Tuesday’s News & Notes
| Rochester | OFF DAY | vs. Lehigh Valley, 6:05pm | Perales (0-4, 4.56) vs. King (1-1, 6.92) |
| Harrisburg | OFF DAY | @ Altoona, 6pm | Kent (1-0, 3.38) vs. Jones (1st AA start of ’26) |
| Wilmington | OFF DAY | @ Winston-Salem, 6:30pm | Randall (2-1, 3.18) vs. TBD |
| Fredericksburg | OFF DAY | vs. Salem, 6:35pm | Tepper (MiLB Rehab) vs. Frias (0-1, 7.06) |
| FCL Nationals | Lost, 2-1 | @ FCL Marlins, 12pm |
Rochester Red Wings, 20-19, T4th I.L. East, 5GB
Red Wings got another series split but are on a three-game winning streak to remain above .500*. It’s the first time in four years they’ve had a winning record this far into the season. This week, Rochester hosts Lehigh Valley for five night games and a day game on Sunday.
* FWIW, the Nats have never had all four full-season teams finish with winning records. Yes, I do realize this may have jinxed them.
Harrisburg Senators, 18-14 2nd E.L. Southwest, 7GB
After going 14-8 in April, Harrisburg has lost six of nine in May. The Sens remain in second place but are now seven games behind the Flying Squirrels and would have to sweep them next month to have any chance of winning the first half. This week, it’s not six but (*sigh*) seven against the Seawolves Curve, including a matinee tomorrow and a doubleheader on Thursday.
Wilmington Blue Rocks, 18-14, T3rd Sally Lg. North, 2½ GB
The Blue Rocks split their series with the ‘Burgers but dropped two games in the standings. As noted in the comments, the offense is #3 in the league, averaging 6.22 R/G despite being dead last in doubles and second-worst in batting K’s (nah, too easy). Wilmington remains on the road, heading to Winston-Salem for six with a matinee on Sunday. Roster moves: OF Yeremy Cabrera promoted from Fredericksburg.
Fredericksburg Nationals, 23-10, 1st C.L. North, 5GA
Fredericksburg remains the crown jewel of the systema after taking four of six from Hill City to open a up a five-game lead with roughly 5½ weeks to go. Yemery Cabrera became the latest Nats minor-leaguer to earn Player of the Week honors after racking up 10 hits in 20AB including two doubles and two HR, eight walks, and six stolen bases. He’s headed to Wilmington (well, Winston-Salem this week) and will be presumably be replaced by Dashyll Tejeda, who’s been sent north from the FCL. Roster moves: OF Dashyll Tejeda reassigned from the FCL; RHP Mikey Tepper, Tucker Biven MiLB rehab assignment transferred from the FCL; RHP Johan Otanez activated from the 7-Day I.L.
FCL Cardinals 2 FCL Nationals 1
• Martina 2IP, 0H, 0R, 2BB, 1K, WP
• Shortridge (BS, 1) 2⅓ IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 5K
• Figueroa (L, 0-1) 1IP, 1H, 1R, 0ER, 0BB, 0K
• Cerkownyk 1-3, BB, SB, E
• Arias 1-3, BB, RBI, 2K
The F-Nats pitchers almost made a 1-0 lead stand up but the F-Cards dealt single runs in the 8th and 9th to hand them a 2-1 loss. Clarence Martina went the first two innnings aand gave up no hits and two walks while striking out one. Aaron Shortridge “worked on some things” while letting in the tying run for the blown save and who appears to be Edgardo Figuero let in an unearned run in the 9th to take the loss. The FCL Nationals managed five hits and five walks, with Luis Arias plating Elian Soto for the sole F-Nats run. Roster moves: LHP Ty Bothwell reassigned from Fredericksburg; RHP Brayan Romero released.
Luke, the Senators are in Altoona against the Curve this week.
May have been too focused on the 6-7 joke. But it’s not like the schedules are so heavily weighted that it feels like the Sens are always playing the Curve, Seawolves, or the Squirrels…
I hear you. On more than one occasion last week, I referred to Erie as Altoona. We are tired of seeing the same teams over and over and over.
Luke’s uncertainty on Edgardo Figueroa may be rooted in the fact that the player has played one game this year and all last season as a catcher.
It seems MILB.com is also confused. Figueroa doesn’t have a pitching page or any pitching stats either. Did the FCL Nats just run out of arms and threw in Figueroa (bizarrely in possibly the highest leverage moment – a tied game in the 9th inning)?? Or did Figueroa convert to pitching in record time, and on top of that get rewarded for it with a promotion to the FCL? Very, very strange.
Speaking of the FCL’s pitching staff, the Nats have an extremely weird pitching staff beyond Figueroa. Their average age is 22.9. League average is 20.9. That’s the 2nd oldest (and by a very large margin to 3rd). By comparison, the FCL Nats bats are on average 19.4, and only 2 players are older than 20 years old (including a rehabbing Gavin Dugas). On the pitching staff, only 3 of 19 pitchers used so far are younger than 20. 9 of them are 24 or older!
There’s two reasons for this: 1. The Nats have been abysmal in recent years at developing IFA talent, but especially pitching. 2. They remain one of the only teams in baseball to field one DSL team.
Put those two factors together and you get the recipe to need to have to use 26 year old MILFAs to fill out your FCL roster.
This all could be somewhat resolved if the FCL was used for its intended purpose: a finishing league for IFAs AND recent draft picks. But MLB stupidly moved the FCL to specifically not overlap with the Draft, so that it intentionally CANNOT aid that year’s draftees for reasons I still cannot fathom. But here’s to hoping we’ll see changes by the new regime on the IFA/DSL front very soon.
Do we know whether the Nats are fielding two DSL teams this season?
Got to think that one of Toboni’s asks to take the job was investing in player development, including a full-on Dominican presence.
According to BA, no. FWIW, the Angels, Braves, Cardinals(!), Rays(!), Rockies, Twins, White Sox, and the Nationals are the one-team-onlies.
Or… use the independent teams they strong-armed a few years ago and put more of the non-CWS players onto some of those rosters. But MLB doesn’t care about stunting development and/or finding hidden gems as much as they claim.
I’m more inclined to believe it was a PEBCAK than a conversion to pitcher, but then again, they’ve done thing like list pitchers as being only 5′ tall or having no weight. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I wonder if the promotion of CF Cabrera to Wilmington spells the end of the Elijah Green experiment. It would seem Cabrera is going to start in CF where Green has played most of the time….
Green line as of this writing: .175/.268/.413 with 70ks in 121 ABs for an astounding 57.8% K rate. He also has 8 homers and 10 SBs through the first five weeks of the season, which may actually be a 30/30 pace.
Dashyl “ Hammett “ Tejeda dashes up to FRED .
Speed never sleeps , son ! ( Whitey Herzog )
Give the Carolina League batteries anxiety , son !
Luke something tells me you’ll be busy soon reporting more promotions .
Yeremy in the Grand Canyon .
Hit like Tony Gwynn in the gaps …
Fred-Nats adds to the pitching staff today:
— RHP Johan Otanez actived from the 7-day IL
— RHP Tucker Biven on a rehab assignment
— RHP Mikey Tepper on a rehab assignment