Fredericksburg Wins Mills Cup; Thursday’s News & Notes
It was a tale of two shutouts, with Kannapolis taking the opener, 3-0 and Fredericksburg winning the nightcap by the same score. But the split was all the FredNats needed to take their sixth Mills Cup.
In Game One, Alex Clemmey got the nod despite staff ace Travis Sykora being available. For three innings, it looked like it didn’t matter as the 19-y.o. Bay Stater dominated the Cannon Ballers, matching Tanner McDougal zero for zero like a Truth Social IRL get-together.
Alas, Clemmey had the One Bad Inning™ in the 4th and it was more than enough for Kannapolis to win this one as Fredericksburg was nearly no-hit, with Seaver King connecting for a two-out single in the 6th to interrupt a flurry of strikeouts (15 total), punctuated by the last three batters in the 7th after the FredNats managed to get the tying run to the plate after a walk and a Robles.
In Game Two, Sykora made the start and did what was expected – combining with two relievers to shut out Kannapolis, 3-0. The 20-y.o. Texan struck out nine without issuing a walk over five innings and was the winning pitcher.
Brandon Pimentel provided him with an early lead with a two-run HR in the 2nd while Nate Ochoa cashed in a two-out, two-base error with an RBI single that was Fredericksburg’s eighth hit of the game.
After Kevin Cranz cordero’d around two walks in the 6th, Anthony Arguelles retired the side in order, including a called third strike for his second whiff to save the game. The championship also is the first for the Washington Nationals organization since 2014, ending a ten-year drought.
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Won, 4-3 | vs. Iowa, 6:05 p.m. | Ward (8-6, 5.65) vs. Supak (4-2, 4.83) |
Rochester 4 Iowa 3
• Watkins 5IP, 5H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 5K
• Willingham (BS, 5; W, 6-3) 1IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 2K
• R. Garcia (SV, 20) 1IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Cluff 3-5, R, HR, 2RBI
• Stubbs 2-3, R, BB, 2-2B, RBI
Jackson Cluff’s third hit of the night snapped a 3-3 tie as the Red Wings evened the series with a 4-3 win over the Cubs. Spenser Watkins turned in five innings of two-run ball on five hits and three walks while striking out five. That became a no-decision when Amos Willingham coughed up a run in the 8th for his fifth blown save. Andrew Pinckney pinch-ran for C.J. Stubbs after drawing a two-out walk, stole second, and scored ahead of Cluff’s RBI single. Rico Garcia worked around a two-out single to earn his 20th save – the first 20-save season for the organization since the legendary Aaron Barrett saved 31 as a 31-y.o. for AA Harrisburg in 2019.
That seals it. Sykora has had the best starting pitching (perhaps pitching, in general) season in Nats minor league history. Some superlatives about his season:
In two playoff outings, he posted identical 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 9 K outings to propel the FNats to the Mills Cup.
He started 22 games this season, he allowed 1 hit or less in 10 of those starts! That’s an utterly absurd figure.
Sykora struck out 147 batters in 95 IP. That’s 13.93 K/9. That’s the best rate in the minors among over 700 pitchers who threw more than 70 IP (Susana came in 3rd, by the way with 13.63).
Sykora allowed 52 hits in 95 IP. An absurd 4.93 H/9. His WHIP finished at 0.84, also the best in the minor leagues.
What an insanely good season. Well done Sykora! Hope he was named Mills Cup MVP, and his Nats Pitcher of the Year award should arrive in the mail soon.
The Rock of Round Rock named after a famous Texan at the Alamo maybe
I guess my earlier question was answered . Pimentel is a tool for next years Wilmington lineup in the Grand Canyon . Watch Brandon Go get 20-25 doubles in the GC
If you would would have told me mills cup flag in April
I would have had a good laugh
Along with Fred MD Will and all the guys in the Bleacher seats : way to go , lads!
Now you’ve learned grace under pressure now he’s it for the rest of your destined careers !!!
