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Friday’s News & Notes

Photo via Brooklyn Cyclones/MiLB

Team Yesterday Today Pitching Probables
Rochester Won, 6-2 @ Worcester, 6:45 p.m. Je. Rodriguez (1-1, 5.57) vs. D. Hernandez (0-0, 7.02)
Harrisburg Won, 8-2 vs. Richmond, 7 p.m. Fuentes (1-1, 3.24) vs. Dahlberg (2-1, 2.97)
Wilmington Postponed @ Brooklyn, 7 p.m. Irvin (0-0, 0.53) vs. Rojas (3-1, 1.82)
Fredericksburg Lost, 6-5
(11 inn.)		 vs. Kannapolis, 7:05 p.m. Theophile (3-0, 1.04) vs. Ja. Kelley (0-1, 5.56)

Rochester 6 Worcester 2
• Verrett (W, 1-2) 5IP, 3H, 2R, 2ER, BB, 6K, HR, 2WP
• F. Perez (H, 3) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Barrera 2-4, 2R, HR, 2RBI
• Freeman 2-4, R, 2B(5), SB
• Fox 2-4, R, 2B

Like a Connecticut-style lobster sandwich, Rochester is hot and on a roll after a 6-2 win over Worcester – the sixth straight for the Red Wings. Logan Verrett finished five innings for the first time in four starts and thus qualified for the win, his first. He allowed both Red Sox runs on a 1st-inning HR and three hits total while issuing a walk and fanning six. The Rochester ‘pen added four more scoreless innings to lower its ERA to 0.21 in the month of May (H/T Red Wings PR). Tres Barrera singled and homered while Cole Freeman and Lucius Fox both went 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored to pace the Rochester offense.
Roster moves: LHP Jace Fry activated from 7-Day I.L.; OF Nick Banks placed on 7-Day I.L., retroactive to May 11.

Harrisburg 8 Richmond 2
• Henry 4IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 4K, HR, 54-34 PIT-K
• Guerrero (W, 2-2) 2IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 3K, HR
• Alu 2-3, R, BB, 2RBI
• W. Garcia 2-4, R, HR, RBI
• Lindsly 2-4, R, 2B, 2RBI

The Senators scored in four straight “ups” to turn a 1-1 tie into the eventual 8-2 outcome to stop a four-game slide. Cole Henry went the first four at an acceptable clip of 54 pitches, allowing one hit—a HR)—no walks, and setting down four on strikes. The “W” went to Alberto Guerrero, who gave up the other Richmond run on another HR (yep, same batter) over two innings with no walks and three whiffs. Jake Alu reached base three times with a walks and two singles while driving two, as did Brady Lindsly on a single and a double to lead the Harrisburg’s ten-hit, two-walk offense.

Wilmington vs. Brooklyn – PPD
What the fog?! Above is why last night’s game between Wilmington and Brooklyn was postponed. They’ll shoot to make it up with a 4 p.m. doubleheader tomorrow afternoon.

Kannapolis 6 Fredericksburg 5 (11 inn.)
• Rutledge 1IP, 1H, 0R, 1BB, 0K
• Greenhill 3IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 3K
• Threadgill (L, 2-1) 2IP, 3H, 2R, 1ER, BB, 3K
• V. Peña 2-5, R, 2-2B, BB, RBI
• Ge. Diaz 2-5, R, 2B, RBI
• J. Young 1-4, 2R, 2BB, 2B, SB

You can unbundle your undergarments – a 45-minute rain delay limited Jackson Rutledge to a single inning in a 6-5 FredNats loss in 11 innings to the Cannon Ballers. Rutledge allowed a hit and a walk in that inning without a whiff. Kannapolis broke out for four in the top of the 4th while Fredericksburg answered with three in its half of the 4th and tied it on a Viandel Peña RBI double in the 5th. The Cannon Ballers won it in the 11th with a pair of runs off losing pitcher Riggs Threadgill. Jeremy De La Rosa doubled in free runner Jacob Young with one out in the 11th but watched Leandro Emiliani strikeout and trotted home on Branden Boisserie’s flyout to end the game.

14 Commments

  1. And Cole Henry’s ERA balloons to 0.92. The big news for him last night was no walks, as his walk % had been way up this season. Batting average against him is a crazy-good .079. He’s also been crazy “lucky,” with a BABIP against of .105, leading one to the conclusion that they’re only making soft contact against him.

    The other impressive number for Henry is that he’s dominating at AA with only 47 innings of pro ball in his background before this season (and only 77.1 in college). If he can stay healthy, he has a chance to be a good one.

  2. Matt Cronin has thrown almost as many innings as Henry and has yet to surrender a run. I think several of us have wondered why there isn’t more excitement about him, as his numbers always have been so good. Apparently he doesn’t red-line on the radar gun, but I’ll take a guy who throws 92 with movement that can’t be hit over 99 and straight any day.

