Monday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Lost, 7-3 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 4-3 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Wilmington | Lost, 5-2 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Fredericksburg | Lost, 7-6 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| FCL Nationals | OFF DAY | @ FCL Cardinals, 12 p.m. | |
| DSL Nationals | OFF DAY | @ DSL Royals Blue, 11 a.m. |
Omaha 7 Rochester 3
• Peralta (L, 2-5) 3IP, 8H, 7R, 7ER, 2BB, 2K, WP, PTV
• Javier 2IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 2K
• Alu 2-4, SF, RBI
• Rutherford 2-5, R, HR, 2RBI
Omaha scored early and often as they, um, chased Wily Peralta after three innings in a 7-3 win that took the series, 4-2. Peralta gave up all seven Storm Chasers runs on eight hits and two walks. He struck out two while taking his fifth loss. Four relievers combined for six scoreless innings, with Odalvi Javier and Luis Reyes both putting up a pair of goose eggs. Jake Alu singled twice and drove in the firt Red Wings run with a sac fly while Blake Rutherford hit a solo HR in the 5th and an RBI double in the 9th. Rochester went just 1-for-16 with RISP and left on 12 baserunners.
Richmond 4 Harrisburg 3
• Troop (L, 3-6) 5IP, 9H, 4R, 4ER, 1BB, 6K, HR
• M. Peña 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Lindsly 2-3, BB
• Dunn 1-2, R, 2BB, 2B
It was too little, too late as the Senators came back from a 4-0 deficit to pull within one in the 8th and got the tying run to third with one out in the 9th. Alas, the clutch hit eluded Harrisburg as James Wood struck out and Frankie Tostado flew out to the warning track to seal the deal on a 4-3 loss. The Senators went 1-for-13 with RISP and left on 11 baserunners as they extending their losing streak to four to close out the first half. Alex Troop lost for the sixth time and gave up HR #11 as he let in all four Flying Squirrel runs on nine hits and a walk while striking out six. Malvin Peña , Tim Cate, and Joel Peguero each threw a scoreless inning in relief. Brady Lindsly led the hit column with two singles while Jack Dunn drew two of the team’s six walks, the last coming with two on and two outs in the 9th.
Aberdeen 5 Wilmington 2
• Theophile (L, 0-3) 5IP, 6H, 2R, 2ER, 1BB, 7K, 2HR
• D. Diaz 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Frizzell 1-3, R, BB, 2B, RBI
• Ge. Diaz 1-2
Aberdeen jumped on Wilmington for two in the 1st and never looked back as they took the series finale, 5-2. Rodney Theophile gave up two solo HRs and six hits total over five innings as he lost for the third time. He walked one and struck out seven. Will Frizzell broke up the shutout bid with an RBI double in the bottom of the 7th, which was also the third and final hit for Wilmington. A groundout sent Frizzell to third and a sac fly scored Frizzell, who also became the third and final runner left on base after drawing a one-out walk in the 9th.
Columbia 7 Fredericksburg 6
• Caceres 4⅓ IP, 6H, 3R, 3ER, 2BB, 4K, 2HBP
• Powell (BS, 1; L, 0-1) 1⅓ IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 2K, HR(GS), 3-3 IR-S
• W. Perez 3-5, R, RBI
• Lawson 2-4, R, RBI
• Cruz 2-4, R, 3B, 2RBI
The FredNats broke a 3-3 tie with a three-run 7th only to give it right back in grand fashion to lose the game, 7-6 and the series, 4-1. Bryan Caceres got the start and pitched into the 5th, giving up three runs on six hits and two walks over four and a 1/3rd innings. Holden Powell came on with the bases loaded and two out and coughed up a grand slam for the blown-save-loss, though a dishonorable mention goes to Matt Merrill for walking two of five batters faced. Wilmer Perez led the Fredericksburg hit column with three singles followed by Armando Cruz with a single and a triple and two RBI.
FCL Nationals, 7-8, 4th Place FCL East, 2GB
The FCL Nationals have climbed out of the FCL East cellar after a 3-2 week, which isn’t terribly meaningful when just three games separate first
place from last place. This week, it’s off days on Tuesday and Saturday and they’re away from West Palm Beach today and Wednesday. They F-Nats are the visitors on Thursday and the home team on Friday as they play the F-Astros for two games to end the week.
DSL National, 1-14, 9th Place DSL South, 10½ GB
The D-Nats finally won a game, but as noted in the comments, wins will be few and far between until the offense can generate more than 2.4 R/G. And’s that’s presuming the pitching (6.0 R/G) will improve to something closer to (5.0 R/G). This week, the DSL Nationals are on the road today, tomorrow, and Friday and at home on Thursday and Saturday.
