AFL/Offseason Update: Oct. 20, 2019
It was a light night for the Nationals contingent as only Luis Garcia appeared in Surprise’s 8-1 loss to Salt River. Garcia was hitless in four at-bats but, as pictured, won the heart of a young fan prior to the game.
The two teams switch venues and rematch tonight. The Javelinas also lost to reduce the Sagauros’ magic number to two.
THE 2019 HARRISBURG SENATORS
The Senators did their best imitation of the 1984 Detroit Tigers as they, um, roared out to a 31-11 record by mid-May. They played sub-.500 baseball the rest of the way (45-52), winning the first half by just five games. Even without the half system, they may have still made the playoffs, in which they lost three games to one to the Bowie BaySox.
Injuries and player turnover had a lot to do with this, though you could argue that that was somewhat offset by the likes of AAA/AAAA talent being parked there to compensate for the usual spot for 40-man callups being moved from upstate NY to upstate CA.
Thus the team, which has traditionally been among the league’s oldest thanks to the Nats’ propensity for drafting collegiate players and GM Mike Rizzo’s fondness for using MLFAs interchangeably between AA and AAA, was the oldest by nearly six months for both pitchers and batters. Consequently, this lead to an unranked list of eight players for the eighth straight season:
| Tres Barrera, C | .249/.323/.381, 8HR in 101G; 4PB, .991% FA in 93G |
| Jacob Condra-Bogan, RHRP | 7-4, 1SV; 3.61/3.49/1.01 in 38G (66⅓ IP) |
| Wil Crowe, RHSP | 7-6, 0SV; 3.87/3.15/1.13 in 16GS (95⅓ IP) |
| Steven Fuentes, RHRP | 5-4, 0SV; 2.69/2.24/1.23 in 15G, 11GS (63⅔ IP) |
| Luis Garcia, SS | .261/.278/.425 in last 37G (.257/.280/.337 total in 129G) |
| Mario Sanchez, RHSP | 10-5, 0SV; 2.85/3.60/0.98 in 23G, 19GS (113⅔ IP) |
| Sterling Sharp, RHSP | 5-3, 0SV; 3.99/2.59/1.41 in 9GS (49⅔ IP) |
| Drew Ward, 3B | .265/.327/.497, 9HR, 15BB, 74K in 53G |
Like Potomac, I probably made this list bigger than it should be (eight instead of six), but then I would have had to have double honorable mentions because the line is that fine. Those go to Ben Braymer (3.37 FIP) and Rhett Wiseman (.197 ISO). Braymer, Sanchez, and Crowe all struggled at AAA, which I’m sure someone may point out is attributable to the PCL’s park factors, though that doesn’t exactly explain the big-ass Brobdingnagian jumps in walk rates.
It’s also worth noting that Drew Ward will become a free agent if he is not added to the 40-man roster. I would not put it past Rizzo to do so in hopes of being able to include Ward in a trade (see: Souza, Steven), which may explain his being used primarily at 3B in 2019 though his range still remains that of Daisy air rifle.
Folks who’d like to see the full team statistics can find them here. Pitching data can be found here.
I just don’t envision much interest in Ward. He had a decent year, but he’s repeated the level a few times now, his BB/K rate is atrocious, and while he showed more power in Triple-A, so did everyone else. It would surprise me, although it wouldn’t *shock* me, to see the Nats place him on the 40-man.
The one I’m wondering about is Sanchez. He didn’t fare well in his cameo in Triple-A, and he got shelled in the playoffs, but he had a very nice season with some impressive peripherals to support it. He’s also a free agent after the Nats win the World Series.
Sanchez looks like a classic AAAA to me. Not a guy you’d use a 40-man spot, especially with the number of other more worthy candidates they’ll need to protect this offseason.
Ward will be gone since there are numerous utility cuts such as Garcia ,Marincanz, Yasel and Daily upcoming
Though I doubt Ward would draw much interest having put up numbers even worse that Chris Marrero, their last 3rd basemen-really-a-too-light-hitting-1st base prospect, I do suspect Rizzo will be in wheeler-dealer mode this offseason. If Rendon and/or Stras are allowed to walk, the team’s going to get another dramatic makeover this offseason.