Friday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Cancelled | @ Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 6:35pm | Cavalli (0-1, 13.50) vs. Messinger (0-2, 6.48) |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 2-1 | vs. Richmond, 7pm | M. Gomez (0-0, 5.51) vs. Whitman (1-3, 5.31) |
| Wilmington | Lost, 12-1 | vs. Hudson Valley, 6:35pm | Clemmey (1-2, 4.63) vs. Grosz (1-1, 5.51) |
| Fredericksburg | Lost, 7-2 | vs. Lynchburg, 7:05pm | Y. Tejeda (1-0, 3.43) vs. Doughty (0-3, 5.49) |
| FCL Nationals | OFF DAY | @ FCL Mets, 12pm |
Rochester vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre – CNCLD
Hours after they announced they’d make up Tuesday’s rainout tomorrow, Thursday’s game was canceled. It was the ninth time a Red Wings game has not been played due to inclement weather.
Richmond 2 Harrisburg 1
• Luckham (L, 2-2) 7IP, 5H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 1K
• Santos 2IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 3K
• Glasser 1-3, BB, SB
• M. Romero 1-4, R, HR, RBI
Max Romero Jr. homered in the bottom of the 7th to break up a one-hit shutout, but that would be it as Richmond edged Harrisburg, 2-1. Kyle Luckham pitched seven full innings again, but took the loss as he gave up both Flying Squirrel runs on five hits and three walks. He struck out one. Phillip Glasser led off the game with a swinging bunt and beat the glove-scoop-throw, which would be the only hit until Romero’s HR. The Sens drew two walks and notched two Robles and struck out ten times. Roster moves: SS Cortland Lawson place on the 7-Day I.L.; SS Kevin Made activated from the 7-Day I.L.
Hudson Valley 12 Wilmington 1
• W. Arias (L, 0-2) 2⅓ IP, 4H, 3R, 3ER, 4BB, 2K, HR, E
• Caceres ⅔ IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 2K, BK, 1-0 IR-S
• Thomas 1-2, R, 2SB(7), CI, E
• Lomavita 1-4, RBI, E(8)
The Blue Rocks were once again pwned, 12-1. Wander Arias made his third spot start, taking the loss as he gave up three runs on four hits (one HR) and four walks over two and a 1/3rd innings. He struck out two. Johnathon Thomas reached on a catcher’s interference, stole second, took third on a grounder to short, and scored on groundout to second by Chad Lomavita to end the shutout. Lomavita broke up the no-hitter with a single in the 7th. Thomas also singled to round out Wilmington’s hit column of two (2).
Lynchburg 7 Fredericksburg 2
• Meckley (L, 1-3) 4IP, 4H, 6R, 4ER, 2BB, 3K, E
• Dowdell 2IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 1K
• Rombach 2-4
• Vaquero 2-5, CS
Lynchburg led this one from start to finish for a 7-2 win. Alex Meckley went the first four innings and let in six runs (four earned) on four hits and two walks to lose his third game. Nate Rombach and Christhian Vaquero both singled twice while Nick “Power to the” Peoples and Yoander Rivero both doubled to lead the FredNats attack.
FCL Nationals – OFF DAY
The F-Nats close out the week with a visit to Port St. Lucie today and a game tomorrow as the visiting team against the co-tenant F-Astros.
Meltdownitis slowly spreads beyond DC, first infecting the Rochester pen, and now it’s spreading like wildfire across the affiliates. Jared Simpson, Erik Tolman and Thomas Schultz have all come down with a case of it in Wilmington after strong starts to the season. I suspect Schultz’s bizarre trip to Rochester may be the culprit for meltdownitis reaching Wilmington’s bullpen.
This leaves precious few relievers without very bad stats.
The “prospect” reliever ERA leaderboard, min 6 G (max 3 GS):
1. Bloebaum, 0.00 ERA
2. Dowdell, 1.54
3. Baldo, 2.31
4. Brzykcy, 2.35
5. Beeker, 3.24
6. Cranz, 3.29
7. Tolman, 3.31
8. Cuevas, 3.38
9. Bollenbacher, 3.45
10. Minckler, 3.48
“Prospect” is in quotations because, besides Brzykcy and Cranz, I don’t think any of these guys have appeared anywhere near a prospect list. In large part, that’s because almost all these guys are 2-3 years too old for their level (Tolman is over 4 years above average). Only Cranz is at league average (21.9 in Carolina League, which is exactly league average). The rest are basically beating up on underdeveloped teenagers in A ball.
Missing from the list are guys like Grissom (5.11 ERA), Schoff (5.56), Sinclair (7.11), C. Romero (7.63), and M. Davis (13.86), who are currently or have previously featured on various Nats prospects lists.
Great post. I knew the bullpens were bad, but this spells out how bad.
Travis Sykora’s hip appears to be… fine and maybe better than ever:
https://x.com/MLBPipeline/status/1920888004622594127