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Wednesday’s News & Notes

Team Yesterday Today Pitching Probables
Rochester OFF DAY vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 6:05pm Cebert (0-1, 3.86) vs. Beck (9-2, 2.86)
Harrisburg Won, 11-1 @ New Hampshire, 6:03pm Hartle (4-5, 3.59) vs. Wentworth (7-8, 5.20)
Fredericksburg Lost, 4-2 OFF DAY N/A

Harrisburg 11 New Hampshire 1
• Randall (W, 5-6) 6IP, 3H, 0R, 4BB, 4K, HBP
• Gaston 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Bazzell 4-5, 3R, 2B, HR, RBI
• Mitchell 3-5, R, 2RBI
• Made 2-4, R, BB, 3RBI
• White 2-4, 3R, BB, 2RBI

Harrisburg put up a crooked number four times in nine “ups” as they drowned the Fisher Cats, 11-1 in the series opener. Josh Randall turned in a quality start of six scoreless innings on three hits, four walks, and one hit batsman to earn his fifth win. Kevin Bazzell singled twice, scored thrice, and added a double and homer while Nick Mitchell had two safeties and a big fly while driving in two to lead the Senators offense. Roster moves: IF Eli Willits reassigned from Wilmington; IF Cortland Lawson reassigned to Rochester.



Fayetteville 4 Fredericksburg 2
• Millikan 4IP, 6H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 4K
• Neubeck (L, 0-1) 3IP, 2H, 2R, 1ER, 1BB, 5K
• Dugger 2-3, R
• Fien 2-4, 2K, OF assist @ 2B, E

The FredNats got two runs in the 2nd but were shut down after that as the ‘Peckers doubled ’em up, 4-2. Noah Millikan went the first four and allowed one run on six hits, no walks, and struck out four. Tony Neubeck took the loss with two runs (one earned) let in over three innings on two hits and a walk. Cashel Dugger and Gavin Fien both singled twice but the story of the night was eight K’s over the final four innings by the Fayetteville bullpen to send Fredericksburg back home needing to win twice in two days.
shim
 
 
• ⅓ ⅔ IP, H, R, ER, BB, K
• ⅓ ⅔ IP, H, R, ER, BB, K
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Roster moves: .
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17 Commments

  1. That’s a quality start for Randell atAA
    No dingers given up
    Congrats Lawson enjoy the AAA
    Playoffs

    1. If only the west coast Landen had more run support in SF
      Roupp
      150 IP
      Landon Harmon vs Landen Roupp someday soon ( great Journey song )

    2. Branden Beck 10 wins and a scant AAA ERA @ SWB
      The guy is stuck in a farm system thick with arms .

  2. Pretty good year for Bazzell. Wasn’t there a bit of hype when we drafted him? Anyone have a scouting report ?

    1. He was a bat-first catcher with good contact skills, good eye (walked more than he struck out in college) but lacking really good power. He’d only switched to catcher his junior year in college, so there was uncharacteristic room for development on the defensive side. Last season, his bat was so, so bad. I can’t recall ever seeing a player flash so little power, and I’m including extremely weak slap hitters like Nasim Nunez, Nyjer Morgan and Ben Revere in this category. Bazzell’s ISO (SLG-AVG) was .028. Nunez’s ISO in his abysmal offense in 2026 is .034! And Bazzell is a big dude, 6’1″, 210 lb. Just by sheer randomness, he’d expect to hit for more power than this. The only explanation I could come up with was 1) he was playing through an injury (an undiagnosed/reported hamate or something?) or 2) a coach fucked with his swing like they did Seaver King. Most likely, it was probably a bit of both, because he’s been back to his college profile. Good contact, mediocre power. From my perspective, it’s next to impossible to truly evaluate catcher defense unless you’re physically in the stadium, so I don’t have any read on how good he’s been. But one (bad) proxy is that he’s been surprisingly good at catching base runners. He has a 28 CS%, which is well above league average (21%).

      Altogether, it’s been a really positive season. He’s far surpassed Lomavita on my catching prospect depth charts.

  3. Bazzell is definitely a much better defensive catcher than Lomavita.
    Glad to see Willits get promoted for the final week.
    Also, Holden Powell to AAA.

  4. Nats need to find a guy who pitches more than an opener
    150 IP plus would slide in nice in fourth rotation a lot

  5. While MLB and MLBPA remain far apart on the key issues (specifically the salary cap), it was reported yesterday that they have either agreed on or are moving closer on some issues that impact prospects and minor league baseball. Namely:

    – Both MLBPA and MLB have proposed “earlier Rule V draft eligibility”. Not sure what the specifics are, but maybe everyone available after 4 professional seasons.
    – The MLBPA proposed reducing in-season minor-league options from 5 → 3.
    MLB countered with 5 → 4.
    – The MLBPA proposed allowing players 30+ with five years of service to reach free agency a year earlier. MLB has agreed.
    – MLB has proposed reduced the MLB draft to 12 rounds (its 20 now) and restricting the draft to those 20 and over, which would effectively end HS players getting drafted (this seems dumb as Eli Willits would still be two years away from being even draft eligible). MLBPA opposes these changes to the draft.
    – International Draft: Implement a 12-round international hard-slot draft restricted to players 18 and older, replacing the current 16-year-old signing system with a $200 million pool.

  6. I think MLB would like to make more of a media event of the draft (see the interest in NFL and MLB drafts). Drafting older more established players (age 20) makes the draft more similar to the NFL draft. MLB doesn’t gain much (from a marketing POV) from having a player like Eli Willets play in places like Wilmington and Harrisburg (instead of LSU, etc.)

    1. Until college baseball bans aluminum bats and offers as many scholarships as basketball and football, this is BEGGING talented multisport athletes to shun baseball. Even so, the college game has ZERO incentives to play underclassmen over upperclassmen or to care about the health of pitchers. I’m sure there are dumber ideas–let’s legalize gambling on college sports and market to young men with more balls than brains–but this is a surefire way to kill the game and make it even more of a rich kids sport.

  8. Subject change
    How many bodies have passed through Rochester useage this summer ?

    1. 2026:
      Position players: 26 Pitchers 50

      2025:
      Position players: 27 Pitchers 44

      2024:
      Position players: 29 Pitchers: 34

      This would include a few MLB players just passing through on rehab. I did avoid “double counting” pitchers who made non-pitching appearances or position players who pitched.

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