    1. A shout out to Jose Ferrer, a criminally underrated (even by his own coaches) reliever in Fredericksburg. He too sports a perfect ERA and added another inning last night. While he hasn’t been blowing away batters like Cronin has, (“only” 12 K in 13 IP), he’s demonstrated elite control (only 1 BB, which has previously been his weakness), and even better he’s only allowed 5 hits. His WHIP is a minuscule 0.46 to date, half of Cronin’s bloated WHIP of 0.89.

  3. Was the plan to only let Rutledge throw one inning? Or did something unexpected happen? One walk and one hit in one inning isn’t great, even if he kept runs off the board.

    1. Will, the game notes from Luke is it was rain delay related. When I saw the box score last night I was very alarmed too.

  4. Meanwhile, with so many more positives this year to focus on, I’ll highlight one huge disappointment: Jackson Cluff. He’s been dreadful.

    I didn’t have high expectations, but a solid AFL convinced me he was worth watching. Well, it’s been horror movie. Cluff has struck out in exactly 50% of his ABs (41K, 82 AB), and his walk rate (4.5%) has dropped to its lowest point at any level, and about half of his career average.

    This guy was a 6th rounder in 2019, who was supposed to have some decent upside, that the powers that be saw some real value in among our dearth of MIF prospects at AA-AAA levels, and as evidenced by his participation in the AFL. Well… hope he figures things out soon.

  5. FanGraphs posted a scouting report of Cavalli’s start on Wednesday: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/thursday-prospect-notes-5-12-22/

    Seems fortunate that they managed to catch him on his one and only good start of the year! Still, an interesting read, which captures some comments others have made here about Cavalli’s decline as the season progressed and he rose through the system.

    1. Thanks for posting the link to the Cavalli report. My primary concern with him is less his injury history and more what was described with Downs — a flat slider that got launched (foul). For a guy with supposedly dominant stuff, Cavalli surrenders a lot of hits — 8.5 per 9 IP this season, 10.1 over his AAA career, 15.1 in spring training. These numbers are consist with what he did in college (8.5). Guys in the upper levels can hit the heat if it isn’t moving enough, and if he doesn’t keep them off balance enough with offspeed stuff (which he’s apparently trying to work on).

      It’s also concerning that he’s getting hit the third time through lineups. Is he losing steam, is the opposition adjusting, or a little of both? There have been projections about Cavalli since he was drafted that he might end up in the bullpen, and this track record won’t end that chatter. If history is any guide, though, Rizzo won’t make a high-profile starter into a reliever until he had burned all of his options. So Cavalli will have plenty of time to overcome that stigma.

      There’s no denying that the guy is a big, strong dude who can throw the ball through a wall. But it seems he still has things to actually learn about pitching.

      1. I would also STRONGLY disagree with the contention that Cavalli has “shown the ability to locate his breaking ball and offspeed stuff” — even with the qualifier of “though not yet to a convincing level of reliability.” To steal from Rodney Dangerfield: “I don’t snort cocaine; I just like the way it smells.”

        I’m also concerned about the lack of separation between what the announcers have been calling a changeup (88-89) and the fastball (94-96). Perhaps it’s sinker and they’re misidentifying it, but if they’re not wrong to only have a few m.p.h. separation is not good.

        I still feel like the primary problem is that Cavalli is still relying on batters to chase and has not learned how to get them out when they don’t, which, as many of you have noted (as did the article), is not going to get any better if/when he’s called on to pitch at the MLB level.

  6. In 6 starts this year Cole Henry has pitched 3,3,3,4,2.2, and 4 innings. Give the Nats credit, at his age (22) and 2 injury stints last year there’re being super-careful. He’s been unhittable and maybe we see 5 innings soon.

    Matt Cronin needs to be promoted. Rizzo is signing every relief pitcher in sight and he has a homegrown player that needs his attention.

  7. The two home runs hit by Matheny against Harrisburg were bombs. The second one nearly cleared the scoreboard in RF. It was nice to see the Senators funally put some runs on the board.

  9. What a weekend in the cosmos
    Black Friday the 13 th
    With a Sunday red moon coupled with a total eclipse .
    Does that explain why a pot of coffee not waking up some folks in the morning ?

  10. Viandel Pena and Geraldi Diaz keep hitting. FredNats really have an interesting collection of young hitters between them and House/JDLR/Emiliani/White even with the caveat that it’s a very small sample size at low-A. Is there any read on how Diaz is as a catcher defensively?

    Also, I keep on trying to find a scouting report on Theophile. What kind of repertoire/velo does he have. 6’5″ 230 is pretty beastly so I’m imagining he has some gas

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