Wednesday’s News & Notes; AFL Rosters Revealed
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rochester | Lost, 9-8 | @ Buffalo, 6:05pm | A. Lara (2-6, 5.32) vs. Stephan (0-5, 5.97) |
Buffalo 9 Rochester 8
• Early (L, 0-1) 1+ IP, 2H, 3R, 3ER, 2BB, 2K
• Gray 1IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 1K
• Adams 3-4, 3R, BB, 2B, RBI
• Petersen 3-4, BB, 3RBI, SB
• Wallace 2-4, 2R, BB, 2B, RBI, SB
It was over Early when the MLB Rehab “worked on some things” while blowing a 2-0 lead as Rochester fell to Buffalo, 9-8. Early was charged with three runs on two hits and two walks over one-plus innings. A dishonorable mention goes to Jack Cebert, who let in all three inherited runners and four of his own in four and a 1/3rd innings, the last two courtesy of Eddie Yean with his fourth straight outing in which he failed to prevent a run from scoring.
Offensively, the Red Wings couldn’t outhit the poor throwing and poor defense, though they certainly tried. Riley Adams and Sam Petersen both went 3-for-4 with a walk and combined for four runs scored and four RBI with Adams hitting a double and Petersen swiping a base. Cayden Wallace walked, singled, doubled, and stole a base while Trey Lipscomb hit his 32nd HR.
With the loss, Rochester is tied with Indianapolis for the I.L. lead in the second half with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre a game behind. The Red Wings hold the tiebreakers vs. the Rail Riders and the Indians but the latter is by the slimmest possible margin – 12-9 in last 21 games vs. 11-10. Roster moves: LHP Connelly Early transferred from Harrisburg for MLB Rehab.
Six Nats Named to AFL Roster
Yesterday, Major League Baseball revealed the makeup of the six teams in the Arizona Fall League. This year, Washington is supplying players to the Salt River Rafters, including:
- OF Teo Banks
- LHP Noah Dean
- LHP Nolan Hughes
- UT Jorgelys Mota
- RHP R.J. Sales
- RHP Jarlin Susana
This is the smallest contingent in recent memory and, as noted in the comment, the selections are curious. Regardless of whether you believe in either Occam’s or Hanlon’s Razor, it would appear that if the Nats could have done less, they would have.
All four pitchers barely pitched in 2026 while Mota only played 36 games, which checks the box for “let’s use the AFL to get more innings and/or ABs. Even Stevie Wonder can see that Banks’s assignment was to provide a body for when the other OFs need some rest. There’s nothing in his splits to indicate that “something had clicked” late in the season, so it would appear that the front office has already made up its mind on the Rule 5 Draft (if it happens; online reports are mixed).
“ National Enquirer “ shopping aisle tabloid readers want to know :
Is Noah Dean related to the east coast Dean dairy farming family ?
Can Noah Dean pull off an out if the shadows “ Jeff Fassero “ career 360 to take the sting out of numerous Nats fans lining for Bennettt?
Delino DeShields Senior might be part of the further education on Banks and Mota ( J- Mo most interesting project on farm ?)
Chase Hampton should get some attention in Arizona or is he more headed to a winter league assignment where the fruit drinks are good along with the enchiladas ??
100 IP logged as starters ( probably with asterisks)
Yea , Champlain
Josh Randall even with his control problems and tenancy to serve up the taters .
Maddox and Fisher .
Some of the starters slash 2-6 IP guys like Pilanco and Luckham almost logged 100 IP.
Liam Sullivan should get some winter league work in .
Luke , Helen Keller can see that better than Stevie since that movie role has seen everything in front of him ( like Eddie joked in a comic skit ( impress me Stevie take the wheel )
As Joe DiMaggio always said about Toots Shor and his style if treating guests ( if he didn’t like you he wouldn’t bust your chops !)
That’s us with the guts we are rooting for
In afterglow if season reflection I’ve been sarcastically hard on sulli Bloody Sunday Sulli . We want him to achieve ! We want that pitching deioth problem with too many lefties like the young Turks left in Boston
Luke , you think the Young Turks read this site for shits and giggles ??
Having seen the rest of the AFL rosters, the Nats’ delegation doesn’t look so strange. The talent being sent to the AFL is WAY worse than previous years. There’s only 12 top 100 prospects. The Nats sending Susana and 5 guys who might not even feature in our own top 50 prospects list seems to be similar to how other teams are approaching this. Have a look here: https://www.mlb.com/milb/news/2026-arizona-fall-league-rosters?t=arizona-fall-league-coverage
The Red Sox best prospect is their 26th best. The Astros don’t have ANYONE from their own top 30. But some other teams are approaching this a bit like past years. The Dodgers sent 2 top 100 prospects, 3 more from their own top 30, and 9 players in total. And generally if the Dodgers are doing it this way, I’d tend to think this is the correct way. But we’ll have to see. Toboni’s refusal to promote our best talent at the end of the year, coupled with this AFL approach sure seems to demonstrate he’s expecting a lock out, and doesn’t want to lose any extra control of players during the lock out. But I don’t think the other teams share this certainty.
Early had a weird outing. Hid velocity was back to preinjury levels. Sitting around 93/94, so that’s good.
He breeze through the first inning with relative ease, then just couldn’t get anyone out to start the 2nd. A 10 pitch walk was especially painful, and sapped a lot of his pitch limit. If the Red Wings lose a few more times, that could be Early’s first and last outing this year.
Toboni said this morning that the plan is one more start for Early in Rochester and then, he will start Game 161 (Sept 26) against the Mets.
From Nats Talk Twitter, and perhaps, explaining the Nats AZ Fall League choices:
A source tells us that starting on October 10 for six weeks, Paul Toboni’s player development group will be holding a camp at the West Palm Beach facility for selected minor leaguers.
https://x.com/TalkNats/status/2100274628346126462