Tuesday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today |
| Rochester | OFF DAY | @ Indianapolis, 6:35 p.m. |
| Harrisburg | OFF DAY | vs. Reading, 6:30 p.m. |
| Fredericksburg | OFF DAY | vs. Carolina, 7:05 p.m. |
Editor’s note: No probables were listed in Sunday’s game notes
Rochester Red Wings, 34-29, 2nd Place I.L. East, 6½ Lg. GB – 71-60 Overall
The Red Wings went 1-5 vs. the (ugh) Woo Sox and now trail Columbus by 6½ games with two weeks to go. This week, it’s Rochester’s final road trip of the regular season with six against Indianapolis, including a matinee tomorrow. Roster moves: OF Travis Blankenhorn outrighted, declared free agency.
Harrisburg Senators, 27-36, T5th place, 13GB, E.L. Southwest – 65-67 Overall
Harrisburg closes out the regular seasons with a six against intrastate rival Reading with four weeknight games and two weekend day games. The Senators will need to go 4-2 to avoid finishing below .500 for the season. No word yet on who may be “promoted” to get one more start and/or a few more ABs.
Fredericksburg Nationals – 39-26, 1½ GA (2nd Half Champions); 74-57 Overall, 5GB
Fredericksburg clinched a playoff spot halfway through its half-ending series against Lynchburg and barely won the second half after losing two of the last three games. Not that that really mattered, as there was no benefit for winning both halves for Carolina – only the usual perk (for the team owner, natch) of the first-half winner having much more time to sell playoff tickets (hence the FredNats current BOGO promo). For those wondering, midweek playoff games often resemble the turnout of a 50-degree night on a Tuesday in April.
Tonight, Fredericksburg hosts Carolina in the best-of-three CLDS. The FredNats starter has not been officially announced, but Alex Clemmey has not pitched in a week and is currently listed as the starter on the MiLB scoreboard, though it’s often wrong. As noted last week, Travis Sykora was moved up a day in what appeared to be an attempt to line him up for Game TWo on Thursday. Sykora is also listed as the Game Two starter. The FredNats won eight of 12 games at home against the Mudcats and split on the road. Roster moves: OF Teo Banks transferred from the FCL; C Jose Colmenares placed on the 7-Day I.L.
By my count, only our 5th rounder Randal Diaz has yet to report among our college bats drafted this year. Wonder what injury he’s dealing with, otherwise don’t know how to explain his absence…
There was an update on Cavalli last week. Don’t know if others saw it: https://www.si.com/mlb/nationals/news/injured-washington-national-pitcher-running-short-on-time-to-pitch-this-year
Basically Cavalli is back to throwing bullpen sessions but still appears a pretty long way from returning. With the season nearly over, it’s highly likely we don’t see him until Spring Training, which is a whole year later than when we thought we’d get a first glimpse of him this year. Everyone keeps insisting it’s nothing serious, but I can’t remember a previous example of a player needing two entire years to recover from Tommy John.
Lastly, Millas has been a revelation since being promoted, batting .546/.583/.546. His season line is now up to a very solid .268/.318/.366, and his career .275/.342/.406. And yet he’s still never playing! He was promoted on August 24, 13 games ago. Millas has only played 3 games in that span. In the meantime, everyone is raving again about Ruiz turning things around because he had 3 hits in a game, including a HR, the other day. Yet, since August 24, an apparent mini hot streak, Ruiz has batted a mere .213/.269/.362 and has started every single game, including both sides of a double header. What kind of dirt does Ruiz have on Rizzo and Martinez?! I’ve run out of patience. Even at his best, he’s still a crappy hitter, and worse in basically every way to Millas. And despite his troubles this season, the Nats’ solution has been to double down on him. Prevent any other catcher, Adams or Millas, from getting any regular playing time, and play Ruiz with more regularity than basically every other catcher in the game. And for all that effort, he’s been worth a grand total of -0.1 WAR (Millas in one tenth of the playing time has been worth 0.2 WAR).
Something has to give. This is ridiculous.
