Thursday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Lost, 8-6 (12 inn.) |
vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 11:05am | Conley (1-0, 2.57) vs. Beck (2-0, 3.86) |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 5-1 | vs. Akron, 6:30pm | Luckham (4-6, 4.00) vs. DeLucia (3-3, 2.91) |
| Wilmington | Won, 11-1 | @ Jersey Shore, 6:35pm | Sthele (5-4, 4.18) vs. Barbosa (3-0, 0.57) |
| Fredericksburg | Lost, 2-0 | vs. Fayetteville, 6:35pm | Sullivan (1st A- start of ’25) vs. L. Rodriguez (4-0, 2.30) |
| FCL Nationals | Won, 4-3 | vs. FCL Astros, 10am | |
| DSL Nationals | OFF DAY | @ DSL Tigers 2, 11am |
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 8 Akron 6
• Alvarez 6IP, 6H, 4R, 4ER, 1BB, 5K, HR
• Adon (BS, 5) 3BF, 1H, 2R, 2ER, 2BB, 0K
• Dunshee (L, 2-5) 1IP, 2H, 2R, 1ER, 1BB, 1K
• Schnell 3-5, BB, 2B, 2RBI
• Nuñez 2-4, 2K
• Hassell 2-6, 2R, HR, RBI, SB(15)
Rochester battled back from a 4-0 deficit to take a 5-4 lead but couldn’t hold it in regulation and fell in extras, 8-6. Andrew Alvarez went six innings but gave up four runs on six hit (one HR) and a walk while striking out five for his eighth no-decision. Joan Adon put three consecutive runners on base to blow his fifth save in as many chances. Phil “Crocodile” Dunshee took the loss with two runs let in on two hits and a walk. Nick Schnell led the Red Wings hit column with a double and two singles while Robert Hassell homered and stole his 15th base. Roster moves: RHP Michael Cuevas placed on the Development List.
Akron 5 Harrisburg 1
• Bennett (L, 0-1) 3⅓ IP, 9H, 5R, 5ER, 1BB, 5K, E
• Schultz 1⅔ IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 3K
• Boissiere 1-3, R, BB, RBI
• Glasser 0-2, R, 2BB, SB(20)
The jump from High-A to AA is the biggest in the minors, as Jake Bennett learned as the RubberDucks gave him a nine-hit bath in a 5-1 Senators loss. The 24-y.o. gave up all five Akron runs over three and a 1/3rd innings with one walk and five whiffs. The Harrisburg ‘pen combined for five and 2/3rds scoreless innings, but the Sens offense was AWOL after Branden Boissiere drove in Phillip Glasser in the 1st and racked up three (3) hits total.
Roster moves: LHP Jake Bennett promoted from Wilmington.
Wilmington 11 Jersey Shore 1
• Da. Garcia (W, 1-0) 5IP, 3H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, HR
• Cáceres 2IP, 1H, 0R, 1B, 1K, 2HBP, PO @ 2B
• Banks 3-4, 2R, BB, RBI, SB
• Petersen 3-5, 2R, BB, 3B, 2RBI, SB
• Quintana 2-4, R, BB, RBI
• White 2-5, R, 2B
Wilmington tanned Jersey Shore for 11 runs to even the series at 1-1. Davian Garcia won his High-A debut with five innings of one-run ball on a homer and three hits total. He walked none and struck out five. Gavin Dugas (0-5) was the beer man in a 17-hit parade led by Teo Banks with three singles, two runs, two RBI, a stolen base and a walk and followed by Sam Petersen with a triple, walk, two singles, two runs, and a stolen base.
Fayetteville 2 Fredericksburg 0
• B. Romero (L, 1-3) 6IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 4BB, 4K
• Baldo 2IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Mota 1-4, SB, E
• Tavares 1-3
The WoodPeckers shut out the FredNats, 2-0 on two hits to take a 2-0 series lead. Brayan Romero went a career-long six innings with one run let in on one hit and four walks and four whiffs. He was rewarded with his third loss. Jorgelys Mota broke up the no-hitter with single in the 4th, Elijah Green drew the lone FredNats walk, and Carlos Tavares singled in the 8th to comprise the Fredericksburg offense. Roster moves: RHP Luke Johnson reassigned from the FCL.
