Monday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Postponed | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Harrisburg | Postponed | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Wilmington | Won, 5-1 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Fredericksburg | Won, 6-4 (13 inn.) | OFF DAY | N/A |
Rochester vs. St. Paul – PPD
The finale between the Red Wings was postponed due to rain. It’ll be made up when the two teams meet in Rochester from May 28 to June 2. Roster moves: UT Jake Alu outrighted from Washington.
Harrisburg vs. Erie – PPD
UPMC Park’s field was deemed unplayable, postponing yesterday afternoon’s game in Erie. They’ll make it up when the Seawolves travel to Harrisburg to playe the Senators on May 14-19.
Wilmington 5 Brooklyn 1
• Lara (W, 2-3) 6IP, 2H, 0R, 1BB, 7K,
• Grissom 1IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 3K
• Glasser 2-4, R, BB, 2-2B, RBI
• M. Romero 1-3, 2B, 2RBI
• Witt 1-2, 2R, 2B
The Blue Rocks got six shutout innings from Andy Lara to stop a two-game slide with a 5-1 win over the Cyclones. Lara won for the second time, allowing two hits, one walk, and striking out seven. Phillip Glasser doubled twice, walked once, scored once, and drove in a run while Max Romero plated two with a double in the 6th to lead the Wilmington offense.
Fredericksburg 6 Delmarva 4 (13 inn.)
• Sthele 5IP, 5H, 0R, 1BB, 1K
• Bollenbacher (BS, 1) 1⅔ IP, 2H, 2R, 1ER, BB, K
• Denaburg 2IP, 1H, 1R, 0ER, 0BB, 1K
• Pimentel 2-5, R, 2B, SF, 2RBI, 2SB
• Cox 1-5, R, RBI, 3K, 4 OF assists
• Green 0-6, 5K
Fredericksburg scored three times in the 13th without a base hit and held off Delmarva, 6-4 to take the series, 5-1. Travis Sthele kept the Shorebirds off the board for five innings, giving up five hits, one walk, and and striking out one. The win went to Mason Denaburg, who let in the free runner in the 13th after retiring the side in order in the 12th. Brandon Pimentel—who else—singled, doubled, stole two bases, and.. wait for it… drove in two runs. Brenner Cox and Chrithian both gunned down a runner at the plate, with Cox getting the “cycle” with assists at first, second, and third, too.
Pimentel and Dugas are pretty old for Low A and they’re hitting too good to be there. Let’s see what they can do at High A.
Did somebody on the Erie team pull a Crash Davis with plenty of Woodford intake floood the field and alert the bus driver to warm up the engine ?? Lol’
Google failed me, but I wonder if Brenner Cox set a minor league record yesterday. He had FOUR outfield assists in one game, which would be a major league record (tied for most), but there’s unsurprisingly no data on the minor league record. It’s actually unbelievable that Delmarva runners saw Cox’s arm after the 2nd time, and continued to test him another two times unsuccessfully (not to mention Vaquero getting in on the action too). In general, Anderson de los Santos may have also had a record setting performance in base running futility yesterday. Twice, Cox threw him out attempting to stretch his hits. First at 3rd base, then again at at 1st (lol). Then he was also picked off at 2nd base by Merrick Baldo. Someone fire their 3rd base coach.
It’s a relief to see Alu pass through waivers. I still hold out hope he has a future as a utility player in the majors. Unfortunately for him, Ildemaro Vargas and Trey Lipscomb have that role locked down at the moment.
Lara will get the plaudits, but Marquis Grissom has quietly been insanely dominant so far this season. After a very strong 2023, he’s transcended to another level, with an identical minuscule 0.79 ERA and WHIP, and 17 K in 11.1 IP.
On the other side, Elijah Green set a new record of his own in futility. While he’s been consistently one of the best players at striking out for 3 years now, he’s never had the misfortune of donning the Platinum Sombrero, until now. He has been regularly seen sporting the Golden Sombrero, having done so 5 times in his short career (including twice already this season). Yikes. And here I was thinking his 2023 was basically as bad as it could get. Silly me.
Since Elijah Green is the strikeout king, one of the greatest of all time, why not convert him to pitcher? That way you can turn all those strikeouts into a plus as a pitcher. How is it even possible to miss so badly on a player who was picked not just in the first round but number five overall?
unlike Theophile the day before Lara came out throwing strikes. got a ton of swings and misses on his breaking pitches. very nice start to the season for him.
Brooklyn is not among the best hitting clubs in the Sally League but they are among the most patient. Young, Lara and even Theophile after his disastrous first inning all threw strikes. now that the weather is warming up let’s hope the good results continue
I’m eager to get to the “ok, we’ve seen enough” part of the season for a few guys.
The trio of 24-year-olds in low A are killing it, and I think they’re blocked, but if/when the Nats cut bait on Rosario and Gallo, as well as a few guys who are still around, we’ll see if they can hit better pitching.
Seeing Elijah Green and Mason Denaburg in the rundowns is yet another reminder of how utterly helpless the Nats’ farm system has been. I hope they’re finally getting better at player selection and development.
It’s not even that complicated. The players currently blocking Pimentel are hitting .164/.234/.182 and .063/.225/.094, and the players blocking Dugas are hitting .148/.233/.167 and .138/.278/.207
Somehow, they’ve even rather had Glasser play defensive positions he’s never played before (ever?), RF, than bench Boissiere, Frizzell, Marcus Brown or John McHenry. It’s strange, but I think the writing is on the wall, at least for Frizzell, who was never a very highly valued by the org. Boissiere, on the other hand, could probably start every game possible for another 5 seasons if he so desires. (I’m being sarcastic, but it’s been interesting to see the disparity in playing time between Boissiere and Frizzell, and then look at their actual production, but that’s another story…)
Not counting the “injuries” to Stehly and Viandel Pena, natch…
I still have a feeling we’re going to see some downward movement (swaps) by the end of this week when the FCL starts up (Saurday; Nats don’t play until Monday).