Thursday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Lost, 6-1 | vs. Omaha, 7:05 p.m. | Sharp (1-4, 6.00) vs. Parrish (1-3, 6.35) |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 6-2 | @ Hartford, 7:05 p.m. | Cate (1st start at AA in ’22) vs. N. Bush (6-6, 3.70) |
| Wilmington | Lost, 6-2 | @ Hickory, 7 p.m. | TBD vs. Ahlstrom (0-3, 6.05) |
| Fredericksburg | Postponed | @ Augusta, 7 p.m. | Denaburg (0-1, 4.21) vs. Perez (4-2, 3.77) |
| FCL Nationals | OFF DAY | vs. FCL Astros Blue, 10 a.m. (DH) | |
| DSL Nationals | Lost, 7-2; Lost, 8-0 |
@ DSL Texas Red, 11 a.m. |
Omaha 6 Rochester 1
• Teel (L, 2-2) 4⅔ IP, 5H, 3R, 3ER, 2BB, 4K, PO @ 2B
• Brill ⅓ IP, 0H, 0R, 2BB, 1K, 2-2 IR-S
• Noll 2-4, E(7)
• Gushue 2-4, E(1)
Rochester briefly led this one, 1-0, before Omaha got three in the 5th and three in the late innings to win, 6-1. Carson Teel got knocked from the box with two out in the 5th and was charged with three runs on five hits and two walks. He struck out four. The Red Wings’ offense was limited to seven singles, with Jake Noll and Taylor Gushue both collecting two, while the defense committed three errors.
Roster moves: Cory Abbott recalled to Washington as 27th man for DH (had been listed as today’s starter); RHP Tyler Clippard added to 40-man, recalled to Washington.
Hartford 6 Harrisburg 2
• Irvin (L, 0-4) 5IP, 6H, 4R, 4ER, 1BB, 4K, HR
• Dopico 2IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 3K
• Hubbard 2-3, RBI
• Cluff 2-4, 2B
Likewise, a 1-0 Senators lead was erased with the Yard Goats’ three-run 2nd en route to a 6-2 Hartford win over Harrisburg. Jake Irvin lost for the fourth time in six AA starts, chewed on for four runs on five hits (one HR) and a walk over five innings. Dondrei Hubbard, Gilbert Lara, and Jackson Cluff each had two hits—with Cluff connecting for his 11th double—to lead the Harrisburg offense.
Hickory 6 Wilmington 2
• Parker 1IP, 0H, 0R, 2BB, 0K (1:52 rain delay)
• C. Romero 4IP, 1H, 0R, 1BB, 5K
• Merrill (BS, 2; L, 0-2) 1+ IP, 3H, 6R, 6ER, 3BB, 2K, HR
• Martin 2-3, 2R, BB
• Vega 2-4
Wilmington and Hickory waited for nearly two hours for the rains to pass before the Crawdads tripled up the Blue Rocks, 6-2. Mitchell Parker pitched the bottom of the 1st and walked two. Play was halted with one out in the top of the 2nd. Carlos Romero came on to pitch four scoreless innings of relief before giving way to Matt Merrill, who lost Wilmington’s 1-0 lead with a solo HR in the 6th (blown save) and was charged with five more runs in the 7th as he put on all five batters he faced that inning to wear the “L.” Rudy Martin walked once, scored twice, and singled twice to lead the Wilmington offense.
Fredericksburg vs. Augusta – PPD
Roughly 200 miles south from Hickory, the storms in Augusta rained out the game between the FredNats and the GreenJackets. They’ll shoot to make it up tomorrow night with a twi-night doubleheader.
FCL Nationals – OFF DAY
The first-place F-Nats’ 10-game win streak will be on the line as they play two this morning against the last-place FCL Astros Blue.
DSL Twins 7 DSL Nationals 2 – COMP.
• Polanco (L, 1-2) 7IP, 5H, 4R, 4ER, 4BB, 9K
• Luis ⅔ IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K, 2-2 IR-S
• Contreras 2-4, R
• Castro 1-4, 2B
Polanco started the game on June 30th and picked up where he left off yesterday. The D-Twins had been leading 1-0 midway through the 4th.
