Tuesday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | OFF DAY | @ Worcester, 6:45 p.m. | Tetreault (1-2, 4.45) vs. Seabold (3-0, 1.63) |
| Harrisburg | OFF DAY | vs. Richmond, 6:30 p.m. | Herrera (1-1, 5.81) vs. Brickhouse (0-1, 6.46) |
| Wilmington | OFF DAY | @ Brooklyn, 7 p.m. | Merrill (0-1, 5.02) vs. Vargas (2-0, 2.37) |
| Fredericksburg | OFF DAY | vs. Kannapolis, 7:05 p.m. | Caceres (2-1, 5.85) vs. Owen (3-1, 3.15) |
Rochester Red Wings (18-12, T1st, 1GA I.L. East)
The Red Wings took five of six from the RailRiders and are now tied for 1st place in the ten-team International League East. This week they travel to Worcester for six against the (ugh) Woo Sox, including a midday tilt tomorrow.
Harrisburg Senators (14-12, 3rd, 1½ GB E.L. Southwest)
Rain shortened the Harrisburg-Bowie series to five games, with the Senators winning just two. This week, first-place Richmond comes to City Isle for six games.
Wilmington Blue Rocks (13-13, 3rd, 6½ GB Sally Lg. North)
Likewise, the Blue Rocks and Hot Rods played just five, but Wilmington took three of five – each by a single run. It’s a relatively short ride to Brooklyn, so no need to sleep as the Blue Rocks and Cyclones play their second series.
Fredericksburg Nationals (17-9, 1st, 3½ GA C.L. North)
Finally, Fredericksburg took three of five to win its fourth series of the season. Kannapolis comes to town this week to rematch after the FredNats took five of six on April 19-24.
So…what’s the reason for the big improvement in the W/L records this year?
Were players assigned to levels that were too tough for them last year? Are we fielding teams that are “too old for the level”? Is it because we stopped trading prospects for veterans? Or maybe….just maybe…did we start drafting better over the past few years?
Have to think better drafting has at least something to do with it. Brendan Collins, a 17th rounder from last year, is a good example. He’s doing well already and should be at High A later this year. Then again, you could say the coaching is so much better and they’re developing faster.
The good news is that the team that’s doing the best — Fredericksburg — is pretty close to the lg. avg., though I’m sure someone will point out that House and White help drag down that average to a significant degree. But the Nats are usually among the league’s oldest teams, and this year’s teams are pretty close to last year’s in terms of their age relative to the league. So “old for the level” doesn’t pass the sniff test.
This is speculation on my part, the Nats player development department until this year was wanting so I believe that in 2020 when minor leaguers were sent home there wasn’t enough direction and followup resulting in piss poor effort in 2021. The major league lockout and the increased staffing of the development department plus major league coaching staff gave the Nats more time to spend on working the fundamentals on the minor league level. We’ve seen in the past trades where minor leaguers are involved have been developed by the receiving clubs. There have been complaints on this site by commentators about the poor development of players on the farm teams.
Just in — the 8 year old lawsuit by minor leaguers against MLB has been settled.
Scheduled to go to trial June 1, I’m sure MLB knew the publicity would be bad.
we have moves – Edwards to the Nats, Machado optioned, Thompson to the 60-day IL