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Monday’s News & Notes

Team Yesterday Today Pitching Probables
Rochester Won, 9-1 OFF DAY N/A
Harrisburg Lost, 5-4 OFF DAY N/A
Wilmington Won, 6-2 END OF SEASON N/A
Fredericksburg Won, 3-1 END OF SEASON N/A

Rochester 9 Syracuse 1
• Hernandez (W, 3-1) 6IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 2BB, 7K, HR
• T. Romero 2IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 3K
• Baker 4-6, 2B(10), 3RBI, SB
• Tostado 3-4, 2R, BB, 2B
• Downs 2-4, R, 3B, 2RBI, E

Rochester pounded out 15 hits, including five doubles and one triple, as they took the series finale, 9-1. Alemao Hernandez notched his first AAA quality start while winning his third game with one run allowed on a home run over six innings. He walked two and struck out seven. Darren Baker led the Red Wings’ hit column with three singles, a double, and three RBI, followed by Frankie Tostado with two singles, a walk, and a double and Jeter Downs with a single and a triple while plating two. Roster moves: UT Paul Witt placed on the Development List; LHP Tim Cate activaged from 3-Day T.I.L.

Altoona 5 Harrisburg 4
• Herz 4IP, 6H, 3R, 3ER, 3BB, 8K, WP
• Powell (BS, 1) 1IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 1K, WP
• Peguero (L, 0-3) ⅓ IP, 2H, 1R, 0ER, 0BB, 0K,
• Hassell 3-5, RBI
• Casey 2-4, R, RBI

The Senators left the insurance run on base in their last three “ups,” which cost them when the Curve pushed across the game-winning run in the bottom of the 9th to send Harrisburg to its fifth straight loss, 5-4. DJ Herz struck out eight but needed 84 pitches to get 12 outs, as he allowed the first three Altoona runs on six hits and three walks. Joel Peguero lost for the third time while allowing two of three batters faced to reach base. Robert Hassell singled three times and drove in a run while Donovan Casey had two safeties and plated one to lead the Sens offense.



Wilmington 6 Brooklyn 2
• Cáceres 4IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, 3BB, 3K
• M. Perez (W, 7-1) 2IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Infante 3-4, R, E
• Lile 2-4, R, BB, 2B, 2RBI
• Morales 2-4, 2R, 3B, 2RBI

Wilmington rallied for four in the 8th and one in the 9th as they closed out 2023 with a 6-2 win over Brooklyn. Bryan Cáceres tossed four innings of one-run ball on two hits and three walks while striking out three. The win went to Marlon Perez for two scoreless innings with two hits, no walks, and two whiffs. Sammy Infante led the Blue Rocks’ 12-hit parade with three singles, followed by Daylen Lile with a walk, a single, a double, and two RBI, and Yohandy Morales with a single, triple, and two RBI.

Fredericksburg 3 Delmarva 1
• Polanco 3IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Agostini (W, 1-0) 2IP, 3H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Grissom (SV, 11) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 1K
• Thomas 2-4, BB, RBI, SB(65), OF assist @ HP
• Brown 1-2, R, BB, RBI, SB

Likewise, the FredNats finished above .500 for the season and won their last three with a 3-1 win over Delmarva. Bryan Polanco blanked the Shorebirds for three frames on one hit and no walks while striking out one. The “W” went to Gabriel Agostini in his Low-A debut with two scoreless innings with three hits allowed, no walks, and one whiff. Johan Otanez lost the shutout with a run let in during the 6th but earned a hold. Marquis Grissom Jr. worked around a walk in the 9th to earn his org-leading 11th save. Johnathan Thomas reached base three times with two singles and a walk and stole his 65th base while Marcus Brown singled, walked, scored a run, and drove in a run to pace the Fredericksburg offense.

25 Commments

  1. Was Riley Cornelio a paper transaction
    To get Gabe up on roster or is Riley tweaked out ?

    1. Paper move. Just like anyone who might get “promoted” from Wilmington this week or Harrisburg next week.

      1. Yes they did!! His teammate in the low minors was another speedster Larry Lintz, who may be remembered by early Expos fans. As a kid, I got autographs from manager Gene Mauch and pitching coach Cal McClish…

  2. How is it that we have so many prospects in Harrisburg and we will finish in last place. Are they all just tired from the grind? Do we need a better hitting coach? Are they all just too young and professionally inexperienced to be in AA yet? Hoping it will be better next season! Any thoughts are appreciated!

    1. Maybe just chemistry .
      Like in playing poker . Sometimes you have to allow the dealing to give you a better hand .
      Alemao Hernandez . Work horse or just rubber arm ? 9-8 116 IP. Hmmmmm. Right up there IP wise with JR and Saenz .
      Well this off season reflection and review by everybody will be interesting especially by the Goid Doctor Fred .

    2. I’m as perplexed as you are! On August 16, the Senators were 53-56. They’ve gone 3-19 since that day, largely because of the storied bats in the line up going almost completely silent, Crews and Lipscomb, in particular. House has still been hitting well, but strangely the Nats have been giving him regular days off. He’s only played in 8 of the Senators past 12 games. Has there been any explanation about this? Is he dealing with a nagging injury?

