Thursday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Postponed | vs. Indianapolis, 1:05 p.m. | Alvarez (0-2, 9.64) and Ward (4-3, 6.71) vs. TBD and Woodford (1-4, 4.67) |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 5-0 (7 inn.) |
@ Erie, 6:05 p.m. | Cuevas (1-7, 5.63) vs. Melton (3-5, 4.58) |
| Wilmington | Lost, 5-0 (8 inn.) |
@ Hudson Valley, 6:35 p.m. | Atencio (0-5, 5.00) vs. Carr (0-3, 6.19) |
| Fredericksburg | Won, 4-2 | @ Salem, 7:05 p.m. | Susana (1-6, 5.44) vs. Dean (1-2, 3.95) |
| FCL Nationals | OFF DAY | @/vs. FCL Cardinals, 10 a.m. | |
| DSL Nationals | OFF DAY | vs. DSL Blue Jays, 11 a.m. |
Indianapolis vs. Rochester – PPD
The game between Rochester and Indianapolis was called less than a half hour after the scheduled first pitch. They’ll shoot to make it up with a doubleheader this afternoon.
Erie 5 Harrisburg 0
• Luckham (L, 3-5) 6IP, 5H, 5R, 3ER, 1BB, 4K
• House 1-3
• Lile 0-1, 2BB
The Senators barely avoided the no-hitter in a rain-shortened, 5-0 shutout. Kyle Luckham was the complete-game loser, allowing all five Seawolves runs on five hits and one walk over six innings. Brady House had the only Harrisburg hit while Daylen Lile drew two of three Sens walks (Andrew Pinckney).
Hudson Valley 5 Wilmington 0
• Cáceres (L, 1-6) 5IP, 6H, 3R, 2ER, 0BB, 3K, 2HBP, WP
• Henry ⅔ IP, 0H, 0R, 2BB, 2K
• V. Peña 2-3, 2B
• Made 1-3
Wilmington’s skid extended to four games on its eighth shutout of the season, 5-0 in a rain-shortened contest. Bryan Cáceres lost for the sixth as he let in three runs (two earned) on six hits and two hit batsman over five innings. Viandel Peña led the Blue Rocks assault with a double and a single while Kevin Made and Joe Naranjo each had a safety to round out the Wilmington hit column.
Fredericksburg 4 Salem 2
• Sykora 5IP, 4H, 2R, 2ER, 1BB, 7K
• Vasquez (W, 4-0) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 1K
• Arguelles (SV, 3) 1IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Colmenares 2-4, R, HR, 2RBI
• Vaquero 1-3, BB, RBI
FredNats snapped a 2-2 tie in the top of the 9th on back-to-back RBI singles and held on in the 9th for a 4-2 win. Travis Sykora went five full and allowed both Sox runs on four hits and a walk. He struck out seven and notched his third stright no-decision. The win went to Samuel Vasquez, who worked around a one-out walk with an inning-ending double play. Fredericksburg got three of its six hits in the 9th with Cristhian Vaquero plating Sammy Infante, who led off with single, and Jose Colmenares sending Vaquero in for the insurance run with his second hit, his first being HR #2. Anthony Arguelles wobbled with two outs, giving up a single and double, but neither came in as he came away with his third save.
One of the big narratives of this season has rightly been the emergence of our pitching depth. Just to name a few, guys like Lord and Parker made huge leaps, and guys like Susana and Lara have bounced back after their prospect status had dimmed.
But the other big narrative of the season might be the collective collapse of our non-elite hitting prospects. Yes, the top 100 guys have been fine, so this hasn’t been disastrous, but I was just scrolling through the box scores of the 3 games, and 14 of the 27 batters who played yesterday were hitting below .200. That’s highly concerning.
Yeah Will and most nights the strikeout column outdoes the hit column
Luckham deserved a better fate as he battled against the tough Buckeye alum .
The Red Wings are the only affiliate to have more hits than strike outs (they are the only team that’s even remotely close, for that matter).
The strikeouts are a real concern, and have been for a long time now, which has an impact on overall hitting ability, but I don’t recall contact and general hitting ability being so comprehensively a problem even in the recent past.
Rochester .255 AVG vs .255 League AVG (12th of 20 teams)
Harrisburg .225 AVG vs .239 League AVG (worst of 12 teams)
Wilmington: .206 AVG vs .234 League AVG (worst of 12 teams)
Fburg: .227 AVG vs .229 League AVG (surprisingly 5th of 12)
FCL: .202 AVG vs .242 League AVG (worst of 15 teams)
DSL: .231 AVG vs .241 League VG (32nd of 51 teams)
It’s actually amazing that Harrisburg, Wilmington and FCL Nats aren’t so much worse than they actually are, and it’s quite a testament to the quality of their pitching for them to be not bottom of the standings (even if Wilmington looks like they may end up there by the end of the season).
I quickly looked at 2023’s stats, and while the Nats affiliates were also typically below average league batting average, it was much closer than the quite large gap of this season. I wonder if this is just random coincidence, or a product in the change in leadership in the minors and therefore a change in philosophy starting to seep through?
Victory Field is a great park to pitch and hit in .
the Carolina League as a whole, 6313 hits, 8,094 strikeouts.
welcome to baseball 2024.
Carolina league a pitchers league
Like a radio show drive time
Farrell & Ferrer
Cool Carlos T . 3 run tater .
Somebody pinch me ! Aldo is going to throw a pitch in an actual game ??
Why not park JDL in lead off spot in Wilmington lineup
Doesn’t hurt much
this week the Athletic has a five part series on this very issue, how pitching is now all about missing bats. analytics and strength and conditioning all geared to throwing harder and with more spin. the fourth part just came out today and dealt with the toll on the arms. some very telling comments from players executives and comparisons to running backs in football.
It’s a fascinating series. You would think that the trend would inevitably have to shift, though. They’re destroying every arm. Careers like Strasburg’s and deGrom’s are soon going to be considered exceptional the way things are going.
The Nats are rarely ahead of any curve, but right now they’ve got two guys in Parker and Herz who would be considered movement-over-velo pitchers, which would seem to be the only possible course correction. Despite throwing under 93, they’ve maintained high K numbers. They work on a very fine margin, though, and both has struggled with control in the past while trying to control the movement to hit the spots. Not everyone can be Greg Maddux.