Wednesday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Won, 10-9 | vs. Syracuse, 6:05 p.m. | Je. Rodriguez (0-1, 9.35) vs. Jo. Rodriguez (0-1, 13.03) |
| Harrisburg | Postponed | vs. Hartford, 11 a.m. | Herrera (1-0, 4.96) vs. Kilkenny (0-3, 12.19) |
| Wilmington | Postponed | @ Hudson Valley, 4:35 p.m. | Parker (2-0, 1.23) and Cuevas (0-1, 3.14) vs. Sauer (0-0, 2.53) and Warren (1-1, 3.46) |
| Fredericksburg | Won, 15-4 | vs. Charleston, 7:05 p.m. | Alvarez (0-1, 6.52) vs. Workman (0-0, 1.59) |
Rochester 10 Syracuse 9
• Reyes 3IP, 6H, 8R, 8ER, 5BB, 3K, HR, HBP, WP
• Sharp 4IP, 2H, 0R, 2BB, 4K, WP
• Manoah (W, 1-0) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• García 4-4, 3R, BB, 2HR, 4RBI
• Barrera 2-3, R, BB, HR, RBI
• Casey 1-4, R, HR, 3RBI
Rochester roared back from an 8-1 deficit with Luis García getting the party started with a two-run shot in the 5th and closing out the comeback with another two-run homer in the 8th. Donovan Casey and Tres Barrera also went deep as the Red Wings squeezed 10 runs out of 10 hits and five walks. Luis Reyes was defenestrated for eight runs on six hits and five walks over three innings to raise his career AAA mark to 0-6 with an 8.17 ERA in 13 career starts. Sterling Sharp lived up to his surname and held down the Mets for four scoreless innings. Erik Manoah Jr. picked up the win with a scoreless 8th while Jordan Weems gave up a run in the 9th and qualified for the save.
Roster move: IF Alfredo Rodriguez assigned to Rochester Red Wings from XST.
Harrisburg vs. Hartford – PPD
Rain claimed the opener between the Senators and the Yard Goats. They’ll shoot to make it up tomorrow night at 5:30 p.m. with a doubleheader.
Wimington vs. Hudson Valley – PPD
Likewise, Hudson Valley and Wilmington were rained out but they’ll make it up tonight with a twi-night twinbill. Despite a predicted temperature of 42° by the end of the second game, last night’s winter hat giveaway will be on Saturday. Roster moves: OF Cody Wilson placed on the 7-Day I.L.; OF Ricardo Méndez activated from the 7-Day I.L.
Fredericksburg 15 Charleston 4
• Caceres (W, 2-1) 5IP, 3H, 4R, 4ER, BB, 5K, 2WP, HBP
• Ribalta 2IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 3K
• Arias 2-3, 2R, 2BB, HR, 4RBI
• Millas 2-4, 2R, 2BB, R, 2RBI
• House 2-4, 2R, BB, 2RBI
• Emiliani 2-5, 2R, BB, 2B, HR, 2RBI
No such luck for the RiverDogs as the FredNats put them down 10-0 after two innings and cruised to a 15-4 triumph – the sixth straight win and sixth time Fredericksburg has scored in double digits. Bryan Caceres didn’t need to be very good to win and he wasn’t, giving up four runs on three hits and a walk while hitting a batter over five innings. He struck out five. Three relievers combined for four scoreless, led by Orlando Ribalta with two goose eggs. Sammy Infante was the beer man but still got base via the walk, one of 15 handed out by Charleston throwers. Andry Arias hit his first longball while racking up six total bases with a double and his fourth big fly to push his team-leading OPS to 1.170 (albeit in nine games). Relax: Brady House was subbed on defense to give Yoander Rivero some AB’s.
The ’27 Yankees, err FredNats, continue their assault on Low A pitching, led Leander Emiliani with a 1.170 OPS. Brady House is a close second with .992.
There are still 5 players with a .900+ OPS.
Let’s not forget that 2 of them, White and House, are only 18 years old. The logjam continues on the infield, players who should be playing every day are alternating days or innings.
Huh, maybe it wasn’t such a great idea for a rebuilding franchise (or any at all) to contract its minor league teams with poverty wages, leading to too little available playing time and stunted player development…
Great to see Ricardo Mendez appear! There’s still a bunch of players that are still MIA almost a month into the season. I mentioned Alfonso Hernandez yesterday, but Will Frizzell, Roismar Quintana, Todd Peterson, Tyler Dyson, Holden Powell are all still missing. I suspect some of these are injury related, but not all.
I’m still amazed our system is playing as well as it is. Harrisburg have no business being above .500 with the talent on that roster. Same for Rochester and Wilmington. The Nats system is widely regarded as being in the bottom third (if not worse) of MLB, and even then a disproportionate amount of the top talent is at the bottom two levels (FCL and Low A).
For once I’m just happy to see these bad teams play well, because for a long time we saw good teams play poorly.
How long will House stay in low A? It seems only a matter of time before he is promoted. His defense my need work, but the Wilmington coaches should be able to help him with that. His offense since Opening Day should have given him confidence at the plate.
Interesting to see what happens when the Nats finally dropped the MLB draft strategy of taking only pitchers in the top 10 rounds (Nats 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 drafts: 11 position players 23 pitchers). Finally, the Nats have some offensive punch in their system.
The Nats should almost have to take another hitter in 2022 with the #5 overall pick. Basically every pitcher who has been mentioned as top-10 material has either gotten hurt or had a bad spring (or both). Rizzo will have a lot of wounded wings tempting him in the second round, though. Old habits are hard to break.
Keith Law was talking about that a couple of months ago, saying that most of the top pitching prospects have blown out their elbows/shoulders.
I do see that House grounded into a double play. Apparently he is human after all. It will be interesting to see how soon they’ll push him forward. I would think that Emiliani and Pena will get moved up a little sooner since they’re a little older and repeating the level. De la Rosa repeating the level as well and also a candidate for early promotion to help clear a little of the OF logjam.
Higher up the food chain, the big club desperately could use Garcia’s hot bat, particularly at SS, where Escobar is “hitting” .123. They still had Garcia at 2B last night, though, . . . with Dee Strange-Gordon trying SS, a position he hasn’t played regularly in the majors in a decade. Talk about desperation.
Given that Garcia is tearing up AAA and Escobar has been worse than awful, promoting Garcia seems like a no brainer. Is there any service time benefit for the Nats if they keep Garcia in AAA or is that no longer concern given that Garcia already spent part of the last two seasons in MLB and given the terms of the new CBA?
Sorry I can’t answer your question about the service time, but it’s possible that they have decided that Garcia is not a SS and prefer to wait until they can flip Cesar.