That Thomas deal is looking pretty good with Clemmey and the two infielders .
The Danny Haas / BC effect on farm is very good .
Or as Garrett Morris said on SNL decades ago : base Baal been beddy beddy good to me !!!
Any observation on defense of Bazzell and Lomavita?
Not much left to say about Travis Sykora. He produced an utterly dominate season. Other than his last regular season start (which ballooned his amazing stats), his last probably were ridiculously good. He actually started his season late and merely fine through his first month or so. After that he became an unhittable monster at that level.
He probably should have been promoted a long time ago but I get the Nats wanting to see how he handled big games and a championship. Well he checked that box.
I agree his season statistically is probably the best Minor league season for a Nats Farmhand pitcher ever. It’s hard to state just how good he was.
If he shows like this at High-A or AA next year he might be the games best pitching prospect (his only knock now is that he’s at Low A). From those that have seem him I’ve heard Skenes similarities. Especially with his mechanics and splitter. Now he doesn’t have Skenes 100+ mph gas, jut he still sits at a very solid 93-96 mph and can touch higher if need be. It’s a potentially premium arm.
they did change his delivery half way through the year so maybe letting him adjust in low A was the best course of action. good for him for being on board, you have to think part of him wanted to make that funky rock back motion part of history
Agree on letting him get used to a modified delivery. There’s also the part of the development that we don’t see, the maturity part. At that age there’s no real reason to rush just based on stats.
That said, there’s certainly good reason to hope that Sykora can make a solid two-level advance in 2025.
Let’s not sleep on Clemmey either. He’s got to get a handle on his control, but he was nearly as unhittable at the A level as Sykora was, and he’s nine months younger. He’s a legit, big-time prospect.
I would expect Sykora won’t spend a bunch of time in Wilmington next year. His stuff is likely too advanced for most A+ hitters, plus he will be pitching half his games in an extreme pitchers park.
If he can make it to AA by mid-year next year (and continue to dominate), he could be in Rizzo’s plans by 2026.
Would also make a heck of a nice trade-chip should Rizzo identify a trade target. I loathe trading prospects but you have to think we will start being buyers relatively soon.
Low-A stats:
Player A (age 19): 79 IP, 11.28 K/9, 2.05 BB/9, .282 BABIP, 1.59 ERA, 2.16 FIP, 2.60 xFIP
Player B (age 20): 85 IP, 13.66 K/9, 2.86 BB/9, .284 BABIP, 2.33 ERA, 1.87 FIP, 2.14 xFIP
Player B is Sykora. Player A is the late Jose Fernandez, who threw an additional 50 IP in A+ that same year (with dominant but not quite as dominant results) and then was in the big leagues the following spring.
Good point Jose
Now for the fly in the PD staff round table meeting : which hitting gurus get turned out for fresh minds with new hitting philiosophies or communication reputations ???
Intervention on Elijah and Christian V??
Will I am sure there is a search engine which could find out all the walks , wild pitches , walks that the opposition handed to Fredericksburg through out the season which buffeted their low batting averages and OPS and lack of tater power .
Just win baby and they did .
Se – Lah
I also agree don’t sleep on Clemmey. He was dominate through 3 innings yesterday with 8k’s until the 4th caught up with him. 9k’s in 5ip. If he can past the one bad inning mantra and get a handle at that control, he has potentially dominate stuff. And the way the Nats have done wonders with Susana and others, a year and off-season fully under the Nats tutelage could do wonders.
He’s still a teenager so the ceiling could still be sky high.
Congratulations to Sykora and his FredNats teammates for posting the first championship in the Nationals organization in five years (the one in 2019 was in all the papers).
I’ll show myself out …
Honest to God, my first thought was, “Did Fresno win something that I forgot?” Oh yeah, the AAAA squad . . .
Wasn’t 2019 a short season championship lower levels or was that further back ?
Much further back — 2013 GCL team was the last of the shorties to win a league championship.