Friday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rochester | Won, 7-3 | vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 6:05pm | TBD vs. Carr (0-2, 5.68) |
| Harrisburg | Won, 8-0 | @ New Hampshire, 6:03pm | Tejeda (0-5, 7.31) vs. Perry (0-1, 2.67) | Fredericksburg | Lost, 8-1 | END OF SEASON | N/A |
Rochester 7 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 3
• Lyon (W, 2-0) 5IP, 4H, 0R, 1BB, 7K
• Nicolas 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 3K
• King 2-5, R, 2K, SB(10)
• Petersen 1-1, 2R, HBP, 2BB, SAC
• Kennedy 1-4, R, 2B, 3RBI
The Red Wings broke up the donut shop with five runs in the 5th as they knocked off the RailRiders, 7-3. Isaac Lyon turns in five scoreless with four hits, one walk, and seven whiffs to win back-to-back starts at AAA (how novel). Seaver King singled twice and scored a run while Sam Petersen reached base four times on two walks, a single, and a hit-by-pitch to highlight the Rochester offense, which took advantage of ten walks and two errors to score seven times on six hits. Roster moves: OF Andrew Pinckney recalled to Washington.
Harrisburg 8 New Hampshire 0
• Hartle (W, 5-5) 5+ IP, 2H, 0R, 2BB, 3K, HBP
• Cranz 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 2K, 1-0 IR-S
• Pichardo 3-5, 2R, HR, RBI
• S. Brown 3-5, R, RBI, 2K
• Farmer 2-5, R, RBI
Five Harrisburg pitchers combined to shut out New Hampshire, 8-0 on five hits and return to .500 (66-66). Josh Hartle put six runners in five-plus innings but Robert Cranz was having an O’Douls when he handed it over and stranded the runner while striking out two in the 6th. Devin Fitz-Gerald and Kervin Pichardo both homered and drove in two, with Pichardo also singling twice and scored twice to lead the Sens offense. Roster moves: IF Devin Ortiz activated from Developmental List.
Fayetteville 8 Fredericksburg 1
• Harmon (L, 0-1) 3IP, 3H, 3R, 2ER, 3BB, 1K
• Howard 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 0K
• Williams 2-4
• Hines 1-4, R, HR, RBI
The FredNats barely avoided being shut out as they were swept out of the CLDS, 8-1 by the WoodPeckers. Landon Harmon took the loss with three runs (two earned) allowed on three hits and three walks over three innings. He struck out one. Hunter Hines homered in the 3rd for the sole Fredericksburg run while the rest of the lineup mustered six singles—two by 26-y.o. Jordan Williams—walked twice and struck out 11 times.
Too bad that Harmon’s worst outing of the year came in the playoffs. Fredericksburg started exceptionally well, but kinda limped to the finish. I have higher hopes for Rochester’s playoff run.
Harmon reminds us how Sykora shined in his playoff cameo
66-66 Harrisburg on 9-11
Numbers. ( great Duvall movie )
Following up the post on Leandro Pineda yesterday – I knew about his recent achievements at Rochester and the splits between his time at Harrisburg and his time at Rochester – here they are:
Harrisburg (until 7/7): 270 PA 686 OPS
Rochester (7/25 to now): 145 PA 1105 OPS
What I just observed is that Pineda was on the Harrisburg developmental list from 7/8 to 7/21. Looking at us of developmental list, it typically means a) 1-2 day visit as rosters shake out b) managing the 3rd catcher spot, or c) you are a spare part. I don’t typically see that you come out of it with a promotion. Was this time used for a trip to the batting lab? How seriously should we take 145 PA? I don’t see anything in his history with the Phillies org to see this type of performance.
I meant to write “looking at the use of the development list”.
I’m sure the org will have a better idea of whether this is a short-sample fluke or some real change. Still, I think there’s evidence that it’s real (or maybe I’m doing wishful thinking).
Here’s his TJStats page: https://tjstats.ca/player/leandro-pineda-683610?id=683610
We can’t see the batted ball data for his (poor) AA performance, but he had elite strike zone judgement: 85th %ile Z-swing, 72nd %ile O-swing (usually these numbers are inverses) and 77th %ile Z-contact. So he swung at all the pitches in the zone, spat on all the pitches out of the zone, and made contact when he swung, but presumably not very good contact or else he would have had better numbers.
It’s easy to see how swinging at fewer in-zone pitches–waiting for your pitch–might lead to better contact quality. And indeed, at AAA, his O-swing %ile is still 75, but his Z-swing %ile has dropped to 34, and his contact quality has been excellent.
So they may have taken a guy with elite batting eye and contact skills and untapped raw power and taught him to wait for his pitch. Or maybe it’s a small-sample fluke. Hopefully the team knows!