DSL Twins 8 DSL Nationals 0 – GM. 2
• Leon 5IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 7K, HBP
• Francisco 1IP, 6H, 6R, 6ER, 1BB, 1K
• Mojica 2-2, 2B(5)
• J. Fernandez 1-2
The losing streak was extended to four as the D-Twins had a “Rice-A-Roni” 6th as they were treated to six runs off Michael Francisco to break open a 0-0 game.
Power outages yesterday after the strong storm which went thru my yard Yankee ing a tree out of its roots tipped over into the neighbors acreage
One had to pay cash only at the liquor barn down the street
So much for Parker to City Isle … yet …
Isn’t Michael Kim main pct owner of the Isles in NHL ?
Team May have to move to Virginia with the future ahead .. haha
Draft a few days away ..
Teel got the benefit of pitching against a depleted roster but still showed the qualities that make me think he can be a middle reliever in MLB. by the fifth inning however, he was done.
He wasn’t even a starter in college, but pitched the same sort of role the Nats have used him in, long relief/occasional 3-4 inning starts, which looks about right for him.
With that said, it’s not a bad thing. Starting pitchers in the conventional sense are a dying breed. The Rays have excelled with a rotation that rarely goes beyond 5 IP. The Nats might be wise to not yet again fall behind their peers, as our system is littered with SPs, who probably aren’t good enough to remain SPs: Teel, Rutledge, Parker, E. Lee, Adon, B. Collins, Schaller, Troop and Cate.
Having watched a lot of Reetz with the PNats, a big problem with him seemed to be mental – he had already “arrived” and seemed to loaf through games. Maybe the flameout lit a fire under him?
Although the majority of your evidence is correct. The new owners need to clean house next year, I think.
After some less encouraging pitching performances, I did some reading up on some mock drafts for the now 3 days away (!!!) MLB draft.
It seems a growing consensus that the Nats will draft Elijah Green, and that scares me. There’s major concerns over whether his plate discipline will translate in professional baseball. He’s striking out at an alarmingly high rate in HS, so you have to believe it will get a lot worse in the minors before it gets better. And I have absolutely no faith in the Nationals to actually develop a hitter. Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon were polished bats, who’d already done all their developing (plus, they were both drafted over a decade ago!), and Juan Soto is just a freak of nature. After them, you have a boatload of failures: Carter Kieboom, Drew Mendoza, Gage Canning, Blake Perkins, Rhett Wiseman, Yasel Antuna, and many other highly touted top 5 rounders or big-money IFAs that stagnated and declined in the Nats system. Luis Garcia stands alone among the successes.
If I’m the Nats, I’d go after someone a lot more polished, and less likely for the Nats to break or fail to develop, like Kevin Parada (catcher from GA Tech) or Brooks Lee (SS from Cal Poly). It’s exceptionally unlikely both would be drafted before the Nats pick. But if they were, then I’d go after one of the HS bats that have much “surer” skillsets, like Temarr Johnson, whose concerns lie in where he’ll eventually fit defensively, as he appears to unlikely to stick at 2B. And if for some insane reason Druw Jones or Jackson Holliday dropped to #5, we’d be obligated to take them.
Elijah Green has tantalizing skills, but I have no faith in the Nationals being able to them. And even if he did unlock his potential, he wouldn’t reach AA for like 4 years with the Nationals illogical no-promotion-for-hitters development approach.
One final note, I pointed out a month ago how Jakson Reetz was tearing the cover off the ball in the AA for the Brewers, and some questioned the sample size or sustainability of it. Well, he’s still doing it, hitting .278/.390/.628 with 22 HR, which is 8th most in all of the minor leagues.
On the topic of the Nationals’ ability to develop HS talent…
Reetz just got promoted to aaa, where he will finally see age appropriate pitching. I think with Ruiz, Barrera, and Adams he got caught in a numbers crunch at aaa and mlb. Not to mention the two catcher prospects we have behind him. The big issue for me is we weren’t able to trade him last year
not that I’m all in on your argument but Luis Garcia is hardly a sucess as he does not walk nearly enough. a deficiency that reared it’s head in the ninth inning of the nightcap yesterday.
