Tuesday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | OFF DAY | OFF DAY | N/A |
| DSL Nationals | Won, 4-3 | @ DSL Twins, 10:30 a.m. |
Rochester Red Wings (2-3, 49-72)
Rochester won two of five in Worcester and returns home for five against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, starting tomorrow. FWIW, two teams were 5-0 in the first week of the “Final Stretch” – the Durham Bulls, who won 84 regular-season games, and the Nashville Sounds, winners of 68 games.
DSL Nationals 4 DSL Twins 3
• Moron 5⅔ IP, 3H, R, ER, BB, 5K, HBP
• Francisco (W, 3-0) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Tejeda 2-4, 2B
• Estrada 2-4, R, 2K
The D-Nats scored all their runs in their last three “ups” to walk off the D-Twins, 4-3. Raynel Moron pitched into the sixth for the third time this month, allowing one run on three hits and a walk. He struck out five and hit a batter. Michael Francisco picked up his third win with a scoreless 9th as the D-Nats bats bailed out Gabriel Agostini, who was dinged for two runs over two and 1/3rd innings to push his ERA to 1.20. Erick Tejeda and Jean Estrada both went 2-for-4 to lead the seven-hit, three-walk offense. The D-Rockies lost to reduce their lead over the D-Nats to a 1½ games while the D-Phillies Red kept pace, a ½ game back.
2022 SCHEDULES
Yesterday, the Low-A schedules were released to complete the complement of the four full-season levels. The good news: teams will see more of the league, with, for example the Fredericksburg Nationals playing ten of the eleven teams in their league (versus seven in 2021). The bad news: it looks like six-game series are here to stay, as we noted six weeks ago when the Red Wings released their 2022 slate.
It’s unfortunate that the schedule-makers couldn’t (wouldn’t?) find a way for every team to play each other at least one series. This was always a problem with the Sally League and made its league championship something of a farce. Imagine, for example, that Somerset and Binghamton were the two best teams in the AA Northeast2 in 2022, and Harrisburg won the division by a single game over Bowie, who did (and will) play those two teams and went, say, 4-8. Or the F-Nats miss the playoffs by a game because they didn’t get a chance at the Fireflies, who lost 90 games. Is either scenario fair?
I know, I know. Life isn’t fair. And MLB doesn’t care.
The Red Wings have yet to release a PDF, but the rest of the affiliates have – no doubt to expedite sales, after the 2020 season was cancelled and this season was both shortened and delayed. But for those interested…
Any rumblings about when the AFL rosters will be announced? In the past, they were usually announced just before the regular season ended (google tells me it was almost always around August 28-29), which is also before the playoffs began.
Well, we’re about 2 weeks past that point now, factoring in the COVID scheduling delays. And the AFL will begin two weeks from tomorrow. Seems the players might want to know more than a week in advance that their season will continue for an additional month? Or has this gotten messy due to the vaccine mandate, and now teams are scrambling to work out who can play?
I wonder what would happen if the Nats sent House to the AFL, just threw him in the deep end. There’s actually precedent, as they sent Bryce the summer he was drafted, in a limited “taxi squad” role, but he raked, with 12 hits in 9 games.
Nope. Speculation on the Twitters is that the requirement for full vaccinations may be a factor. The schedule is out but I don’t think anyone cares about that except for people planning to attend, which was usually small in The Before Times…
I see that Wilmington and Fredericksburg play through the 2nd week of September and Harrisburg through the 3rd. I like it.
That’s because they’re playing 144 games at AAA, 138 at AA, and 132 at both levels of A.
Thanks Luke, didn’t know the numbers. In the old days everything was wrapped up by Labor Day so this is better. If the season starts later in April that’s a good thing.
You don’t want to be watching any outdoor game in Rochester in April.
Harrisburg starts their season on 4/8/22 so I assume the others will be starting around the same time.