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Thursday’s News & Notes

Team Yesterday Today Pitching Probables
Rochester Won, 10-3 vs. Lehigh Valley, 6:05 p.m. Kilome (2-7, 8.60) vs. Plassmeyer (6-3, 2.66)
Harrisburg Lost, 6-4 @ New Hampshire, 6:35 p.m. Herrera (4-9, 4.61) vs. Quinones (0-6, 5.56)
Fredericksburg OFF DAY @ Lynchburg, 6:30 p.m. Susana (0-0, 2.61) vs. Johnston (4-6, 3.94)

Rochester 10 Lehigh Valley 3
• Adon (W, 2-2) 5IP, 7H, 3R, 3ER, 1BB, 5K, 2HR
• Cronin 1⅔ IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K, 1-0 IR-S
• W. Perez 3-4, 2R, 2-2B, 2RBI
• Stevenson 2-4, R, BB, HR(15), RBI
• Johnson 2-4, R, HR(5), 4RBI
• Alu 2-5, R

Daniel Johnson’s three-run HR in the 3rd erased a 3-1 deficit as the Red Wings piled on with six more over the next five “ups” as Red Wings (*gasp*) began a winning streak of three with a 10-3 win over the IronPigs. Joan Adon gave up all three Lehigh Valley runs in the first two innings but made it through the requisite five to even up his won-loss record at 2-2. He allowed seven hits (two HRs) and a walk while fanning five. Wilmer Perez connected for an RBI double twice and added a single while Andrew Stevenson had his third multihit game over the last four games, including his 15th HR.

New Hampshire 6 Harrisburg 4
• S. Romero 4IP, 4H, 2R, 2ER, 2BB, 8K, HBP
• Teel (L, 1-1) 2+ IP, 3H, 2R, 2ER, 0BB, 3K, HR
• A. Lee 1IP, 1H, 2R, 2ER, 1BB, 1K, 1HR, 1-1 IR-S
• W. Garcia 2-4, R, 2B, HR, 3RBI
• Baker 2-3, R, BB, 2B

Wilson Garcia’s 24th HR put Harrisburg up 3-1 but Luis De Los Santos’s 10th broke a 3-3 tie to give New Hampshire a 6-3 win over Harrisburg. Seth Romero struck out a season-high of eight while letting in two on four hits and two walks over four innings. The loss went to Carson Teel with an “assist” from Andrew Lee, as the 28-y.o. journeyman gave up the De Los Santos HR in the 7th. Garcia also double and drove in three total while Darren Baker reached base three times with a single, double, and a walk to lead the Senators’ offense.
Roster moves: IF Cole Daily reassigned from Wilmington.

Fredericksburg – OFF DAY
The series shifts to Lynchburg for the remainder of the best-of-three CLDS with a matchup tonight and, if necessary, tomorrow after for some reason (Occam’s Razor suggests they don’t want to pay to run the lights). Meanwhile, longtime FredNat Jeremy De La Rosa was named the Nationals 2022 Minor League Player of the Year($) by Baseball America.

20 Commments

  1. Did not see Cole Daily as the player to move to Harrisburg this week, he with the career .614 OPS In the system.

    JAKE ‘no respect’ Alu now has a higher OPS at AAA, .842, then he did at AA. Some helium here. Matt Cronin getting his sea legs at AAA is good to see.

    1. The Nationals absolutely love middle infielders who cannot hit. Cole Daily, Jackson Cluff, Jordy Barley, and until recently Yasel Antuna. They will be aggressive with them and promote them regardless of performance.

      Meanwhile corner infielders have to play 200 or so games at a level and sustain an OPS around .900 before getting a promotion.

      1. I wonder if Daily is being groomed for a coaching / instructor career after he ends his low batting average career?
        Utility firms are gouging everybody , Luke .lol

      2. Garrett Morris on old SNL skit : baseball been beddy 3 good to me ! See ball hit ball lol !
        Then Gilda Radner chimes in…,

  2. After a bumpy start, Matt Cronin has settled in nicely in Rochester. In his past 25 games/26.2 IP, he’s got a 3.04 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 27 K.

    I think a spot in the Nationals bullpen should be his to lose next year.

  3. Meanwhile, that BA article on JDLR is public, so it’s a good read. I just wish Watson for once would stop talking in such platitudes, and shed some (any!) insight into what the heck the Nationals actually do on the development side of things.

    “He went back to the drawing board in the offseason and managed the strike zone a lot better,” Nationals farm director De Jon Watson said. “He stayed in the middle of the diamond and showed the ability to drive the baseball to all parts of the ballpark.”

    “It was truly a mindset he had,” Watson said. “He improved his pitch recognition and had a solid offensive approach.”

    On Pineda: “When he’s getting balls he should hammer, he’s not missing them,” Nationals farm director De Jon Watson said. “But the biggest thing for him has been his work behind the plate.”

    This is as insightful as my own insights from reading the daily box scores. And you’ll notice that all the progress from JDLR came from his own initiative. “He went back to the drawing board”, “it was a mindset he had”, not “we worked with him on X, Y and Z, which he really thrived with”.

    I can’t help but to go back to a fascinating interview with the Yankees pitching coach, Matt Blake, which really demonstrates the gulf between what real player development looks like and the sort of generic stuff we keep getting from De Jon Watson, Mike Rizzo, Davey Martinez and just about every other “mind” in the organization. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/yankees-pitching-coach-matt-blake-on-the-remaking-of-nestor-cortes/

    But basically all of David Laurila’s articles on FanGraphs are really good insights into player development through the lens of the use of analytics. It’s not a coincidence the Nationals never feature in this series. I can link a few other good interviews, but will post separately because the spam filter catches comments when I post more than one URL.

  5. I am looking for the FredNats bats to wake from their first game slumber and pound their way into the finals. the pressure level will be a little lower

    I hesitate to get into a debate on the developmental success of the Nats because I’ve said it before. but when you bash them without acknowledging that they have recognized their deficiencies and are making changes it seems pointless.

    also it seems like every time it starts to click for a player he has figured it out and when it’s not clicking he’s not being coached. if you’re basing you opinions on what you hear in public from coaches, well good luck with that.

    I enjoy this site and the discussions and I appreciate the passion for minor league baseball from everyone. sorry that the season is winding down.

    1. FredMD I always harken back to the year Larry Walker went through @ AAA Indy in expo chain . Derek Lee’s father oversaw him through the growing period but he stuck grinder through it and we knows as Paul Harvey says the rest of the story .
      See the ball hit the ball .. see the hot brunette go after the hot brunette .. life is simple lol

  6. Could Seth Romero be a prospect again? As described above, his outing last night was not great, but OK.

  7. Just a question for those of you with more knowledge than me.
    Tetreault was called up and pitched in 4 games and then injured. Evan Lee called up and after 1 start and relief outing ended up on the IL. Cavalli gets called up, makes 1 start and ends up on the IL. Is it just me or does anyone else think there may be an issue with the training staff/regime for players?

    1. Before Will blows out a gasket… yes, this has been a complaint about this system for a very long time. There is a reason why we call it Nationals’ elbow.

      1. Truly not tennis elbow .
        Going back to April JDLR had the projectory worthy of the BA tip of the cap long before the deadline assets acquired .

    2. I wish I had the answer for that.
      I am going to be very nervous if for some reason the big club wants to get a look at McKenzie Gore before the end of the season.

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