Sunday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Postponed | @ Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 1:05pm | Alvarez (2-0, 4.66) and Ogasawara (0-1, 8.00) vs. Hamel (0-3, 9.72) and Beck (2-1, 4.10) |
| Harrisburg | Postponed | vs. Altoona, 1pm | Luckham (2-1, 7.23) vs. Curtis (0-3, 5.94) |
| Wilmington | Lost, 4-1 | @ Frederick, 3pm | Lyon (0-0, 10.80) vs. Dorsey (0-2, 8.00) |
| Frdericksburg | Won, 11-4 | @ Salem, 2:05pm | Portorreal (0-1, 5.94) vs. Reyes (0-0, 0.00) |
Rochester vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre – PPD
They called this one between Red Wings and the RailRiders by mid-morning yesterday. They’ll shoot to make it up this afternoon with doubleheader. Roster moves: 1B Andrés Chapparro recalled to Washington.
Altoona vs. Harrisburg
They waited a little longer down I-81 from Moosic, but the plug was pulled almost five hours before gametime. They’ve scheduled a twinbill for Thursday, May 14 in Altoona to make this one up.
Frederick 4 Wilmington 1
• Tejeda (L, 0-2) 4IP, 2H, 2R, 1ER, 4BB, 5K, WP
• Boucher 1⅓ IP, 0H, 0R, 3BB, 1K
• Petry 1-2, 2BB
• R. Cruz 1-4, CS
The Blue Rocks barely avoided the shutout in a 4-1 loss the the Keys – their fifth loss in the last six games. Yoel Tejeda Jr. lost for the second time as he was charged with two runs (one earned) on two hits and four walks over four innings. A three-base error and a wild pitch produced the sole Wilmington run in the 5th. Like an ugly stripper, the Blue Rocks came away with just three singles by Ronny Cruz, Elijah Green, and Ethan Petry.
Fredericksburg 11 Salem 4
• Fischer (W, 1-0) 5⅓ IP, 4H, 2R, 1ER, 1BB, 3K
• Huesman ⅔ IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 0K, WP
• Moroknek 2-4, 2R, HR, SF, 4RBI
• Dickerson 2-4, 2R, BB, HR, RBI
• Willits 2-4, R, BB, 2B, RBI
SSDG for Fredericksburg as the FredNats trampled the RidgeYaks ‘pen for ten runs in an 11-4 decision. Carson Fischer pitched into the 6th and won his first pro game with two runs let in (one earned) on four hits and a walk. He struck out three. Jack Moroknek and Luke Dickerson both homered and scored two runs while Eli Willits reached base three times on a single, double, and a walk to push his hit streak to seven games.
Moroknek is having a pleasantly strong start, after weirdly not appearing last season. But given that he turns 23 soon, he should likely be one of the first promotions from Fredericksburg. The problem is that Wilmington already has a pretty full outfield. The two Elijahs, Green and Nunez, have gotten the most playing time, as well as Cristhian Vaquero, leaving Petry, Banks, White and, weirdly, Jorgelys Mota to fight over the remaining playing time.
This raises some difficult questions, primarily about Green and Vaquero. Elijah Nunez has been surprisingly good in Wilmington. He’s not going to ever be a great prospect, but unlike Vaquero and Green, he’s shown an ability to hit A ball pitching with a .792 OPS this season (and .809 last season). Vaquero, on the other hand, presently has an awful .566 OPS. Though this is his first attempt at A+. Green, though, is in his 2nd go round in Wilmington with a slightly better .652 OPS. But a historically bad 52.4% K%.
How long do you let Moroknek (and the rest of their surprisingly good OF – including Cabrera and Peoples. James and Dickerson have been very good too, but understandly would benefit from more seasoning there, and Dickerson isn’t likely an OF long term.) stagnate in low A? What’s Green and Vaquero’s shelf life like after being lost in the wilderness for the past several seasons? One of the benefits of having such a crappy system for so many years is that we never had to make difficult decisions like these, because we never had depth and multiple prospects at the same position. So it’s a good problem, but one that will be interesting to see how Toboni & Co. handle it. Will they move quickly?
I would not expect Green, Vaquero or Nunez to block any prospect’s development path. the only question for me is in which order they decide to cut bait.
Around May 1 I look for the people who could have opt-outs from their minor league contracts (the XX(B) free agents). That has stimulated some player movement in the past (as do June 1 opt-outs). This appears to require 6 years of MLB service time. Seems like Trevor Gott would be the only one in this category. Riley Adams only has 3 years of service time so unless he got something written into his split major/minor contract he’s Nats property for the whole year.