or the other scored in eleven innings, with the two teams combining for 24 walks (four intentional) and 21 hits, with ten of the 19 runs being earned. Pearson McMahan, Fausto Segura, and Evan Lee each notched a blown save, with Lee taking the loss. Jose Sanchez and Anthony Peroni led the regulars with two hits apiece as Auburn collected ten total.

GCL Cardinals 6 GCL Nationals 3
• Dyson 2IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 3K
• Alvarado (BS, 1; L, 1-1) 2+ IP, 2H, 4R, 4ER, 4BB, 1K
• Severino 1IP, 1H, 0R, 3BB, 0K
• Berrios 2-4, R, BB
• Hurtao 2-5, 2B, RBI

21 Commments

  1. Hope Freeman can catch a ride with Banks.

    Freeman, a non-premium offensive position player, actually has better offensive numbers than Banks, and is ever slightly older too. Time to see if he can make the adjustments at the higher levels…

    1. Okay, Will, you made me look. Freeman’s OPS this year is .787. The bad parts are his slugging is only .388 and he turns 25 in September.

      Sometimes with these guys you think a ‘sink or swim promotion is warranted.

    2. Freeman has put up some genuinely impressive numbers while flying totally under the radar. I’d love to see him in the mix for a utility role with the big club sometime in 2020.

      1. Luke. Please explain the Nats farm facial hair policy .
        I saw Bakus on the bump in the AAA star game
        I guess after Aa Guys can sport looks like Sons of Anarchy or Hebrew League lengths

    3. Luke. You need to type no relation to Tyler Dyson since many wonder if he is disntantly related to the chicken empire . Fast car to Auburn for Tyler
      Lou Collier continues his rehab @ Potomac to fill in depth??
      How does Cronin look in Suns bullpen ??

  2. Another severely underwhelming start from Rutledge, in an altogether abysmal outing from our Auburm arms (16 BB!). Hopefully he’s just shaking off some rust and adapting to the pace of professional ball.

  3. From what I’m hearing, there are going to be some big roster moves involving Harrisburg and Fresno prior to Thursday’s games. I haven’t heard anything about Potomac.

  5. Very good first start for Dyson. I assume he will be pushed on the Auburn as well. He was thought of as a potential top-five pick in the draft before struggles during his junior year. If the Nats can get him sorted out, he could progress quickly.

    Rutledge, meanwhile . . . is already starting to look a bit like a JUCO project. Sure hope I’m wrong.

    How much longer with Raquet starting before they go the Guilbeau route and see if he’s better out of the ‘pen?

    1. Also a good first game for Michael Cuevas, our sole 2019 high school pick (it’s incredible we only signed one HS pick. Rizzo continues to draft in mysterious ways…). For a guy that turned 18 two weeks ago, a scoreless inning in your debut is a great start!

    2. No judgments on Rutledge after three pro innings. Of course you’d rather see him come out slinging strikes and mowing down the competition, but there’s not much you can extrapolate from two “opener” appearances to date. If he’s got a 9 ERA still at the end of August, I’ll start to worry some.

      1. Exactly. Rutledge has pitched 3 professional innings. Can we wait to make an assessment on him until he has had reasonable opportunity to pitch and settle in as a professional ball player.

        FWIW, Jacob DeGrom’s first professional season in the Appy League:
        5.19 ERA, 1.577 WHIP, 12+ Hits per IP, 7Ks per IP

        Patrick Corbin had similar first year numbers as did Jose Fernandez, and Trevor Bauer. Are we really trying to sound an alarm after Rutledge has faced a total of 19 batters as a pro?

        Guess KW would have panned that pick as a disaster.

  6. I want to believe in Nick Banks, as the Nats sure need some other non-recycled OFs in the upper minors with some potential (who aren’t 31 years old and being ignored). I thought Banks was a potential steal when they drafted him, a Team USA guys as a soph who was projected mid-first-round before an injury-slowed junior year. It has taken him time to find his footing in the minors, though. He does seem to have had a surge over the last six weeks or so, but when I look at his numbers at Potomac, I just can’t shake the feeling that they’re not as good as those of guys like Davidson and Sagdal, who can’t even really get on the radar. Hope springs eternal, though, especially at the time of a promotion. I don’t doubt that it’s time to find out what Banks can do at the AA level. Let’s hope he truly has figured out something and that the recent progression will continue. (But also keep in mind how much Kieboom and Noll struggled after their promotions to Harrisburg last summer.)

  7. Took a look at the official Eastern League rosters, Ben Braymer was on it, I guess that means Aaron Barrett was his replacement.

    Baffling that no starting pitchers from Harrisburg were selected.

  8. I’ll say up front that I hope Freeman turns into someone useful. I pull for all of our guys to make it. However . . . I’ve never quite been on board. He was overdrafted and overpaid for a college senior with no leverage and no pop who is 2B-limited. He didn’t play at all in the season he was drafted and struggled all of last season, never moving up from Hags. He gets on base well and steals some bases . . . but being 2B-limited is a BIG impediment. So is the lack of any power. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be the first to say that the Nats are in desperate need for better utility options than Difo and Sanchez — to the point that they may even have to trade for someone at the deadline — but those guys can play SS and Freeman can’t. The Nats carried Uggla for a while as a 2B-only guy, but that was more as a PH than for any utility usefulness.

    Tony Renda did eventually get an MLB cup of coffee, so I won’t say that Freeman won’t, but he’s always struck me as sort of the second coming of Renda, but with more speed — but not Billy Burns-type speed to make that one dimension a bit more marketable.

    As noted, I hope he proves me wrong.

  9. Pilchard — not calling it a disaster at all. Read what I said. He may be a “project.” I like the Rutledge pick much better than I liked Romero, which I panned before they made it, and it has indeed been a disaster thus far.

    My much greater concern is that they’ve now used 1st-round picks for three straight years on guys who won’t be anywhere near the majors for the foreseeable future. Maybe they all pan out and give the Nats a terrific rotation in the late ’20s. But it can take a long time. Giolito is in his seventh season since drafted and is just finally figuring things out (with an injury detour included). Fedde is in his fifth season since being drafted out of college (with some already-known injury detour when drafted), and we still don’t know whether he’s going to make it as a major-league starter.

    Meanwhile, they’ve invested very little top-of-the-draft capital in hitters, and it shows. For the record, they’ve been very good with the success rate of the hitters they’ve taken over the last few years in the 1st round — C. Kieboom, Rendon, Goodwin, and Harper. But the only drafted hitters on their current 25-man are Rendon and Zimmerman.

    1. Not enough to just criticize the Romero pick (he was a late 1st round pick #25), who would you have suggested the Nats take at that time? There was no sure fire position player stud at that point.

      None of the next 5 position players picked after Romero look like prospects (the next pick after Romero — #26 OF Bubba Thompson is below the Mendoza line in A ball). It was going to be reach with whomever the Nats picked at 25, and by all accounts Romero had the highest ceiling.

      Also, not giving up on Seth. Walker Buehler had TJ surgery at the same stage of his career, and look at him now. Not saying that Romero will be in the All-Star game in a couple years, just that the book is not closed on him.

  10. Good start for Dyson–all the sudden the Nats have relief prospects falling out of thei well, you know.

    How long before longjan at catcher is broken an Reetz and Bertera both move up?

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