Monday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Lost, 8-2 | ALL STAR BREAK | N/A |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 5-1 | ALL STAR BREAK | N/A |
| Wilmington | Lost, 7-2 | ALL STAR BREAK | N/A |
| Fredericksburg | Postponed | ALL STAR BREAK | N/A |
| FCL Nationals | OFF DAY | ALL STAR BREAK | |
| DSL Nationals | OFF DAY | @ DSL Brewers 2, 11 a.m. |
Buffalo 8 Rochester 2
• Espino (L, 4-3) 6IP, 5H, 5R, 1ER, 2BB, 3K, HR
• T. Romero 4BF, 1H, 3R, 3ER, 3BB, 0K, WP
• Rutherford 2-4, GIDP
• Millas 1-4, 2B
A four-run 2nd broke turned a 1-0 game into a five-run lead for the Bison, who cruised to an 8-2 win over the Red Wings to earn the series split. Paolo Espino took the loss, as he was charged with those five runs (one earned) on five hits (one HR) while walking two and striking out three. Whatever hope Rochester had for a comeback was dashed when Tommy Romero walked the bases loaded and gave up a two-run single in the 8th, leaving without recording an out. Blake Rutherford led the Rochester hit column with two singles while Drew Millas had the only extra-base hit (double).
Akron 5 Harrisburg 1
• Saenz (L, 0-3) ⅔ IP, 2H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 0K
• Knowles 2⅓ IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 3K, 3-0 IR-S
• Arruda 2-3, RBI
• J. Young 1-3, BB, OF assist @ HP
Akron jumped Harrisburg for two in the 1st and two in the 5th as they took the game (and the series), 5-1. Dustin Saenz didn’t make it out of the 1st as he was lifted after retiring just two of seven batters faced, with two runs charged on two hits and three walks. Lucas Knowles minimized the damage by stranding three while getting out of the 1st and tossing tow scoreless innings. In the 3rd, Jackson Cluff and J.T. Arruda teamed up with a double and a single respectively to get the Senators on the board. Arruda’s hit would be the only one in four RISP chances as Harrisburg collected seven hits and two walks total.
Brooklyn 7 Wilmington 2
• Luckham 6IP, 3H, 1R, 1ER, 2BB, 3K, HBP
• Huff (L, 2-4) 1⅓ IP, 5H, 4R, 1ER, 0BB, 0K
• Fox 2-4, RBI, E(4)
• Barley 1-3, E(13)
The Blue Rocks briefly led this one 2-1 after seven, then coughed up four in the 8th and two in the 9th to lose the game, 7-2, and the series, 5-1. Kyle Luckham turned in his third quality start, allowing one run on three hits, two walks, and a hit batsman over six innings. He was rewarded with a no-decision. Chance Huff failed to record a clean outing for the sixth straight appearance and lost his fourth game. He was spun for four runs on five hits over an inning an a 1/3rd. Lucius Fox singled twice to lead the five-hit assault on the Cyclones pitchers, but also committed his fourth error in 10 games for Wilmington.
Ferdericksburg vs. Delmarva – PPD
Rain postponed the finale between Fredericksburg and Delmarva, which gave the FredNats a 3-2 series win going into the All Star break. They’ll make this one with a doubleheader on September 6.
FCL Nationals, 10-13, 4th Place FCL East, 4½ GB
After a 2-3 week, the F-Nats remain mired in 4th place in the FCL East. Truth be told—no, lie to us!—it’s a wonder they’re not in last place and/or further behind, “thanks” the league’s second-worst pitching. Perhaps that’ll change when the draft picks start to trickle in and the former prospects get pushed up or out.
DSL Nationals, 4-20, 9th Plac DSL South, 14GB
The DSL Nationals are for gunning for their first winning streak today after finishing up last week with back-to-back wins on Friday and Saturday. They’re also the only team not to have any interruption this week, with home games today, Thursday, and Saturday and road games on Tuesday and Friday.
2023 DRAFT
The first two rounds of the draft were last night. It’ll be rounds 3-10 this afternoon, then 11-20 tomorrow. As many of you know, the Draft is just not my thing. My time has become even more limited, especially now that all four adults in this house are working (but only two can drive), so it seems silly to spend too much of it speculating on who might get picked versus who did get picked… never mind what they were wearing last night.
