Tuesday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | OFF DAY | @ Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 6:35 p.m. | Stuart (1-0, 1.35) vs. Barclay (5-9, 6.35) |
| Harrisburg | OFF DAY | vs. Portland, 6:30 p.m. | Lara (8-6, 3.87) vs. Bolden (0-1, 4.40) |
| Wilmington | OFF DAY | vs. Aberdeen, 6:35 p.m. | Cornelio (6-11, 5.76) vs. Wells (0-6, 6.39) |
| Fredericksburg | OFF DAY | @ Kannapolis, 6:30 p.m. | Clemmey (1-5, 4.52) vs. Perkins (1-3, 8.76) |
Rochester Red Wings, 30-21, 1st Place I.L. East, 3½ Lg. GB – 68-56 Overall
ICYMI, Dylan Crews went 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout in his MLB debut. Meanwhile, the Red Wings look to stop a three-game slide as they remain in Pennsylvania to play the RailRiders for six, with day games on both Saturday and Sunday. Roster moves: OF Dylan Crews added to 40-man, recalled to Washington; C Riley Adams optioned from Washington.
Harrisburg Senators, 20-31, T5th place, 11GB, E.L. Southwest – 58-62 Overall
Last-place Harrisburg returns home after a 2-4 trip to first-place Akron. There’s no break in the schedule strength as the Senators play the Eastern League’s other first-place team, the Portland Sea Dogs for six this week at City Isle with a day game on Sunday.
Wilmington Blue Rocks, 20-34, 6th Place, 12GB, Sally Lg. North – 51-69 Overall
The Blue Rocks dropped all seven games against the Renegades last week and return home for their final homestand. The losing streak stands at 11 and with second-place Aberdeen in town, the franchise record of 13 straight losses seems quite possible.
Fredericksburg Nationals, 33-21, 1st Place, 2½ GA, C.L. North – 62-46 Overall
Fredericksburg took four of six from Columbia and gained a half game over second-place Carolina. This week, the FredNats stop in Kannapolis for six night games before heading home next week for their final homestand against the Hillcats.
The affiliates are really limping to the finish…
Surprised to still only see King, Lomavita and Bazzell report of the ’24 draftees bats. But enough about the bats, the pitchers who’ve reported are even more perplexing.
It was already rare before the FCL was gutted of its usefulness for pitchers to play the same year they were drafted, so now without the FCL as a soft landing spot, I didn’t expect any to appear this season, and yet to date Robert Cranz and Merritt Beeker, the Nats’ 7th and 11th rounders, have reported to Fredericksburg. But it’s pretty strange why they have while others haven’t.
Both Cranz and Beeker had already pitched more innings in 2024 than they had previously in their college careers, which to be fair isn’t uncommon, as players’ workloads tends to get increased with each season on the college team. Cranz threw 49.2 IP, compared to 31.2 and 14.1 in the previous two seasons. Beeker is even more extreme. Beeker threw 81 IP in a new starting role, after only throwing 5 and 13.1 IP as a reliever the previous two seasons.
Both of these guys I wouldn’t have pegged as the type to get stretched out late into the season, but perhaps the relatively light innings load from college made them better candidates?
The results for Beeker haven’t been pretty (33.45 ERA) through 2 games, but Cranz’s one appearance was scoreless.
There’s only 11 games left in Fredericksburg’s season, so time is running out for the other draftees to get a short cameo this season.
It appears to me that the FCL is now primarily for evaluating DSL guys and holdovers from the previous season. Given the prevalence of juniors drafted, it would seem that the Nats are fine with letting the college season be their evaluation. As others have noted, it’s pretty clear that MLB wants the colleges to do their development, which is pennywise and pound foolish given the different rewards and motivations. It will be interesting to see if any draft picks never pitch an inning or take an at-bat because the powers that be were dissatisfied with what they saw in instrux and/or XST, though I think they’d get “hurt” before they outright release someone…
Andrew Pinckney promoted from H’burg to Rochester.