Tuesday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | OFF DAY | vs. St. Paul, 6:05 p.m. | Adon (1-1, 3.92) vs. Aa. Sanchez (0-1, 3.12) |
| Harrisburg | OFF DAY | vs. Somerset, 6:30 p.m. | Rutledge (1-0, 3.45) vs. Abeyta (0-0, 11.05) |
| Wilmington | OFF DAY | vs. Aberdeen, 6:35 p.m. | Huff (0-1, 9.00) vs. Pinto (0-1, 2.57) |
| Fredericksburg | OFF DAY | @ Lynchburg, 6:35 p.m. | Bennett (0-1, 2.84) vs. Zapata (0-0, 0.00) |
Rochester Red Wings, 6-14, 10th I.L. East, 9GB
Rochester avoided a sweep with a 5-0 shutout but otherwise reverted to the mean with three or fewer runs in four of the five losses last week. Despite being the worst offensive team in the International League (4.0 R/G vs. 5.24), the Red Wings have struck out the least. This week, St. Paul comes to town with day games on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Harrisburg Senators, 8-7, T2nd E.L. Southwest, 1GB
The Senators split their second road series with a doubleheader sweep on Sunday. Harrisburg is slightly below average on offense (4.2 R/G vs. 4.46) but tied for third in pitching at 4.0 R/G. This week, it’s a rematch against Somerset with a Wet Nose Wednesday day game.
Wilmington Blue Rocks, 7-7, 3rd Sally Lg. North, 3½ GB
Wilmington took three of five from Brooklyn but remains in third place. The Blue Rocks are last in the Sally Lg. on offense but third in pitching. This week, it’s six against the IronBirds with all six games in Delaware.
Fredericksburg Nationals, 4-10, 6th C.L. North, 4GB
The FredNats continue to struggle with their pitching, giving up 48 runs in the five games completed last week and two through two innings in Saturday’s suspended game. At 8.14 R/G they are the worst pitching team in the Carolina League more than a full run (#11 team, 6.71 R/G), and have allowed more runs than any other team not in AAA. This week it’s a trip southwest for their second series against the Hillcats.
Big surprise that Fredericksburg pitching has been so bad.
Jeff to your question from yesterday, Troop still having some command issues but there must be some deception in his delivery as he get a fair number of swing and miss strikes. no indication of how hard he was throwing but he did not appear to be laboring.
Cuevas much better command and every pitch moves one way or another. velocity seemed lower than Troop. he was hit much more frequently and harder but also generated a fair amount of weak contact. The batters seemed frustrated like “how could I miss than one”.
With Rutledge about to make another start, I’m looking at his SSS thus far vs. last season. His ERA is much better so far, 3.45 vs. 4.90. Some underlying numbers show things to be about the same, though: 3.75 FIP now vs. 3.89, 1.34 WHIP now vs. 1.39. His walk rate has almost doubled, but his hits per nine are down three, keeping WHIP steady. He’s benefited from good BABIP “luck” of .275, meaning that the hits aren’t falling at quite the rate that would be expected. He’s been more effective at LOB, 71.4% now vs. 63.8%. The most curious number is a 30% ground-ball rate, way down from 50.7%. He hasn’t surrendered a high homer rate in either season.
It should be noted that he’s two levels up from last season, not just one, so this is a solid start all in all. He’s still not the dominant starter the Nats hoped he would be when they drafted him, but perhaps he’s on track toward becoming a reasonably effective one.
Always interesting to see on a very young club like FRED how the young hurlers progress especially NCAA alums from last summers amateur draft .
Let’s just hope the kids keep playing the game for fun and not get bogged down in the mental mire of slump , routine and “ business “.
More humidity will help some of the hitters get going .