      In this period:
      Crews: .170/.254/.237
      Hassell: .167/.271/.202
      Lipscomb: .195/.237/.345
      Wood: .235/.316/.400
      House: .286/.305/.500

      It’s basically their fault. Yeah, the other 4 bats in the lineup have been bad too. But it’s not the starting pitchers.
      Saenz has a 2.84 ERA in 4 starts. Parker 2.74 ERA, Herz 2.01 ERA, Alvarez 3.68 ERA. Yes, Cuevas has been awful (7.90 ERA), but that’s an impressively good rotation overall. It’s simply the bats that have caused the cratering season, and I don’t get why. Maybe a hitting coach change could help. Doherty was hitting coach in Wilmington last year, which had its own problems, and was new to the org before that (was in the Rockies org for a while, which isn’t exactly a seal of approval).

      2. As anemic as the Harrisburg bats were, the team’s .234 BA was not the lowest in the Eastern League!! Only 6 of 12 teams had a team BA of .240 or more, with Erie besting the league at .247! Harrisburg was last in runs scored, home runs, RBIs, SLG and OPS.

      3. House has been playing 4 out of 6 most of the season. Watson said they are being cautious with him because of the back injury. I would like to see him start next season in the minors playing everyday before coming to DC.

  3. I have to admit, now that Alu has gotten pretty significant and consistent playing time, I’m pretty disappointed with the results so far. 36 games, 127 plate appearances, and only .229/.276/.263 to show for it. I see barely any positive to take away from his performance so far. He’s shown absolutely no power; only 2 extra base hits (of 27 total hits). His walk rate has plummeted. It hovered around 8-10% in the past few seasons, but sits at 4.7% in the majors, while his K% spiked. It never exceeded 21% at any level, and more recently sat between 14-18%, but is 26% in the majors. These aren’t crippling numbers, but altogether they are, especially when he does make contact it’s really weak contact (55% GB rate). Maybe one positive, is that the contact he’s making has been solid (33.7% hardhit and 61.6% medium), but none of that matters if you’re slamming the balls into the ground. The silver lining is that if he can start elevating the ball, he might be able to have better luck.

    I guess the only positive is that Alu’s defense has been as good as suggested, albeit not at 3B. He’s been jerked around defensively quite a bit, so these are very small sample sizes, but his defense at both 2B and LF have been above average according to both OAA (though below average according to DRS). I guess another positive is that Carter Kieboom, Alu’s stiffest competition at 3B, looks even worse than Alu, batting .189/.232/.377. It’s not worse than Alu, but Kieboom now has almost 500 professional plate appearances of similarly bad production, so hope is fading fast for a Kieboom renaissance.

    On the brightside, how about Jacob Young?! This guy couldn’t power his way out of a paper bag in the minors, and now is just racking up doubles for the Nats! He started the season in Wilmington, showed an impressive plate approach and quickly climbed the ladder, aided in no small part to the uber-OF-prospect congestion in Harrisburg. He got a surprise promotion after a combined line of .305/.376/.418 across 3 levels. You know what he’s hitting now in DC? .311/.380/.422…

    I’m not sure he can sustain this, but I’ll enjoy it while it lasts!

    1. Young certainly is making the most of his opportunity. Ultimately it’s difficult to see him being more than a faster version of Stevenson, but he would seem to be a more useful 5th OF than Alex Call.

      We can’t say that Alu hasn’t gotten his chances. And at least he’s gotten more of an opportunity than Rutherford did, even through Rutherford had significantly better AA/AAA stats. At least Alu will have three more years of options so can be good organizational depth for a while. I think that Kieboom will be out of options after this season (although such things get complicated when season-long injuries are involved). Regardless, he’s still not looking like a competent MLB hitter. Sigh.

      1. I think Young’s tools are distinctly better than Stevenson’s. He is faster, better defensively, incomparable arm, more consistent offence.
        The only common tool I see is not much power.

        1. All prospecters kept saying Young wasn’t a CFer. It looks to me that he might not be the second coming of Andruw Jones, but he can hold his own there. If that’s the case, then he’s a much more interesting player than the weak-hitting corner outfielder the experts labelled him as.

          1. Yes, I also kept reading that Young wasn’t CF material, which made me doubt his MLB viability. He already seems to be a better option than Call (and a much better CF than Stevenson). Of course we’ve also had September flashes in the pan before, from den Dekker to Stevenson, so let’s see what he can sustain.

            Speaking of Stevo, he’s a Sept. call-up with the Twins after a terrific AAA season.

          2. Anyone who saw Young’s outfield assist last week in Toronto can not say anything bad about his defense. That play was electric! Had a great catch the other day too.
            Ultimately his lack of any power will hold him back but his gazelle-like speed will play.

  4. Johnathon Thomas stole his 65th bag of the season, good enough for 5th most in the majors (incredibly, two guys have 90+). Typically with speedsters like Thomas, he can’t hit for power, and has a mere .297 SLG. However, I always found that undersold his value. Thomas has 69 non-HR hits, and 35 walks, getting on base 104 times, yet more often than not, he’s turned those free trip walks/singles into de facto extra base hits. If you added those extra 65 stolen bases into his slugging percentage, it would jump from .297 to .418. Not too bad!

    However, he really needs to work on that .226 batting average if he wants a future in the game.

      2. That’s “World Series Winner Herb Washington” to you!

        What’s so insane to me about Herb Washington existing as a professional baseball player is that he was not even good at the one thing he was hired to do. His SB success rate was only 64.5% when league average in 1974 was 64.3%. lol But the A’s were so good they didn’t need that 25th roster spot anyway.

        1. And not the Herb from the ancient Burger King ad campaign
          I’ll have to look up Don Hopkins .

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