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AFL Update: Oct. 13, 2022; Hassell Now a True Nats Prospect

Mesa’s three-run 3rd broke open a 1-0 game as the Solar Sox scorched the Javelinas, 9-2 yesterday afternoon.

Will Frizzell (pictured above) made his second appearance this fall, again as the DH, and had two singles in four trips to the plate as Peoria’s No. 6 batter.

Brady Lindsly gave Drew Millas the day off behind the plate and reached base twice with a walk and a single from the #9 slot in the order. He threw out one of two baserunners but also allowed a passed ball.

Lucas Knowles bounced back in his fourth appearance with a 1-2-3 fourth inning on nine pitches, five for strikes.

Peoria hits the buses for Salt River for a game this afternoon.

# # #

Hassell Suffers Hamate Bone Fracture, Will Miss the Rest of AFL Season

As noted in the comments, the Nats’ #1 prospect Robert Hassell has indeed hurt his wrist and has had surgery to correct a broken hamate bone.

He had been 1-for-6 with an RBI and a strikeout in two games, the last being on Oct 5th.

Now, let’s pause while Will picks up his phone or laptop that he just threw across the room.

It was revealed that Hassell had been struggling with this injury during the regular season. The hyperlinked story suggests that it had occurred prior to the trade, which seems awfully convenient given Washington’s history of keeping its players healthy but does explain reports of him altering his swing.

The logical inference was that that was to reduce pain/strain, which a strong September (.293/.379/.397 in 15G vs. .171/.267/.205 in 22G in August) may indicate that it was initially successful.

The 21-y.o. is expected to be healed and healthy by 2023 Spring Training.

12 Commments

  1. I’ve been saying this all season . More talent procurement to toss into the Hopper ( Hedda! Old movie buffs get the joke ). Cole Henry now Hassel .
    Wrist makes me think Cliff Floyd 1995…
    2023 20 more draft picks .. intl signings .. UDFAs… more minor league “ suitcase joes “ for Harrisburg . Rochester … ( voice of Jack Benny saying Rochester ..)

  2. I remember when Ian Desmond had the same injury when he was at AAA. It’s a 5-6 month recovery and when he came back he scorched and was soon in the majors for good. I think what they do is remove the hook in the bone so it won’t happen again.

    1. Juan Soto broke his hamate and had to have surgery on it back in 2017, and somehow he was back 2 months later. No idea about the severity of his injury vs Hassell’s or others’, but it’s widely known to sap a player’s power as they recover from it.

  3. Not sure the criteria but MLP Pipeline just announced the Nats prospects of the year.

    They gave the awards to Jeremy De La Rosa and Zach Brzykcy.

    1. so as the leader of the Jake “no respect” Alu fan club I imagine 1/2 of the announcement is disappointing. 🙂

  4. Update: the computer still sort of functions enough for me to write this comment.

    Using FanGraphs’ 2022 updated list:
    1. Wood – healthy (though did miss time in early September)
    2. Cavalli – currently injured
    3. Hassell – currently injured
    4. Henry – currently injured
    5. Vaquero – healthy
    6. Green – healthy
    7. JDLR – currently injured
    8. Susana – healthy
    9. Rutledge – previously injured, healthy now
    10. Bennett – apparently healthy, but hasn’t thrown since being drafted

    I honestly don’t think it’s a coincidence that the healthy players are the ones that haven’t played enough with the franchise to get injured yet. And other lower ranked prospects, like Gerardo Carrillo, Aldo Ramirez, Daylen Lile, Evan Lee, Seth Shuman, Mason Denaburg and Seth Romero have all missed big chunks of time this season to injury.

    Surely other clubs aren’t dealing with this level of injuries, can they?

    1. frankly, I suspect many are.

      while the Nats practice of not reporting injuries is confusing to me, I have never aspired to the notion that they are somehow much worse at diagnosing and treating them.

      did they neglect some aspects of conditioning in their developmental system, possibly.

      have they drafted more players with an injury risk, yes.

      hopefully those days are behind them.

  5. It wasn’t too many years ago that the Nats had exactly the same problem, and they fired the entire medical staff. That’s when they brought in Paul Lessard as the trainer. Could it be time to rinse and repeat?

  6. 2022 #2 (2d rounder): mysteriously didn’t pitch after drafted
    2021 #1 (1st rounder): injured most of season
    2021 #2: missed entire season injured
    2020 #1: ended season injured
    2020 #2: badly injured, probably out most/all of next season
    2019 #1: spent most of summer trying to rebound from 2021 injuries
    2018 #1: missed two-plus seasons injured
    2017 #1: has hardly ever been healthy
    2016 #1: missed entire season injured

    FredMD may be right that other teams have similar bad luck, but I doubt many of them have it this bad. And admittedly, some of this just happens to line up now. Kieboom didn’t have a previous history of major injury, and I don’t think that House or Lile did either. But several of these guys were drafted with known injury histories, including Romero, Denaburg, Cavalli, and Henry.

  7. Memo for Justin Jirschele (Peoria manager): your 1B, who you have started in SEVEN games, is hitting .154. Mr. Frizzell is capable of playing 1B . . . we think.

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