Friday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Lost, 6-2 | @ Indianapolis, 6:35 p.m. | Ward (8-5, 5.47) vs. TBD |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 3-1 | vs. Reading, 6:30 p.m. | Shuman (0-2, 5.40) vs. TBD |
| Fredericksburg | Won, 5-2 | OFF DAY | Won CLDS, 2-0 |
Indianapolis 6 Rochester 2
• Tice (L, 1-1) 2IP, 2H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 1K
• Alston 2⅔ IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 2K
• House 3-4, RBI
• Pinckney 1-4, 3B, 2K
The Red Wings dropped their fifth straight, 6-2 to the Indians. Ty Tice was the opener and the loser as he gave up two runs in his second inning of work and Rochester only got as close as 3-2 after a two-run 8th after RBI singles from Brady House and Stone Garrett. Indianapolis put the game away with a three-run 8th off Jordan Weems. House led the Red Wings hit column with three singles while Riley AAAAdams reached base twice with a walk and a single. Roster moves: RHP Tyler Stuart placed on the 7-Day I.L.; RHP Daison Acoasta reassigned from Harrisburg.
Reading 3 Harrisburg 1
• Lara (L, 9-7) 5IP, 8H, 3R, 3ER, 0BB, 5K, HBP
• Sinclair 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Arruda 1-2, 2BB
• Lile 1-4, R, HR, RBI
Andry Lara’s quest for his 10th AA win fell short with an “L” in Harrisburg’s 3-1 loss to Reading. The 21-y.o. Venezuelan gave up all three Fightin runs on eight hits over five frames, walking none, hitting a batter, and striking out five. J.T. Arruda was the sole Senator to reach base twice while Daylen Lile homered in the 1st to prevent the shutout.
Fredericksburg 5 Carolina 2
• Sykora 5IP, 1H, 0R, 1BB, 9K, HBP, PO @ 1B
• Meckley (W, 1-0) 2IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Arguelles (SV, 1) 1IP, 2H, 0R, 1BB, 1K
• Green 1-3, 2R, HR, RBI, 2K, HBP, SB
• Bazzell 1-3, R, BB, RBI, PB
It’s hard to say with a straight face that Fredericksburg won this versus Carolina giving it away again. Nevertheless, the FredNats will returning to the Mills Cup for the first time since 2018 with a 3-1 decision over the Mudcats. Travis Sykora struck out nine and put three baserunners over his obligatory five innings and left with a 1-0 lead. Bubba Hall was lit up for both Carolina runs in the 6th but that was forgotten when Elijah Green ambushed an offspeed pitch to lead off the 7th to tie the game at 2-2.
Fredericksburg threatened in the 8th getting two runs into scoring position with a Christhian Vaquero single and a Jorgelys Mota walk followed by a Kelvin Diaz sacrifice. Alas, Brenner Cox’s line drive to short turned into an inning-ending double play. After another 1-2-3 inning from Alex Mackley, Carolina melted down in the 9th, loading the bases with an HBP (Green) and back-to-back walks, then unloading them on a wild pitch, a single ny Kevin Bazzell, and a Brandon Pimentel sac fly.
Anthony Arguelles did his best to return the favor, giving up two singles and a walk, but cordero’d out of trouble to save the game. The FredNats will play the winner of tonight’s Game 3 between the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers and the reigning (since 2021) Carolina League champs, the Charleston RiverDogs.
tuned in late and missed Sykora’s work but Luke’s call on the outcome is dead on. in actuality the FNats were a bit of a mess as well.
on the plus side Green’s blast came right after they had given up the lead and was an 111 MPH no doubter. after he was hit on the hand he easily stole another base, his 40th with only 3 CS.
Meckley also showed some nice stuff in his two perfect innings.
What kind of nice stuff for Meckley did you notice?
low/mid-nineties FB and throwing his off speed pitches for strikes. attacked the hitters.
Green hit an off speed pitch !!??
Like the end of the classic old film Dinner at 8 where Jean Harlow says : I read a book today … and the old woman wigs out .. lol.
Lile hit the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the first for a HR and that was about it for the Sens offense.
Sykora has to the the organization pitcher of the year, right? Lord might have a case, but Sykora has been stellar.
I have no idea who the hitter will be. It was sort of Wood and then everyone else, and he likely was promoted too early to be considered. Maybe they give it to Crews as an attaboy, or Lile.
It’ll be Wood. The Nats won’t shy away from further hyping their best prospect since Harper. But it’s also completely justified. Wood had a 1.058 OPS, which is .200 points higher than the next best player, who is interestingly, Drew Millas at .879. If you’re really into the DSL, my guy Dashyll Tejeda is actually 2nd best with a .888 OPS, but Tejeda had 80 fewer plate appearances than Wood did, so if you’re going to ding Wood for his small sample size, anyone in rookie ball should also face the same consequences.
If you want to normalize stats based on the competition, Wood’s wRC+ was 175. Next best was again Tejeda at 144 (a massive gap) then interestingly Phillip Glasser at 138. Then Yohandy Morales at 129. But Glasser has been terrible since his promotion to Harrisburg (.452 OPS), which really harms his case, and Morales has been dogged by injury and an extremely slow start.
