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Wednesday’s News & Notes

Team Yesterday Today Pitching Probables
Rochester OFF DAY @ Worcester, 6:35 p.m. Cavalli (1-3, 5.40) vs. Espinal (10-4, 3.54)
DSL Nationals Won, 4-2 OFF DAY

Rochester Red Wings – OFF DAY
The probables listed above are not official – the last game notes I have from Rochester’s PR man is the legendary TBA vs. TBS matchup – but an edumacated guess based on usage. Usually, it’s whoever pitched six days ago, but all it takes one rainout or a rehab outing to turn it into a guessing game.
Now you know why I was so often wrong with Wilmington’s games.

DSL Nationals 4 DSL Mets1 2
• Atencio (W, 5-3) 5IP, 4H, 0R, 0BB, 4K, PO @ 1B
• Leon 2IP, 3H, 2R, 1ER, 1BB, 3K
• Tejeda 3-3, R, 2B, RBI, E(4)
• E. Ramirez 1-2

The D-Nats survived four errors to double the D-Mets1, 4-2. Jose Atencio threw five scoreless innings, with no walks and four hits allowed, to win his fifth game. Jefrem Leon wobbled through two innings, giving up both D-Mets1 runs on three hits and a walk. Erick Tejeda singled twice and doubled once while Enmanuel Ramirez singled and walked to lead the D-Nats offense.

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LONG-HAIRED FREAKY PEOPLE CAN NOW APPLY
Well, maybe not. But as noted in the comments, Washington has begun cleaning house with the player development folks. Whether this is fair or not, I don’t think anyone could disagree that it’s long overdue.

For as long as I’ve been operating this site, the knock on the Nationals has been that they can only develop guys who were can’t-miss first-rounders. This is the equivalent of the guy who can only hit with a 2-0 or 3-1 count or the pitcher who can only make one or two turns through the lineup.

I’m not sure if the problem is, as KW put it, whether the development guys failed or were given chicken shit and asked to make chicken salad. But I do know that very little has changed at the upper levels of that branch of the front office. And maybe… just maybe… there’s a correlation to that fact and how few homegrown players there are on the 40-man roster.

And if you disagree, ask yourself this question: Why is it that almost every player designated for assignment is outrighted instead of being claimed on waivers?

11 Commments

  1. It’s taken Rizzo too long to notice that his draft picks fizzle in the minors, that they are not being developed properly. Of course, most draftees fail before they reach MLB, but the percentage in the Nats’ farm system was too high. Pitchers do not know how to hold runners, nor how to bunt. Base running apparently is not taught. Now is the time to open the Lerners’ bag of money and hire the best available guys from teams with solid records of player development.

  2. This awkward in between period gives us the chance to reflect on some highlights from the DSL. The Nats hitters have been downright awful, besides Erick Tejeda (.313/.431/.455), I’m not sure there’s a single other hitter worth highlighting, except that bonus-baby Armando Cruz has improved as the season progressed (OPS in July: .479, August: .637, September: .771). Altogether, the DSL Nats offense is 42nd of 46 teams in OPS, and lousy in literally every other offensive statistic.

    However, the DSL Nats arms have been fantastic! 2nd best in ERA. 4th most in Ks coupled with the fewest walks. 2nd best WHIP. etc. 9 pitchers have WHIPs at 1.000 or lower. 6 have ERAs below 2.00.

    Led by recently turned 17 year old Gabriel Agostini (0.65 ERA, 34 K, 6 BB in 27 IP, Agostini is the 4th youngest pitcher in all of the DSL). Jose Cedeno (19 y.o., 1.59 ERA and 69 K, the 2nd most in the DSL this season). Juan Abreu (21 y.o., 1.38 ERA, 27K in 13 IP for the 2nd best strikeout rate in the DSL). Jose Atencio (19y.o., 1.59 ERA, 54 K and only 4 BB in 45 IP). Doimil Perez, Jefrem Leon, Moises Diaz, Genderson Zapata have all been very good too.

    Most probably won’t amount to anything, but even if 2 of these 8-10 promising young arms rise up the farm ladder, we just might produce our first IFA pitching prospect in nearly a decade.

  3. As reported by the Washington Post, Nationals assistant general manager of baseball research and development (Head Analytics Guy) Sam Mondry-Cohen has informed the club he will not return once his contract expires at the end of the season. Not clear if the Nats pushed Mondry-Cohen out or Mondry-Cohen is leaving purely on his own accord. Nats are making changes. Understand given the direction of the organization. That said, hope that whomever is finding the replacements for these mass departures has better plan in place than whomever made the initial hires.

    1. They’re really cleaning house… let’s hope this will result in a more coherent and well-designed organization. So much of the Nationals front office, especially their analytics department, came about too organically without any intention or direction. Mondry-Cohen’s rise was a product of being “the best guy around” rather than “the best guy for the job”. He himself talked about the Nats “bottom up” approach, which to me came across as disinterest from the top down. So let’s hope Rizzo can appoint someone capable to build this team, because I don’t have much faith in him being able to do it.

      If the Nationals can come out of this with an organization with a common vision for player development, we’ll be much better off. Teams like the Dodgers and Rays have been wildly successful at this. Otherwise, this rebuild could turn into an indefinite period of being terrible, like the Orioles (shifting strategies too frequently) or the Pirates (developing and sticking to a coherent vision, but that vision being predicated on the wrong values and objectives).

  4. I have no insider knowledge of the organization, so I don’t know much about the guys who are leaving. The overriding question will be, of course, whether these are the “right” guys to move them toward a real overhaul, real change. It seems like most of the people who have been let go thus far have been relatively new to the organization. The one exception to that (thus far) was Bob Boone, who quit over the COVID policy. It’s unclear what he actually did, as he stopped being directly in charge of player development a long time ago, but one suspects that he probably was one of the old-school dinosaurs.

  5. Developmental list is like a quaint way of saying
    Remote area nearby BWI awaiting spouse parking area
    Gil Lara made AAA for a cup of coffee
    Adon may spring ahead of the trade deadline guys with his stuff finding sterling results .
    Patience on the young bullpen to manifest : Gabe K, Cronin , Peterson and that UCLA closer on DL HH?
    Major jet lag on the brain .
    Aries brains can’t be perfect 7 days a week lol

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