Shuffling the Decks
With the first full week after the All-Star Break upon us, the Washington Nationals have made a series of moves:
ROCHESTER
• C Steven Williams placed on the Development List
HARRISBURG
• 3B Brady House promoted from Wilmington
WILMINGTON
• 1B Branden Boisserie promoted from Fredericksburg
• OF Daylen Lile promoted from Fredericksburg
FREDERICKSBURG
• 1B Leandro Emiliani demoted from Wilmington
FCL NATIONALS
• OF Yasel Antuna reassigned from Wilmington for MiLB Rehab
• LHP Peyton Glavine reassigned from Wilmington for MiLB Rehab
• RHP RHP Niomar Gomez reassigned from Fredericksburg for MiLB Rehab
This isn’t as extensive as last July, so I think the folks who’ve been banging the drum for promotions will probably be less than satisfied. This also doesn’t appear to be complete, though I believe more moves are coming… and they’ll probably guys coming off the I.L.
Finally, in case you haven’t noticed, today’s probables have been updated.
So, some obvious questions here.
– House up, so does Lipscomb sit? He’s hitting well in AA; can’t sit him. Maybe move him to 2B and sit JT Arruda?
– Boissiere promotion makes no sense; he isn’t going to start over White at 1B, nor over Frizzell at DH, and he’s hitting .210. why move him at all?
– Who plays 3B in Wilmington now? I don’t see an obvious candidate to play. Sanchez? is that why Boissiere got moved up… to play 3B?
The House promotion is pretty surprising. For one, the Nats are notoriously conservative with promotions, so for House to get bumped up after 16 games is extraordinary (compare to Lile who took 66 games and almost identical offensive numbers to get his first promotion). Second, as you pointed out, it creates a playing time problem with Lipscomb, our breakout hitter of the season. And Lipscomb can’t go to Rochester because Alu is there.
Agreed on the Boissiere promotion. I swear someone in management is seeing something in Boissiere literally no one else is, because it wasn’t too long ago that Boissiere was blocking Frizzell at 1B in Fredericksburg. This guy has an undeservedly long leash.
Now that we have this 3B mess, we are very soon going to have one at SS and OF. Brown and Glasser are SS. Brown plays 2B too, but they’ll get sent to the FCL, or given their advanced ages, probably Fburg. But the FCL has Winder Diaz and Nathaniel Ochoa Leyva, who are both hitting very, very well. And Fburg has Armando Cruz and Cortland Lawson. So promoting NOL doesnt actually solve anything. Does Cruz get a deserved benching? He’s hitting a mere .188 and regressed in every way possible.
It’s the same problem in OF. We just drafted 3 more OFs (Crews, Pinckney, and Nunez) in an already packed system. FCL has prospects Cristhian Vaquero, Brenner Cox and Nick Peoples. Cox and Peoples have played themselves out of a guaranteed starting role, but there’s still not enough space for everyone. In Fburg you have Green, Johnathan Thomas and Roismar Quintana. My guess if Nunez goes to FCL while Crews and Pinckney straight to Fburg (or possibly a few games in FCL first before a quick promotion).
At least ob pitching we need all the help we can get. I have no idea how Jose Ulloa, for example, still has a job.
I fell they promoted House due to Dunn being moved up to Rochester. Sens needed that slot filled.