Sunday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Lost, 5-4 | @ Syracuse, 1:05 p.m. | Gore (MLB Rehab) vs. H. Gonzalez (0-3, 9.60) |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 2-1 | vs. Akron, 1 p.m. | Cate (2-4, 7.04) vs Bibee (5-1, 1.61) |
| Wilmington | Won, 7-5 | vs. Hudson Valley, 1:05 p.m. | Knowles (8-1, 3.19) vs. Castaño (5-8, 3.49) |
| Fredericksburg | Cancelled | @ Salem, 1:05 p.m. | TBD vs. TBD |
Rochester 5 Syracuse 4
• Verrett (L, 7-9) 6+ IP, 6H, 5R, 5ER, 2BB, 2K, 2HR
• Garrett 1IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Stevenson 3-5, R, 3B, RBI
• Flores 2-4, 2R, 3B
The Red Wings rallied for two in the 9th but it was only enough to ensure their 24th one-run loss by a score of 5-4. Logan Verrett gave up all five Mets runs on six hits (two HR) and two walks over six-plus innings. He struck out two white losing his ninth game. Andrew Stevenson led the Rochester hit column with two singles and a triple, followed by Jecksson Flores and Taylor Gushue, who combined to go 4-for-6 with a double (Gushue) and a triple (Flores).
Akron 2 Harrisburg 1
• Irvin 5⅔ IP, 1H, 0R, 3BB, 8K
• Brzykcy (BS, 1; L, 2-1) 1IP, 2H, 2R, 1ER, 1BB, 3K, HR
• W. Garcia 2-4
• Baker 1-3, R, BB, 2B
• 1-for-10 RISP, 8 L
In what feels like a microcosm of the season, Harrisburg lost this one in the 9th on an error and a series of unfortunate events. With one out and a runner on 1st and tied at 1-1, Akron’s Raynel Delgado tapped a slow roller to third that Gilbert Lara barehanded and threw wide, behind Delgado who collided with 1B Andrew Young. By the time LF Trey Harris tracked it down, the runner on 1st, who was going a full count, was able to score the game-winning run. Zach Brzykcy struck out the side in the 9th but gave up both runs, the other coming on a leadoff HR, for the blown-save-loss. Jake Irvin’s best outing of the season – five and 2/3rds scoreless on one hit, three walks, and eight K’s – was wasted. Darren Baker scored the lone Harrisburg run on an errant throw by Akron’s 1B after Wilson Garcia singled off his glove and then threw it toward 1st, missing the pitcher covering but hitting Garcia.
Wilmington 7 Hudson Valley 5
• Saenz 4IP, 7H, 2R, 2ER, 0BB, 3K, 2HR
• C. Romero (W, 5-4) 2IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 6K
• Alvarez (SV, 1) ⅓ IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K, 2-0 IR-S
• Mendoza 2-4, 2R, HR, RBI
• Witt 1-3, R, 2B, 2RBI
• Daily 2-4, BB, RBI
The Blue Rocks survived a late charge by the Renegades to get back to .500 with a 7-5 win. Dustin Saenz had his first High-A no-decision with two runs on two homers and seven hits total over four innings. Carlos Romero stuck out the side in both the 5th and 6th innings while picking up his fifth win. Hudson Valley got to Zach Burdi for two runs on a hit and three walks before Andrew Alvarez came on to get the last out with a strikeout for the save. Wilmington made the most of its seven hits and six walks by going 5-for-10 with RISP. Two doubles (Paul Witt, Onix Vega) and a homer (Drew Mendoza) didn’t hurt either.
Roster moves: C Steven Williams reassigned from Fredericksburg.
Fredericksburg vs. Salem – CNCLD
The penultimate game of the 2nd half was washed away, giving the FredNats ‘pen an extra day of rest before the playoffs begin on Tuesday.
McKenzie Gore! Definitely worth watching Rochester today.
Steven Williams has 19 innings at C and ~250 innings at OF, so it appears he’s really an OF now.
Looking at our “hauls” in 2021 and 2022:
– Ruiz. Starting C, get well soon.
– Gray – hope he can cut down on those HR’s
– Thomas – looks like legit backup OF
– Thompson – intriguing bullpen arm.
– Adams – disappointing with the bat.
– Casey (AAA) – kicked off the 40, did not have a good year
– Carillo (AA) – Ugh. Let’s see him get healthy
– Guasch (A+) – too many walks.
– Shuman (A+) – was doing OK, got hurt
– Millas (AA) – looks like organizational catcher
– Barley (A+) – didn’t hit
– Ramirez – think he had TJ
2022:
– Abrams – exciting player, but what’s his upside with the bat?
