Tuesday’s News & Notes; Rosters for the Rest of the Minors
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Matchup (’24 Stats at the Level) |
| Rochester | OFF DAY | vs. Lehigh Valley, 4:05 p.m. | Ogasawara (5-11, 3.12 @ JCPL)vs. Crismatt (2-4, 5.81) |
Today’s high is forecast for 40 degrees in Rochester, with… wait for it… rain tomorrow and Thursday. SSDY.
Again, I will remind folks that the Red Wings do not play below the Mason-Dixon line until late July.
Harrisburg Releases its Opening Day Roster
As suggested in the comments, the roster for Harrisburg has been set. Here’s a quick look at the breakdown (Watchlist players in bold):
PITCHERS
Ivan Armstrong, Jose Atencio, Michael Cuevas, Garrett Davila, Marquis Grissom, Jr., Cole Henry, Kyle Luckham, Todd Peterson, Holden Powell, Dustin Saenz, Junior Santos, Tyler Schoff, Seth Shuman, and Jarlin Susana
CATCHERS
Maxwell Romero, Jr. and CJ Stubbs
INFIELDERS
JT Arruda, Phillip Glasser, Cortland Lawson, Yohandy Morales, Joe Naranjo, Viandel Peña and Cayden Wallace.
OUTFIELDERS
Carlos de la Cruz, Jeremy de la Rosa, Daylen Lile, Nic Schnell, and Donta’ Williams
There are a lot of repeats and OGs here—17 of the 29 have played here previously—with just a couple of true prospects. So, in other words, what used to be a typical Potomac roster in the previous decade.
Wilmington Releases its Opening Day Roster
As per usual, Wilmington’s announcement came via social media with zero commentary. It was the least they could do (because if they could have done less, they would have). Here’s to another summer of ChatGPT content!
PITCHERS
Anthony Arguelles, Wander Arias, Alex Clemmey, Riley Cornelio, Marc Davis, Bubba Hall, Chance Huff, Yeuris Jimenez, Jackson Kent, Thomas Schultz, Jared Simpson, Travis Sthele, Mike Tepper, Samuel Vasquez, and Luke Young
CATCHERS
Caleb Lomavita and Matt Suggs
INFIELDERS
Branden Boisserie, Marcus Brown, Armando Cruz, Gavin Dugas, Seaver King, Brandon Pimentel, Murphy Stehly, and T.J. White
OUTFIELDERS
Brenner Cox, Elijah Green, Jared McKenzie, Johnathan Thomas
This team may not get shut out as often as last year’s team, but it seems doubtful that they’ll hit enough to win very much when Clemmey and Kent aren’t pitching
Fredericksburg Releases its Opening Day Roster
Like a year ago, there may be some disappointment outside of the Fredericksburg Booster Club (watchlist players in bold, new players in italics:
PITCHERS
Austin Amaral, Merrick Baldo, Merritt Beeker, Adam Bloebaum, Matthew Bollenbacher, Gavin Bruni, Robert Cranz
Kevin Dowdell, Davian Garcia, Alexander Meckley, Erick Mejia, Ryan Minckler, Bryan Polanco, Angel Roman, Yoel Tejeda Jr., Erik Tolman
CATCHERS
Kevin Bazzell, Christian FagnantNate Rombach
INFIELDERS
Everett Cooper, Randal Diaz, Jorgelys Mota, Roismar Quintana, Yoander Rivero
Jackson Ross, Carlos Tavares
OUTFIELDERS
Moises Gallardo, Elijah Nunez, Nate Ochoa, Nick Peoples, Cristhian Vaquero
Only about a 1/3rd of these players are newcomers, with a handful who be making their pro debuts “thanks” to the FCL morphing from primarily a place for draft picks to play to a finishing school for DSL guys.
Woof. Those are some pretty bleak rosters…
You’ve got Susana, Wallace, Morales and Lile in Harrisburg to watch. Clemmey, Lomavita, King and, if you’re still a believer, Green to watch in Wilmington (and at some point Sykora). And…. Bazzell in Fredericksburg? Yikes. Not much to get excited about when you distribute the talent across 4 teams…
I’m happy to have a Moises Gallardo sighting! I was curious to see him play after getting snagged in the minor league R5 draft, but then he just never appeared, and around half way through the season was quietly added to the IL. Glad it wasn’t a career ender, and hope he picks up where he left off in 2023!
Did Sam Petersen get injured? Why wasn’t he named to either Fredericksburg or Wilmington’s line ups?! MILB has him on Fburg, but his exclusion from the roster announcement is very strange… But you can’t really carry an OF of 6 players, so what gives?
It’s also disappointing to see Bazzell in Fredericksburg. He was meant to have a relatively advanced hit tool, but need some time at catcher, as he’s only recently shifted there. But the Nats haven’t previously been careful at promoting weak back stops. Bazzell comfortably outfit Lomavita in Fburg last season, so it’s a slight surprise to see Lomavita start in Wilmington. I just hope if Lomavita struggles, like he did last season, it doesn’t stunt Bazzell’s own progress.
For any Nats / Sens fans who’d love to talk baseball
On Thursday in Harrisburg . I will be in town on business and can grab some coffee and chat @ Blue heron cafe ..
I don’t think it’s odd that the team didn’t let a couple of weeks of results reorder Loma and Bazzell in their minds, and putting one at each level of A ball to get the larger share of catching duties makes perfect sense.
Quintana back to low-A is a surprise to me, and makes me think the team doesn’t even consider him a fringe prospect. On the other side of the coin, starting Kent in A+ is encouraging.
Other placements seem as expected.
And the names that I’m missing and presume are injured are: Made, Ramirez Jr, and Sam Peterson. Anyone else?
None of these moves are on the April 2025 transactions yet. I’m expecting a shipload of moves on Thursday or Friday: https://www.milb.com/rochester/roster/transactions/washington-nationals/2024-04/p-3
Harrisburg’s press release lists 14 pitchers but then repeatedly says they’re 15 of them. The roster limit is 28 so not sure how they blew that (Knowles is on the 60-day as a 29th player/15th arm).
AA’s roster indeed is bleak: no less than 7 of the 28 are MLFAs either this past off-season or the season before. Williams, Naranjo, De La Cruz, Schnell, Armstrong, Santos, and Davilla.
at least the AA rotation is basically all home grown (3 drafted, 2 traded for young).
Last year, they did the same and then placed a bunch of folks on the 7-Day I.L.
Big board up to date for all four full season rosters.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/186nm-v5F-zTCoR2Be7TFYM3e2cZ-gYi2WVqJLEkHdmc/edit?usp=sharing