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AFL Update: Oct. 7, 2019

The Sagauros dropped their third straight game, losing 6-4 to the Rafters.

Luis Garcia and Nick Banks were the only two Nationals to appear in the game.

Garcia played shortstop and batted second. At the plate, he went 1-for-3 with a walk, a double (pictured), and an RBI. In the field, he had three assists and two putouts.

Banks batted fifth and was in right field. There, he fielded two flyouts and three singled. He struck out three times in four at-bats to drop his fall average to .214 (6-for-28).

Today is the final Monday off day. Surprise plays day games on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and a night game on Friday. Saturday is the Fall Stars game. Rosters have not yet been announced.

8 Commments

  1. Garcia seems to have put on quite a few pounds. Hopefully that continues to translate into improved power. So far so good in the AFL (.150 ISO). Hope it continues next season (repeat in Harrisburg?).

    Nick Banks has flashed some power, but it’s been a pretty disappointed stint. He still hasn’t walked in 28 AB, but has struck out almost half the time (13 K). With a 46% K%, it’s impossible to hit for average, as reflected by his .214 AVG (and even worse .207 OBP).

  2. Will — the Nats pushed C. Kieboom on to Fresno, so I would guess that they’ll do the same with Garcia. A year in the PCL will certainly build his confidence as a hitter.

    Really, Garcia is the only potential-starter-level significant prospect the Nats sent to AZ, so it’s very good that he’s thriving. Reetz, Lee, and Condra-Bogan have all been excellent and probably have put themselves in position for NRIs to big-league camp in the spring. Lee and Reetz may also be forcing some 40-man consideration ahead of Rule 5. Meanwhile, Banks and Freeman are older guys who really needed to show something in this spotlight opportunity. So far, not so good. But Banks could still go to Fresno and turn into the next Yadiel Hernandez. We’ll see. Sharp and Raquet haven’t been bad, but they also don’t have the eye-popping clean slates of Lee and Condra-Bogan.

    1. I’ll be interested to see how the Nats approach Fresno next year. Have they learned anything from this season?

      It seems like they did. Around the ASB, they reshuffled large parts of their rosters, bringing quite a few nearly-ready arms back to Harrisburg. I wonder if they’ll also acknowledge how the park effects may also have a harmful developmental effect on both the arms and the bats?

      The thin air out there may have players like Yadiel Hernandez/Carter Kieboom/Drew Ward (or any other half-decent bat) swinging for the fences, when their power would only carry the ball beyond the fence in Coors Field and not the other 29 parks, rather than seeking to make line-drive contact. But maybe that’s an out-dated idea, given the advent of the fly ball revolution we’re witnessing now.

      Similarly, for the arms, we saw first hand how many of them just completely unwound in Fresno. Crowe, Guilbeau, Bourque, Mills, Williams, M. Sanchez, just to name a few, were terrible in Fresno, despite being fantastic in Harrisburg. Rainey, Fedde and Voth were all quite a bit better in the majors than in Fresno. I’d be willing to bet Crowe and his 6.17 ERA would have fared better in DC too!

      We’ve seen the dreaded reverse Coors splits, and how it generally has a negative effect on batters and pitchers, I suspect the same thing is occuring in Fresno.

      I hope Garcia follows Soto and just skips Fresno altogether.

      1. To make matters a lot worse, they were using the MLB steroid ball in the PCL/beer league and AA and below were using a regular baseball.

  4. Will, I would have NOTHING but veteran retread pitchers at Fresno in 2020, which might create a backlog at Harrisburg, but so be it. Even guys like Fedde, Ross, and Voth struggled there. The only pitcher with considerable — almost amazing — PCL success was Austin Adams. He then (literally) caught the red-eye across the country, pitched the next day for the big club, struggled, and that was it. Yet higher-paid stiffs got trotted out there time after time. I don’t know if Adams would have “made it,” but his chances were better than those of some retreads like Jennings, Blazek, and Venters.

    Oh well. I have no idea what they should do with the hitters. Yes, I thought of Yadi and Orange as “gap-power” guys before they became Grizzlies. Stevenson seemed to get a confidence boost from Fresno, but then he struggled with reentry when they moved him from CA to PA for shuttle purposes.

    1. No need to question if Adams WOULD have made it. He already has made it.

      He was dominant for Seattle. 51 K in 31 IP, 3.77 ERA and 1.09 WHIP.

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