I’m not terribly worried though. We have a pretty good community of commenters here and we’ll muddle through this little slowdown. [Insert Dulcolax joke here]. The D-Nats will give us a little something to talk about, since Wednesday is the only day this week with no games at all.
Otherwise, I’ll just keep the lights on and comments section going…
Snarkle ! Of course Sproat ends up drafted by an inner division foe , The Mets .
Didn’t Kline say the same one liner about Frizzell as he did about Morales last night ???
A pretty great first day! The Nats get the consensus #1 in Crews at #2, and a consensus top 20 pick in Morales at #40. I wouldn’t be surprised if they go with someone under slot in the 3rd round, as they will likely need to go overslot for their first 2 picks.
I would think that Crews will be slated for Wilmington (whenever Boras lets him sign) and then perhaps the AZ Fall League, unless they think he’s played enough this year already. He’s a huge addition to the franchise and has a chance to be in the majors by later 2024 . . . if he’s as good as projected. LOVE his hit tool, low K’s. Perhaps some of that will rub off on others in the organization.
Morales was #18 on Kiley McDaniel’s board, #20 on MLB.com, so a real BPA pick, probably taken as a bat more than anything as they have a lot of 3B traffic with House, Lipscomb, and Alu. Unless House falters, one would think that Morales would project more as a LF/1B/DH. McDaniel said a scout gave him a Nick Castellanos comp on Morales.
Very pleased with this draft.
I’ll admit, I was one of the myriad fans who had his heart set on Paul Skenes. I also thought the Pirates would be nuts not to take him. And, if you’d have told me back after the lottery that the Nats would still end up with Dylan Crews, I’d have, and still am, thrilled. He’s as close to a slam dunk as you can get in the prognostication business and should be in Washington very soon.
We all know what opinions are like, and ultimately that’s what a draft is – the opinion of whomever is making the final call of who is the best player/fit at that part of the draft. And, lots of opinions can be wrong. But in the opinion of the people who evaluate talent for a living like Keith Law and the folks at MLB.com and ESPN, Yohandy Morales was a first round caliber talent. To get a player ranked between 18-32 in the predraft at the 40th pick is a great result.
And, we have all lamented the lack of power in the Nats system of late, and Morales should fill that void.
It will be interesting to see what their selections means for some of the other prospects and where they end up defensively – will Morales stay at third, take a corner OF slot or go to first? – and what happens with the sudden glut of OF prospects the Nats have, but it’s gonna be fun to watch.
Here’s hoping Rizzo resorts to form and takes nothing but hard-throwing pitchers the next few rounds. Gotta build those future relievers!
“will Morales stay at third” – I’m a lot more comfortable switching an infielder to first over an outfielder. this seems like a logical move considering the current system.
Parker coming out of the bullpen again was a little surprising, the last time after Henry seemed to be treated more like a start. his two walks were the leadoff batters, maybe just pitch out of the stretch all the time and stop trying to copy Clayton. he needs to keep the ball down at all costs
The Nats have the top pick today of the “best of the rest,” but it will be tricky. The thought is that Crews wants overslot money, and it has to come from somewhere. One suspects that Rizzo’s minions have been calling the next 20 prospects on their board to see what their price point is. The majority of BPAs left right now are high schoolers, most of whom have dropped because of signability questions, so they’re not looking to take discounts.
The other thing is that this isn’t a good/deep draft for college pitchers, which is generally the Rizzo/Kline stock and trade. Guys with injury histories like Hunter Owen and Tanner Witt are available, but they’d make more sense in the 4th round than they do now unless they’d take a cost haircut. (Witt as an MLB legacy coming off an arm injury sure sounds like a Rizzo pick!)
The consensus best college position player still on the board is VA Tech OF Jack Hurley. The Nats are a bit top-heavy with OFs, but if you truly believe that he’s the BPA, you take him. For organizational need, I’m intrigued by U of TN SS
Maui Ahuna, although he strikes out a lot. The Nats took two Vols last year in Lipscomb and Lawson so have connections to the program.
in past years Hunter Owen would be the best bet, will be interesting to see if they’ve truly gone away from the prior injury gambles.
Fred MD Sykora proves your thought correct .