Not many positives to draw on yesterday, but a few highlights:
Blake Rutherford continues to rake, doesn’t matter the level. I’m desperately hoping the Nats can quickly find a package to deal Candelario and Thomas, which will open up space for Alu and Rutherford to show us what they’ve got in the majors.
Theophile has now extended his streak of starts allowing 2 runs or less to 4 games. Also good to see him miss more bats this time. Still, Theophile has been a very streaky pitcher, hope he can sustain this small hot streak a while longer.
Lile went 2 for 5, he’s hitting .282/.371/.476 on the season. Not sure what else he has to do to warrant a promotion.
Jack “of all trades” Dunn continues to defy expectations. He’s now hitting .297/.467/.446 in AA with almost twice as many walks as strikeouts. True to my self imposed nick name, he’s played every position except catcher (yes, pitcher included), and all but RF and C this season. He was so far off my radar, but he’s always displayed an elite walk rate, it’s just the moderate power he’s shown this season is new.
Why trade Lane Thomas? He’s young controllable and improving. Isn’t Thomas the type of player that the Nats want to keep?
Thomas is first on the Nats in essentially every key offensive category, and here are his NL ranks:
-8th in offensive WAR
-10th in runs created
– 8th in runs scored
– 10th in situational runs added
– 2nd in range factor for RF
– 1st in RF putouts
– 2nd in OF assists
He is the Nats most proven position player by a mile.
Also, Thomas and Rutherford are 10 months apart in age. So, the Nats should trade a player (Thomas) that has developed into solid MLB player and is looking like a top tier MLB player; so that they can give his ABs to a Rutherford, who is essentially the same age and is now in his 7th minor league season, and finally can hit AAA pitching to see if he can be a 4th OF at the major league level? Do not understand the thinking.
The thinking is Thomas is controlled only through 2025, likely giving the Nats only one competitive season with him at most. Also, is this a career year or a new normal? A team may want to sell high.
I would explore an extension with him as the team will need veterans to go with the kids. I would try with Candelario too if they plan to compete next year. If they are waiting for the new owner then trade him.
“The thinking is Thomas is controlled only through 2025, likely giving the Nats only one competitive season with him at most. Also, is this a career year or a new normal? A team may want to sell high.”
Couldn’t have said it better. Remember, it was a very similar player to Thomas, Steven Souza, who we flipped into Trea Turner (and Joe Ross) ten years ago, extending our competitive window another season.
Now, I have no expectations that Thomas will net us a prospect similar in quality to Turner, but he could yield a player more similar to Ross, a useful pitcher that could be a 4th starter if injuries didn’t ravage him. And for 6 controllable seasons rather than the 2 losing seasons remaining with Thomas.
MLB.com updated their top 100 prospects, and it’s not good news for the Nats. https://www.mlb.com/news/updated-top-100-prospects-list-for-june-2023?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage
Yes, Wood has climbed to 6th overall, but in reality 4th, since de la Cruz and Perez have already graduated. That’s good news!
However, the bad news is further down the article. Hassell and Green feature as 2 of the 4 biggest drops on the list. Hassell, with the biggest fall a shocking 58 spots to 99th, while Green fell 28 spots to 86th overall. These coincide with FanGraphs rather pessimistic outlook on the two and, frankly, their pretty miserable 2023 seasons.
I don’t have MLB.com’s most recent update, but at some point House entered the top 100 (he now sits at 75th overall) and Cavalli at 82nd.
Hence the drafting of Crews next months …
Personally I’m really hoping for Crews. Chance to have a really special everyday player.
ESPN (Kiley McDaniel) has Crews to the Nats also.
Kiley McDaniel apparently also has Brandon Sproat has the pick at 40 (That was a name I suggested in previous comments. It was just a guess.)
You know what guys ??
Sprout opened my eyes on that first inning vs LSU even though anybody could tell his adrenaline
Was sky high
And we thought there would never be another Willingham in WASH ???
With a new owner probably in play in two years or less
Maybe that makes the timeline of shopping for a veteran starter to sink in kiddie corp at two years . Right ?
Nats love scouting and drafting off the Gators .
On a minor (non prospect) note, I see that Blake Klassen after just being promoted, went 2-4 yesterday for the Fred Nats.
They’ve gotten limited production out of 1st base so far, so we’ll see if he can give them some productive reps there. He showed well in FCL, maybe he keeps it going and puts pressure on some prospects to step up and compete. Always good to have competition.
WaPo reporting that soon-to-be famous Amos Willingham is getting the call for the Big Escalator today. No word (yet) on who is being sent packing.