Thursday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Lost, 8-1 | @ Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 6:35 p.m. | Troop (1st AAA start of ’23) vs. Warren (4-4, 5.52) |
| Harrisburg | Won, 10-3 | @ Erie, 6:05 p.m. | Mitchell (7-4, 4.88) vs. Montero (9-2, 4.83) |
| Wilmington | Lost, 3-0 | vs. Hudson Valley, 7:05 p.m. | Luckham (3-3. 4.33) vs. Selvidge (1-0, 1.59) |
| Fredericksburg | Won, 7-1 | vs. Salem, 7:05 p.m. | Amaral (Low-A debut) vs. Soto (0-0, 0.00) |
| FCL Nationals | OFF DAY | @ FCL Cardinals, 12 p.m. | |
| DSL Nationals | OFF DAY | vs. DSL Colorado, 11 a.m. |
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 8 Rochester 1
• Ureña (L, 1-3) 4⅓ IP, 7H, 5R, 5ER, 1BB, 5K, HR
• T. Romero 3⅔ IP, 4H, 3R, 3ER, 5BB, 3K, 2-2 IR-S
• Baker 2-4, HR, RBI, CS
• Blankenhorn 1-3, 2B, BB
The RailRiders scored in five straight “ups” as they steamed past the Red Wings, 8-1. José Ureña somehow only suffered his third loss as he was charged the first five runs on seven hits (one HR) and a walk while striking out five over four and a 1/3rd innings. Tommy Romero finished the game while allowing three runs on four hits and five walks. Darren Baker broke up the shutout with his third HR while going 2-for-4. Travis Blankenhorn also reached base twice, doubling in the 1st and walking in the 4th. The rest of the lineup went 2-for-24 with 13 strikeouts (15 overall). Roster moves: 2B Luis García, RHP Hobie Harris optioned from Washington.
Harrisburg 10 Erie 3
• Nash 3IP, 2H, 0R, 2BB, 4K
• Alston (W, 3-3) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 0K
• M. Peña 3IP, 0H, 0R, BB, 4K
• Lipscomb 4-5, 3R, 2HR, 6RBI
• Lindsly 3-4, 2B
• J. Young 2-5, 2R, 2-2B, OF assist @ HP
Harrisburg roared back from a 3-1 deficit Wednesday Afternoon in Erie.
Hudson Valley 3 Wilmington 0
• Lord (L, 1-2) 6IP, 2H, 2R, 1ER, 2BB, 5K, HR
• Da. Díaz 1IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 1K
• De La Rosa 1-3, BB
• Boisserie 1-3, BB
The Renegages’ Baron outranked the Blue Rocks’ Lord as Hudson Valley shut out Wilmington, 3-0 on five hits. It was the ninth shutout loss for the Blue Rocks. Lord took the loss despite throwing a quality start of two runs (one earned) on two hits (one HR) and two walks over six innings. He struck out five. Jeremy De La Rosa and Branden Boisserie both went 1-3 with a walk while Kevin Made went 0-for-4 in his Nats org. debut. Roster moves: RHP Thomas Ruwe placed on 7-Day I.L.; SS Nick Shumpert placed on Development List (both effective 8/1).
Fredericksburg 7 Salem 1
• Tolman 2IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 2K
• M. Gomez (W, 6-4) 3IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 3K
• Denaburg 3IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 4K, HR
• Pinckney 3-4, 2R, 2B
• Brown 2-4, R, 2RBI
• Emiliani 1-2, BB, SF, 2RBI
Fredericksburg’s new guys didn’t get the memo about struggling and making us wonder why they were drafted as the FredNats handily beat the Red Sox, 7-1. Erik Tolman, however, did follow the company line about injuries and went down on his way out to the mound after two goose eggs on the top of the scoreboard with no hits, one walk, and two whiffs. Miguel Gomez took over and tossed three scoreless to earn his sixth win. Mason Denaburg lost the shutout on a HR to the first batter he faced but recovered to retire the next nine batters, four by way of the K. Andrew Pinckney doubled and singled twice, as did Marcus Brown, who drove in two to lead the Fredericksburg offense.
Since I’ve complained about Denaburg quite a bit, just wanted to highlight easily his finest outing of the season. 3 IP, only 1 H allowed, and most importantly zero BB!
Lord, who’s also struggled mightily, also had a really good start. Seems like all of our 2022 draftees have collectively turned a corner this past week or so.
Lastly, we’ll have to see how Alu fares in DC, but Lipscomb is looking like he could be the Nats’ best drafted bat in a decade!
Densburg bullpen project ? Long reliever ?
Oh Lord
Luckham
Young ?