If you’re looking for an optimistic case on Cavalli, it’s Zack Wheeler. Tore his UCL during Spring Training of 2015, missed all of 2015 and all of 2016, then missed time in 2017 too. But since 2018, he’s pitched 6/7 full seasons (and the exception was 2022 where he still made 26 starts and 153 innings, so not like it was a complete loss).
Ok let’s admit it
Ruiz has become a bad contract ???
Andrew Alvarez has 84F and 26 pct humidity to work in Indy tonight
114 IP logged this season plus tonight’s outing . 3.77 ERA not too shabby to follow up last summer .
Will : we may not have to wait long for the national media to double down on Rizzo with Ruiz when the Cal Bear marches up the affiliate chain along with Kevin B.
I hope so! But we’ve got a potentially very good catcher in the majors in Millas, and management is doing somersaults to avoid playing him! It’s incredibly frustrating.
I totally agree with everything you’ve said re Millas and share your frustration. I’m equally frustrated with a number of TalkNats posters who seem to go out of their way to criticize the catcher negatively. And some keep suggesting that the Nats go outside the organization to get a back up catcher.
They have their answer in Millas.
In addition to Ruiz’s weak offensive numbers, his defensive metrics are below average.
The Nats’ $50 million commitment to Keibert dictates that he plays. It sucks. The fact that Nats aren’t contending (and the lack of a super active/critical media coverage) allows them to make lineup decisions on something other than maximizing the chance to win. At a minimum, Ruiz and Millas should be spliting time. Will be disappointing when another smart organization acquires Millas, and he goes on to a better MLB career than Ruiz.
Spot on , Luke
Playoff games with school year begun do resemble April cold night games .
Agreed on Millas, also best defensive catcher in system. Nats need better defense from much of the roster!
Safe bet that Trevor Williams rehab tonight followed by bullpen by committee
I wonder if one could substitute Teo in place of Ledo in the ole Boz Scaggs song ?
Luke there is a snarkle or an inside joke in there only a few might pick up on regarding “ said Carolina owner “.
I am just grasping at straws but a professional athlete having the flu
During summer ?( most folks get the winter bug flu not the summer flu ). For some reason it makes my think of how Jonathan Toews in NHL career came to an end with “ mysterious “ physical weakness aka “ who knows “.cavilli .
Is this the winter the Nats add the first of two free agent pieces towards upper division contender status ( for what it’s Werth: Big J was the first piece towards 2019. Who would have thunk an A minus lefty would be the cost of a World Series hero .)
I must admit I was back home in Indiana with the longer Sept shawdows as Red Wings take on the Indians ( Pirate affiliate ) who had some fun teams during the Expo affiliation years at the ole Busch Stadium where the old park entrance fascade is used in an apartment complex entrance .
Here is to Hassell 111 finishing strong for LeCroy !
Perhaps Jared MacKenzie should get a cup of coffee at Harrisburg as the season curtain falls on EL with his .259 BA in the Grand Canyon . Jared and Brad Lord two Tallahassee FL natives who didn’t go to FSU on their career projectories . Interesting.
I like Millas’s game – I appreciate the way that he moves behind the plate. I wouldn’t mind seeing a more equitable timeshare between him and Ruiz. OTOH Ruiz’s defensive metrics have improved across the board this season (with the exception of his pop time, although his CS% (19%) is basically league average (21%)). He’s made real strides in pitch framing going from one of the worst in MLB to essentially league average. While the Nats have a $50M commitment to Ruiz, it’s for seven more seasons. He’s only costing $5.38M/season for 2025-2027. He could be a backup for that kind of salary.
The defensive strides are definitely commendable. Unfortunately, they’re been entirely offset by the massive regression with the bat (lost nearly .100 OPS points compared to last season’s already relatively disappointing offensive numbers).
It’s one step forward, two steps back with this guy, and has been the case for three whole seasons now. But there’s some irrational loyalty being afforded to Ruiz that literally no other player on this team has received.
And now he’s starting tonight’s game in the 3rd spot in the line up with the second lowest OPS of the 9 guys starting… (by a pretty sizeable margin. Gallo being the worst, which is a whole nother story…)