FCL Nationals 4 FCL Cardinals
• Farias 4IP, 3H, 1R, 1ER, 2BB, 4K, WP, BK
• Olson (W, 2-0) 2IP, 2H, 2R, 2ER, 1BB, 2K
• Colon (SV, 2) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Williams 1-2, R, BB, 2B, RBI
• Colmenares 1-3, R, RBI
The FCL Nationals dropped a four-spot in the 1st and got justenough pitching to make it stand up for a 4-3 win over the FCL Cardinals. 23-y.o. Victor Farias went the first four and allowed one run on three hits and a walk. The “W” went to 22-y.o. Bryant Olson despite giving up two runs on two hits and two walks over two innings. 20-y.o. Leodarlyn Colon retired the side to get the save. Rehabbing Donta’ Williams doubled, walked, scored a run, and drove in run while Jose Colmenares went 1-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored to lead the F-Nats attack.
Bennett showed good command, gave up some cheapies as well as some rockets against a predominately LH lineup. all his pitches are good, we’ll have to see if any can be better. they may have to be.
Some of his location wasn’t spot on but some of the leather behind him was KIngly good .
Boys – air looks comfy
Cuevas in developmental
List of witness protection , Luke .
Sullivan debut went swimmingly
Bryan Sanchez have a nice life forward
Your off speed stuff never crystallized into higher affiliate stuff
I think Bennett was better than his stats look. I agree that some of the hits were bloops and another ball should have been caught. Sens also committed three errors.
LM that was my accessment
He repeated his mechanics with fluidity and his loosey goosey
Nature
We will keep an eye on Jake and Sully as they continue Rehabs
Cade not too bad tonight vs SWB tough Riders ?
Judging by at-times silly prospect rankings, some seem to have given up on Hassell. BA has dropped him to #14, behind four new draft picks who have yet to face any pro pitching as well as multiple other guys who are struggling. Well, if any of them are slashing .302/.375/.448/.822 at AAA in their age-23 season, let me know. Let’s also consider that across his various stops in the minors last summer, Hassell slashed .241/.319/.328/.647. His improvement in 2025 has been exponential.
Agree that Hassell has improved.
That said, which of Hassell’s tools translate to being a regular MLB OF?
Not sure he has the defensive ability to play CF, and he doesn’t have the power to be a regular corner OF. He runs well, but doesn’t appear to be frequent base-stealing threat. Feel like Hassell and Lile are really similar in tools, but Lile is a little younger.
To be a solid everyday OF at the MLB level, the player needs to be elite defensively to play CF or elite offensively to play corner. Essentially, an OF needs at least one freakish athletic skill (that’s why some cling to the fading idea that Elijah Green still has a chance; he has a bunch of elite tools, but the most important tool, the hit tool, remains a massive problem).
Hope Hassell gets there, but he just seems to have a 4th OF ceiling. Kind of feel the same about Dylan Crews although lots of people still claim that Crews has an elite hit tool. Hope that is true, but have not seen it yet.
I’ve said similar things all along about Hassell and Lile. I’m not sure either has the power to be a corner OF regular. My speculation has been that Hassell has more of a potential power ceiling than Lile, but Hassell really struggled with developing it with all the hand injuries.
I don’t think that Young is a regular for a contending team either, but until they get closer to being that, there’s still time for guys to keep developing.
Let’s give Crews time
Add Choi to DeShields conga line ?
Since being optioned back down, Hassel has had 125 PAs of 153 wRC+ with 15% walk rate vs a 16% strikeout rate. A .190 ISO. And that doesn’t count his 2-2 with a HR so far today. I know we need to be careful with splits and endpoints, but I don’t think his recent results are just a fortunate random walk.
If you believe that he’s a plus right fielder, that looks to me like a FV45 prospect, probably ranked around 250th league wide.
Maybe that package (translated to the majors) still isn’t good enough to bump Jacob Young out of the starting lineup, but it’s getting close. And even if he doesn’t fit in here, he should be a valuable trade chip.
In any case, should be trading at least 2 and probably 3 of Young, Call, Lile and Hassell. If I were the GM, I’d be mostly letting the market decide which. (I’d also be looking to trade Green and Vaquero and any other OFer older than 20, but I’m not sure I’d be able to get anything of value for them.)
@Pilchard. The difference between RHIII and Crews is pretty stark if you look at their statcast/batted ball metrics. That’s why some of us are more optimistic about DC than RHIII.
Ok. Want to see those metrics translate to at least a slightly above average MLB OF with some power.