– Voit – I think he’ll just be replacement level or slightly over. Under team control 2 more years.
– Gore – hopefully healthy now, rehab start today
– Hassell (AA) – got off to slow start with new org
– Harris (AA) – don’t expect much in return for Ehire A.
– Wood (A) – doing well with the bat
– Susana (A) – amazing arm
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In retrospect, the prospect haul from last year isn’t looking good.
For former top 10/20 prospects, you’d hope to see more from both Gray and Ruiz this year. Ruiz was meant to be very good defensively. While he’s definitely above average, we haven’t seen any elite defense (check out Rutschman for that). And his bat hasn’t developed at all… Same for Gray. He’s been far too susceptible to the long ball all year. It’s been his Achilles heel. Nationals’ coaching yet again proving incapable of helping players actively address their weaknesses. And with a bevy of new talent joining, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this happen again.
Just goes to show again the importance of great player development. You can get major league ready prospects, but they can still fail to succeed in the majors without the right support. While this is true even of teams that have great development and coaching, it’ll be far more likely for those who don’t prioritize it.
Meanwhile, Austin Voth continues his post-Nationals renaissance. He’s now accumulated more WAR for the Orioles this partial season than he did in 4+ seasons for the Nationals combined, and has indirectly spoken about the inadequate support he received from the Nationals.
The one guy Voth had in his corner was Menhart. The guy who got the brilliant performance from the Nats’ staff in the playoffs was Menhart. And the guy who got kicked to the curb in favor of an old crony was Menhart . . .
the fact that Menhart is out of baseball altogether is shocking to me.
Real men were purged just because they stood up to the lie about the Jabs!
Dr. Fred, last I heard Paul Menhart was in the Pioneer League, in independent baseball.
He did great things in the years he was here.
Amen!
Funnily enough, the best trade from last year was Thomas for Lester.
The Harris for Adrianza trade this year is giving me similar vibes.
This to confirm that Aldo Ramirez did indeed have TJ surgery in the spring. He was injured most of last year too but maybe they thought they could fix it without. He’s supposed to have an electric arm.
Jordy Barley was 2021 minor league baserunner of the year but when your OPS is .545 it doesn’t help. He’s only 22 still.
Nattringbob : many more bodies to add this winter and next calender year
Consistent Carlos
Steven Williams sure did hit in middle of the Fred lineup early season on before the youngsters arrived .
That’s why they call it a farm . Grow a big crop and see what matures …
Nice to see such a strong performance from Jake Irvin to finish off an up-and-down season. His ERA at AA was 4.81, but there are some things to like. His WHIP across two levels was 1.15 (1.19 at AA), and his K/9 was above 9. Perhaps more importantly, he’s one of the few Nat starting prospects with a low walk rate. I suspect that he won’t be added to the 40-man and protected from Rule 5, but he and Alex Troop should step up to AAA as the stealth starting reserve.
Agree that the haul from the Scherzer/Turner trade was nowhere near good enough. Rizzo was so obsessed with Ruiz he forgot everything else.
*shrugs* The haul for the Scherzer/Turner trade was just fine, IMNSHO. For two months of Max and one season + two months of Trea they got several years of two good prospects plus a lottery ticket (Carillo) and a guy. In the FG writeup of the 75 prospects moved in the deadline deals of 2021 Gray was the #1 prospect moved and Ruiz was the #3 (Carillo was #25 and Casey was #74). Likely most of the value was for Trea, not Max, since rental player deals have been netting less and less over the past few seasons as teams have gotten smarter about hanging onto their prospects. If you assume that all prospects are going to max out their ceiling, well, in the words of the Man in Black “get used to disappointment.”
I’ve heard players coming from other teams to the Nats have indicated that the Nats are behind those other teams in player development.
Really? Do you remember who said that? That’s even more shocking than Voth’s comments.
The west coast clubs have better PD systems in place in NL locales
I don’t recall seeing Irvin throw as many curve balls early in the game as he did in the first two innings. now, he had a pretty good one but he usually pounds them with 95-97 the first time through. I still struggle to see him as a starter without coming up with a better third pitch. maybe let him spend some time with Anibal this winter.
Ruiz is in his age-23 season. He has a fantastic 11.5 K%, makes great contact. Had bad BABIP “luck” at only .271. His power was picking up, with three homers in August and one in September. With that kind of contact, he still looks like a catcher who can hit .280-.300, which is a very rare bird. Whether the power develops for him to be somewhat of a middle-of-the-order bat will remain to be seen. He hit 24 homers across AAA and MLB stops last season, so it’s possible.
Anyway, I’m not particularly disappointed in where he is right now. If the contact is there, and it is, the other things will come. He was never said to be great defensively, but he seems decent enough.