That other guy at will
Prayers on Tolman
Luke, how did Jacob Young look in CF? His bat isn’t good enough to be a corner OF, but he’s played a good amount (albeit minority) in CF in his short career. Scouting reports said he wasn’t good enough to stick in CF, and yet he’s still getting semi-regular time there playing alongside other CF-tweeners in James Wood and Robert Hassell.
If he could hold his own defensively in CF, his bat (.295/.372/.399) and speed combo (31 SB in 93 G) starts to look very interesting.
He looked fine. He actually has a decent arm for someone his size, which is unusual for his archetype. I think the main reason he hasn’t played there more is that the F.O. considers him a roster-filler and wants those innings to go to CFs like De La Rosa, et al.
I’m very happy that Dickerson was released and Rutherford was called up. Let’s see what we have here, I mean he was hitting at a .998 OPS clip in Rochester.
I’ve been fanning the Rutherford bandwagon flames for a while, so I love this move and am interested to see what he can do. Maybe he hits, maybe he doesn’t. Either way it’s the perfect time to find out.
KW, I’m not sure I would have even noticed him if not for your flame fanning.
a bizarre and sad scene with Tolman laying on the field under care for over 20 minutes before leaving the field in an ambulance.
Ty Fred I was wondering if he had arm trouble
This lack of narrative makes me think of Dave Dravecky in Montreal when he arm went whack …
So Tolman leg injury after reading Fred site
Did he step on wet grass or on a sprinkler outlet ??
Dylan Crews is 2 for 2 for the FCL Nats this morning. Will he ever make an out?
I’ve been saying for a while that the Nats might not be sold on Garcia as the long-term 2B, but I’m surprised by the demotion. It’s time for him to get things together and stop following Robles career arc.
Calling up Jeter Downs to replace him? He of the .175 BA at Rochester? Good stinkin’ grief! What an insult to Darren Baker and Trey Lipscomb. It is a message to all concerned, though, that there may be open tryouts at 2B in the spring, all the more since Garcia will be out of options.
Dylan Crews – woo hoo!
Bunch of other 23 draft picks/Rookie FAs also now rostered in the FCL – Travis Sykora (3rd round), Thomas Schultz (9th), Travis Sthele (12th), Liam Sullivan (13th), Mikey Tepper (15th), Merrick Baldo (17th), andMatthew Bollenbacher (Undrafted),
Joining Ryan Snell (7th), Phillip Glasser (10th) and Brandon Pimentel (Undrafted) who was already rostered.
Before everyone gets hot and bothered about Jeter Downs being called up to be an end-of-the-bench pinch runner/defensive replacement player who plays an inning a week, consider. The reason that JD is the callup is because the team has no long term interest in his ability to play baseball. He’s a placeholder, a guy who will mostly not play.
Darren Baker is coming back from an injury, and Trey Lipscomb has put in 42 games of yeoman work at AA … after being “meh” at A ball last year despite being a 22yo player from an advanced college conference. Despite this he was pushed to A+ for a more age-appropriate venue to star this year, and was (charitably) “meh” with a .699 OPS. The Nats don’t want either Baker or Lipscomb being the “last guy on the bench,” they want them playing every day. They want Baker to prove he’s healthy and Lipscomb to prove that he’s really turned a corner.
Exactly. Jeter Downs getting called up to the Nats was similar to when the Nats brought up Jordy Barley to AAA for a week+. They didn’t want to start Baker’s or Lipscomb’s service clock, and Downs was already on the 40 man roster. Downs is going to play less than Michael Chavis does. Kind of shows where Downs is in the Nats future plans.
If Downs is up, they might as well play him. They know what Chavis is — and isn’t. My point is that it would have been a good opportunity to give an extended look to Baker, though, to let him start. They’re not worried about his service clock. He’s not going to be a star. He has almost no pop, but he does get on base. I don’t know if Baker can stick as a major-leaguer, but it seems pretty certain that Downs can’t.
Jeter is not getting an extended look. The Nats know that Downs is a Nothingburger. The Nats wanted give Garcia a kick in the butt. Unless he completely craters, Garcia will be back up soon enough. They didn’t want to bring Baker up for two weeks, and then, send him back when Garcia has an attitude adjustment.
Re: Lipscomb — It takes around 600 ab’s for a college guy to get the metal out of their swing. He has 456 ab’s so far in his pro career.
His stats at Harrisburg vs. Wilmington is an indictment of the park at Wilmington.
Word on the twitters is that Dylan Crews will be bumped up to Fredericksburg and debut their Saturday night. Note that this isn’t official, but I suspect it will be how it goes down.