It’s just got to be Wood. He was historically good, even if it was only for 3 months.
But if you must exclude Wood, I’d give it to Glasser. He was the only man in the system able to best Wilmington’s hitter-hostility factors, and while his past few weeks in Harrisburg have been ugly, it looks mostly due to bad luck (.190 BABIP) than something more problematic (his K% has remained at a very healthy 14.8%, and his BB% is very good at 9.8%). It just seems like everything he’s hitting into play is turning into an out. But his performance in Fredericksburg and Wilmington should speak for itself, particularly as an unheralded 10th rounder last season. A line of .298/.393/.424 is very impressive.
Is Sykora’s season the most dominant season ever by a Nats starting pitching prospect?
My first thought went to Strasburg’s 2010 season, which was statistically better than Sykora’s. He posted a 1.30 ERA, 0.80 WHIP, and a 1.94 FIP, 10.6:2.1 K:BB/9. Unfortunately, Sykora’s outing yesterday doesn’t count towards his official regular season numbers, which finished at 2.33 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 1.87 FIP, 13.7:2.9 K:BB/9. But Strasburg only played in 11 games and 55 IP, while Sykora went 20 G and 85 IP. Matt Cronin’s 2024 (or 2019) would also have been a good shout, posting better ERA (1.45), WHIP (0.85) and FIP (1.75) numbers than Sykora, even after his slightly rocky stint in AA, but as a reliever, he only threw 43 IP so far. Jose Ferrer also had a few dominant seasons too from the bullpen. Austen Williams had that insane 2018 season from the bullpen too.
Best example I can come up with was Steven Fuentes’s 2019 season, where he posted a 2.23 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 2.14 FIP, 9.9:2.5 K:BB/9, but still only half (11) of his games (23) that season were starts, but it still amounted to 80 IP. But the numbers were still quite a bit worse than Sykora’s this season.
Can any other long term readers here remember any obscure Bowden-era pitching flash in the pans that I’m forgetting? Or is Sykora really having the best starting pitching season in Nats history?
Wow Panamanian Steven Fuentes!! Wil, appreciate your thorough research and comments 🙂
Having followed baseball since 1969 (my youth) and the Montreal Expos, two early top pitching prospects (among many) were phenom Balor Moore and early riser lefty Joe Gilbert. Due to injuries, neither “panned out”. The long road (for most) to MLB is fraught with obstacles, most do not make it!!
Was that before or after Fuentes got popped for PEDs? He’s still pitching in the Mexican League, and still only 27.
Totally off the top of my head, one name that comes to mind is a guy Luke would have seen a lot of in 2013, Blake Schwartz. The 17th-round pick out of Minnesota State-Mankato went 13-4 that summer across A-A+, including 11-4 at Potomac. Overall, he had a 2.52 ERA, 1.02 WHIP in 147 innings. He didn’t strike out many, though, only 5.4 per 9 at Potomac. He got clobbered at Harrisburg in 2014 (0-7, 7.04 ERA, 1.83 WHIP) and sent back down to Potomac, where he was released early in the 2015 season. (One suspects that the leap from 54.1 IP in 2012 to 147 in 2013 did him no favors.)
Osvaldo Rodriguez – 2008 – 0.99 ERA, 91 IP, 1.033 WHIP, 12.4-3.3 K:BB per 9, 13-2 record. An ex-LAD prospect, didn’t play a few years (likely hurt), appears on Nats DSL #1 team in ’08. Moved stateside to see him first hand, pitched next year as a reliever, but released afterwards.
Some fantastic throwbacks! Thanks guys.
I might counter with Reynaldo Lopez in 2014: 7-3, 1.08 ERA, 0.82 WHIP, 2.8 BB/9, 7.8 K/9 age 20 vs. 24.
I’ll go with Sykora .
There have many several feathers in the PD cap .
Lara ascending caused brass and fans to exhale as their confidence in the investment matched the maturity in expectations .
Luck has been had in Luckham .
Shuman looks good tonight for Sens .
What is the amount of the bonus, if any, does each player receive if the Fred Nats win the Carolina League title?
Curious based on today’s report that a 2024 Twins draftee catcher (Derek Bender) tipped pitches to the opponents so the Twins Single A team would miss the FSL playoffs. Apparently, Bender wanted to season to be over. Twins released Bender, and he likely ended his professional baseball opportunity.
To the extent anyone cares, found the answer on milb:
Q. Do Minor Leaguers who make the playoffs receive additional compensation of any sort?
Players get paid on a pro-rated scale for each day they are on a roster until their club’s season is over.
What do the Nats do with Elijah Green next year?
He made some improvement as the Fred Nats season went on, but still way too much swing and miss.
He’s still a tick younger than Carolina League average. That said, a third year in low A would be rough. Then again, the idea of Green facing better pitching in a pitchers park… yikes.
Green will not be the only FredNat that heads to Wilmington in spite of less than stellar stats. unlike some of the other prospects that struggled previously in Wilmington, the park will not be the issue. when he hits it, it’s gone. the jump to A+ pitching will be significant however and he will need to accelerate the progress he made this year.