Tuesday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | OFF DAY | vs. Worcester, 6:45 p.m. | Muñoz (0-2, 6.89) vs. Walter (1-5, 5.26) |
| Harrisburg | OFF DAY | vs. Reading, 6:30 p.m. | Herz (1-1, 3.00) vs. Parkinson (7-4, 3.81) |
| Wilmington | OFF DAY | vs. Jersey Shore, 6:35 p.m. | L. Young (4-4, 4.40) vs. Jo. Ramirez (3-8, 3.69) |
| Fredericksburg | OFF DAY | @ Salem, 7:05 p.m. | TBD vs. TBD |
| FCL Nationals | Won, 2-0 | END OF SEASON | |
| DSL Nationals | Won, 4-2 | END OF SEASON |
* None of the affiliates that produce press notes have a starter listed for today
Rochester Red Wings, 20-24, 8th place I.L. East, 8GB – 54-63 Overall
The Red Wings are on a four-game losing streak and have won just five games in the month of August. This week, the (ugh) Woo Sox come to the Flower City (yes, really) for six with a matinee on Thursday. Roster moves: UT Jeter Downs optioned from Washington.
Harrisburg Senators, 22-23, 4th place E.L. Southwest, 4GB – 53-60 Overall
The addition of Dylan Crews should further solidify the offense, but that’s not the problem of late for Washington’s AA entry. Leo Durocher’s observation about the correlation of constipation and unreliable relievers (“If you ain’t got a bullpen, you ain’t got shit”) was on display last week as Harrisburg dropped five of six to Richmond, including the last four in a row. This week, Reading visits the PA capital for the first and only time this summer.
Wilmington Blue Rocks, 16-32, 6th Place, 12GB, Sally Lg. North – 45-67 Overall
After a 3-9 roadtrip, the Blue Rocks return home for a 12-game homestand. Yohandy Morales and Andrew Pinckney can only help an offense that might not hit water if they fell off a pier. This week, Jersey Shore visits for its final series.
Fredericksburg Nationals, 24-23, 3rd Place, 4½ GB, C.L. North – 54-56 Overall
Departing Yohandy Morales kept the Carolina League Player of the Week award in Fredericksburg for a third straight week, as it remains to be seen which players will take his and Pinckney’s place on the roster. This week, the FredNats head to Salem for six.
FCL Nationals 2 FCL Cardinals 0
• Otanez (W, 1-1) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Leon (SV, 1) 1IP, 2H, 0R, 1BB, 2K
• Peoples 1-2, R, HR, 2RBI
• Klassen 1-3, 2B
The F-Nats closed out the 2023 campaign with a 2-0 shutout of the F-Cards on four hits. Seven pitchers were used for the seven-inning game, with Johan Otanez getting the win in relief and Jefrem Leon cordero’ing around two hits and a walk to earn the save. It was power to the People(s), as Nick hit a two-run HR to account for the FCL Nationals offense. Roster moves: RHP José Mujica assigned from Rochester for MiLB rehab; RHP Nick Pogue assigned from Wilmington for MiLB rehab.
DSL Nationals 4 DSL Miami 2
• Roman 4IP, 4H, 2R, 2ER, 0BB, 4K, HR
• R. Cuevas (W, 2-1) 5IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 3K
• L. Arias 2-3, 2R, 2B
• Joaquin 1-3, R, HR, 3RBI, 2SB
With today’s game canceled, the DSL Nationals finished the ’23 season with a 4-2 win over DSL Miami, ending a six-game winless streak. Angel Roman got the start and gave up both D-Miami runs on a home run and four hits total over four innings. The 19-y.o. struck out four and did not walk a batter. 20-y.o. Ramon Cuevas finished the game with five scoreless innings to earn his second win, allowing one hit and one Robles with no walks and three strikeouts. 17-y.o. Eikel Joaquin’s first pro home run turned out to be the game-winning three-run homer that turned a 2-1 deficit into the 4-2 final.