I consider any player who reaches the majors and contributes positively (a WAR above 1.0 per season) a success. By this definition, the Nationals have exactly one success in the past decade: Juan Soto.
Garcia is currently worth 0.3 WAR in 39 games, which over the course of a full season would be worth 1.1 WAR. That’s nothing special by just about any other club’s definition, but for the Nats it is. We’ll have to take whatever measly successes that we can.
but I do agree that a college bat is preferred, as long as he’s in the discussion for best player available.
Doubt the Nats, or any MLB team, would decline taking a more talented player because they doubt their ability to develop that player. The reason why the Nats have failed to develop many position player bats is because for a 4 year stretch, the Nats decided to draft only pitchers in the first 10 rounds of the draft. The strategy has been a disaster as very few of the drafted pitchers have become prospects.
FWIW, it’s early, but does seem like the Nats have been better at developing position player prospects of late (De La Rosa, House, White, Infante). If the Nats can’t develop talented players, then it doesn’t really matter who the Nats’ draft.
I don’t think Nationals have been any good at developing position players lately. All the players you mentioned have the same problems in striking out a bunch along with a very high swinging strike rate. The https://blogs.fangraphs.com/washington-nationals-top-29-prospects-2022/ article mentioned that, “Only six players under 23 in this org have a SwStr% better than the big league average, and several of those need to be taken with a grain of salt because they’re older than the typical prospect at their level.”
So glad to hear of the rain delay for Wilmington; when I saw earlier that Mitchell Parker only pitched 1 inning my heart skipped a beat.
considering that he walked two, he’s probably happy the skies opened too
Reetz just got promoted to aaa, where he will finally see age appropriate pitching. I think with Ruiz, Barrera, and Adams he got caught in a numbers crunch at aaa and mlb. Not to mention the two catcher prospects we have behind him. The big issue for me is we weren’t able to trade him last year when we knew we had a surplus of catchers for a lottery ticket at a position of greater need. With all of the 40 man decisions coming in the off-season, you’d like to see the system acquire some depth via trade for some guys before you leave them exposed to the Rule 5 draft or free agency.
Reetz was drafted in 2014, eight years ago. Man, time passes. He should have bought a house in Woodbridge with three seasons at Potomac. He elected minor-league free agency last winter after the Nats traded for three catchers younger than him at the deadline.
I completely agree that the thought of drafting Elijah Green scares me too. We’ve been having the same conversation over at Todd’s Nationals Arms Race site. In the 2011 draft, with the #5 pick, the Royals (who were then an ascendant team) took a high school tool-shed CF named Bubba Starling. Picking right after them, the Nats took a polished college bat with positional questions, Anthony Rendon. In 2012, with the #2 pick, the Twins took a high school tool-shed CF, Byron Buxton. He’s done better than Starling, but 10 years after that draft, Buxton is hitting .208, striking out 29% of the time, and still struggling to establish himself as an MLB regular.
Please take a college hitter — Parada, Lee, Berry, whoever. With as talent-starved as this organization is, they can’t afford a miss.
The highlight of Bubba Starling’s pro career probably occurred in Woodbridge, when he hit a grand slam off a rehabbing Gio Gonzalez in 2014.
Nats were fortunate to get Rendon that year. He fell to the 6th pick due to concerns about his fractured ankle and a nagging shoulder injury. Great pick!
Buxton is 4th overall in bwar from that first round behind Correa, Seager, and Olson. His problem is staying healthy. He plays elite defense, has elite power, and injuries led to a hometown discount on a second contract. This year he has been healthier and he’s an all star. I believe Minnesota has zero regrets drafting Buxton after re-signing him.
Nice outing for Denaburg tonight. 4ip, 1er, 3h, 1bb, 5k. Era now under 4 at 3.94.
Sad to see it, but Tim Cate got crushed in his first start back in aa. 3ip, 6er, 9h, 1bb, 3k, 1hr. Hope he bounces back.