This is a 4-5 year rebuild if a prep arm in 3 rd round
I humbly admit that my paradigm about the draft has been repented to simply : over slot / under slot .
After the additions of Wood and Hassell not to mention the maturation of Alu , JDL , WHITE and others … not surprising grabbing R/R bats in Crews his buddy Dugas and toolsy Pinckney ( remindful of a certain coach in the complex ).
Don’t overread one draft pick; It’s not planned to be a 4-5 year rebuild. 4-5 years puts Gray, Gore, Abrams, Cavalli, and Garcia in their expensive arb years and on the brink of free agency while the next crop of players (Crews, Woods, and anyone else who debuts in the next couple of seasons) in their own arb ladders. I’d say that they’re aiming at two, maybe three years.
Haven’t been able to comment for a long time now, so I gave up.
Thought I’d try again.
Welcome back
Interesting that they tweeked the draft where the Pirates won the number one slot in round one but the rest of the draft order in following rounds reverts to old order of worst record .
Any concern with Saenz since moving to AA and struggling? He so dominated High A (sub 2 era) but hasn’t really translated yet to next level up (8+ era). Does he need to switch up his sequencing or pitch reliance or something else?
Or am I overthinking this and it’s just “better competition”?
Too early to worry but definitely worth keeping an eye on. He’s a smidge young for AA so when you combine that with the sudden bump in level of play, it’s not too worrisome, unless he fails to show any progress.
Same pattern as last year, and that was just between Low- and High-A. The gap between High-A and AA is huge, especially as it’s become more common to plug & play AA and AAA FA’s and OG’s.
I’d still like to see them draft Cam Johnson, the big local prep lefty, with the third rounder but he might require an overslot to get him to turn down LSU and that might just be too much, especially since they need to give Crews some overslot (probably) and YoYo might want some to since he was projected to be a first rounder.
Agree that Hunter Owen would be an interesting pick here.
And the pick is a prep… righty.
That’s definitely NOT on-brand for Rizzo. But, he’s 6-6, which most certainly is.
Travis Sykora, from Round Rock, TX. Verbally committed to Texas. He was ranked 88 by ESPN, 40 by MLB Pipeline and 36 by The Athletic’s Keith Law.
I assume they know what it will take to get him to sign but with some of those ratings it appears he thought he’d go higher so I wonder/worry about signability.
With their 4th rounder, the Nats take Andrew a Pinckney, a redshirt junior OF from Alabama, which is likely an underslot pick. Yes, he could go back for his 5th year, but the odds of improving his draft standing at that age are slim.
Appears to be another saving of slot money in the 5th round, as the Nats take light-hitting Ok. State Jr. IF Marcus Brown, who wasn’t ranked anywhere in MLB Pipeline’s top 250.
He’ll always be able to say he went higher in the draft than a lot of all-stars.
They continue to bank that underslot money (Boras must be drooling) as they take 5th year seniors in the 6th and 7th rounds. One of them, Gaven Dugas, played with Crews at LSU so maybe Dylan will pay for meals or something with all bonus money.
I don’t know what number Cameron Johnson gave MLB teams, but it must have been off the charts because he was considered a top 50 player and big lefties don’t grow on trees and as of pick 210, he’s still there for the taking.
to restate my point from Todd’s site, they have a chance to get three of MLB.com’s top 40 prospects from a draft that is considered to be one of the best in years. they have to be doing cartwheels in Nat’s park right now
Iowa Hawkeye lefty who began career at Missouri then a certain CC.
Another Vanderbilt Commodore pitcher .
Another Reid Schaller or a starter ?
Third Commodore when you recall Rhett Wiseman
Two NCAA infielders to plug right in at
The Complex or FRED
So three choice picks and the rest
Big Board filler pieces proving the overslot/ under slot game
Pretty much.
Crews is a 2 expecting beyond 1 money.
Morales is a 40 expecting 20-25 money.
Sykora is a 71 expecting 30-35 money.
They all deserve their money but the way the rules are now, that money has to come at the expense of players picked in rounds 4-10. So instead of drafting college juniors or HS seniors expecting slot, you take fliers on Happy To Be Drafted This High types and use them to balance the books.
And then you hope you get lucky with one of them…. and that you nailed the first 3 picks.