There are a lot of corresponding moves that have yet to be announced. Stay tuned.
Elian Soto does not seem to have his brothers skills. He finished the season with a .513 OPS.
Mother Nature literally took the DSL Nats out back and put them out of their misery. A few words of eulogy:
Among 17 batters, only two were above DSL average: Carlos Batista, who faded as the season went on and was only a smidge above average, hitting .232/.374/.352, and Luis Arias, who got 4 ABs all season, and hit safely twice. The team’s collective batting average was .189. Yes, .189.
Somehow, the pitching wasn’t much better. 9 of the 19 pitchers were able to have an ERA below league average (4.87), and the team ERA as a whole (5.56) was quite a bit below average. Special mention to Angel Pena. Though he only threw 14.2 IP, he showed an ability to miss bats (19 K) and good control (only 5 BB), a combination not shown by any other players.
I’ll leave it at that, and hopefully we soon forget this season ever happened.
And yet some prospect lists have Andy Acevedo (.170/.299/.248) among the Nats’ top 20 prospects. Not. (Or at least not yet, by any means.)
Wow the As and Giants just made a minor league deal yet the Nats and Orioles haven’t made a true deal ever ..
A few words about the FCL Nats too while I’m at it.
While the DSL Nats were generally younger than average, the FCL Nats were older (but not substantially). Also unlike the DSL Nats, the FCL Nats weren’t uniformly bad. There were a lot more bright spots, but equal parts bad.
The pitching was dreadful (6.16 team ERA, second worst in the league), but a few highlights were:
2023 draft class – Sthele, Sullivan, Schultz, Baldo, Arguelles, Tepper and Bollenbacher were all great in extremely limited playing time. They all had ERAs 2.45 or below (most were 0.00)
Downside:
2022 DSL class – the exact opposite happened with our recent DSL graduates. L. Colon, Fortunato, Ogando, C. Sanchez, Carmona, B. Polanco, J. Leon all had very good 2022 seasons with the DSL Nats. That didn’t transfer stateside. Every single one of them had an ERA of at least 5.58. The lone not-completely-negative from the ’22 class was Genderson Zapata, who posted a 4.81 ERA, but an unsightly 6.12 FIP.
I think the Nats would be wise to look into their Dominican operations, at the very least on the pitching side.
Among the bats, there were loads of positives, as I mentioned yesterday, I expect several promising bats to get moved to Fredericksburg for the last month. Some options are:
Brandon Pimentel: .371/.463/.629
Blake Klassen: .339/.476/.600
Everett Cooper: .373/.460/.400
Jorgelys Mota: .318/.398/.459
Cristhian Vaquero: .279/.410/.393
Juan Garcia: .302/.412/.372
Phillip Glasser: .256/.400/.359
Nathaniel Ochoa Leyva: .290/.371/.366
Some disappointments:
Brenner Cox: .147/.312/.213
Nick Peoples: .172/.289/.333
Erick Tejeda: .194/.286/.194
Angel Geraldo: .185/.241/.259
Jhoan Contreras: .148/.361/.148
Cox is indeed disappointing, Sent down from A-Ball and does worse. Not looking good, long-term, there.
With Peoples, there is at least some power. Yeah, he can’t hit his weight and makes Elijah Green seem disciplined at the plate. But he also led the team in homers (4) despite only playing about half the games.
That said, he’s got his work cut out for him.
Agree completely about reassessing the DR operations and the disappointments of the pitching crop from the DSL. And I really hope we see Vaquero, Cooper, etc… moved up today.
Joegelys Mota just turned 18 last month with a .847 OPS. Exciting.
On a day when not much is happening, let’s toss up the ball on the fast-approaching subject of Nats’ minor-league players of the year. I’ll start with pitchers, where I’m pretty much left scratching my head. Bennett (2.02 ERA, 1.05 WHIP) was significantly better than anyone else among the starters, but he only pitched 58 innings across 13 games. Among the relievers, Lucas Knowles quietly has had an excellent season, and Amos Willingham made an unexpected run to the majors.
Several good/interesting choices among the hitters (by OPS, across all levels):
Rutherford .978
Wood .877
House .846
Millas .834
Lipscomb .801 (but finishing very strong)
My guess is that they’ll give it to Wood.
My vote for “Nationals Way,” or whatever they call it now (I’ll keep campaign that they should rename it for Aaron Barrett) would be for Alu. A case could be made for Willingham. They might give it to Rutledge for continuing to work after being in such a hole last year.
How can you forget my guy, Andrew Alvarez?
Alvarez has thrown the 2nd most innings of any pitcher in the org (only 2 outs fewer than Rutledge- 109 vs 108.1).
Alvarez has the third lowest ERA (2.66) of any of our starters (Bennett has the best 2.02, followed by Erik Tolman at 2.57), but again Alvarez has thrown twice as many innings as Bennett (58) and four times more than Tolman (28).
Alvarez has the second most strikeouts (98) in the org, second only to Parker (115).
I fear the Nats will go with Rutledge, due to his unexpected re-emergence. Clearly, brass sees something in Rutledge that they don’t in Alvarez, hence the much more aggressive promotions. But Rutledge hasn’t been good in AAA (6.25 FIP, with a worrying decline in strikeouts with a corresponding spike in walks). The only other guy I can see a strong case for is Lucas Knowles, but as a reliever it’s a much harder sell. Willingham was great too, but like Bennett, he’s been absent from the minors for nearly two months.
On the batter side, that’s going to be really tough. Do you give extra weight to pedigree over results?
Because Wood (.877 OPS) and House (.846 OPS) have been fantastic, but Rutherford has statistically been the best (.978 OPS). Stehly came out of nowhere to put up a .897 OPS. Millas’ .834 OPS, when factoring in his defensive duties, is incredibly good. And while Daylen Lile faded, his .811 OPS is also very good.
I agree that they’ll give it to Wood. It’s not a bad argument, as Wood has been apparently playing very good CF defense too. But I could make a very strong argument for Millas.
If the Nats were smart, they’d give it to Millas. Wood is already revered as a potential superstar, but Millas could benefit from some prospect hype. Aside from FanGraphs, he’s been criminally underrated in prospect rankings, and the Nats might find themselves soon with too many catchers in the majors. If Millas could generate more hype, it could yield a better prospect return. At the least, recognizing Millas for a fantastic season couldn’t do any harm.
a spot on the 40 man roster will be Millas’ reward
I think you answered your own question about Alvarez: the brass doesn’t seem to love him. And they love to tout their picks, which is why I could see them celebrating Bennett . . . or even Rutledge, as you say.
when all is said and done Crews will likely top all those stats.
don’t rule out Jacob Young getting some organizational love somewhere
Yes, Young could be a good candidate for Nationals’ Way (or whatever it’s called).
I also can’t remember the name of that award. It was called the Bob Boone Award before he left the organization in shame.
it’s called the Nationals Way Award, Alu won it last year
I forgot that Alu won it last year, so likely won’t repeat.
I never understood why they had named it after Boone anyway. For the Nats he was just an executive, with no actual connection to the team history.
Was disappointed that Sykora didn’t get a rookie league debut but that appears to be the norm for the better pitching prospects. Of the 38 pitchers taken in the first 3 rounds this year (101 picks), only 11 have made their MiLB debut as pitchers. Two players drafted as two-way guys have hit but not pitched. Of the 13 HS pitchers drafted in the top 101, only 2 have made their pro debuts (though Bryce Eldridge has hit).
The point is, Sykora is in good company and not playing appears to be the preferred MO for most organizations with their better rookie pitchers.
Carter in the lineup tonight, injuries have robbed him from getting back to playing baseball every day. his promotion is the only chance he has to salvage a (mostly) lost year. easily enough time to get 100 ABs, I’ve read where 1B is even a possibility.