Tuesday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | OFF DAY | vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 6:45 p.m. | Rutledge (2-3, 6.36) vs. Y. Gómez (1-3, 3.19) |
| Harrisburg | OFF DAY | vs. Bowie, 6:30 p.m. | Cuevas (1-4, 6.60) vs. Pham (1-1, 6.75) |
| Wilmington | OFF DAY | @ Jersey Shore, 7:05 p.m. | L. Young (2-4, 3.59) vs. Neunborn (0-0, 0.00) |
| Fredericksburg | OFF DAY | @ Carolina, 6:30 p.m. | Polanco (4-1, 3.70) vs. M. Rodriguez (2-4, 3.66) |
| FCL Nationals | Won, 7-2 | vs. FCL Marlins, 12 p.m. | |
| DSL Nationals | Won, 6-3 | @ DSL Giants Black, 11 a.m. |
Rochester Red Wings, 32-29, 3rd Place I.L. East, 10GB
Rochester broke even against Worcester and returns home after the first of two trips to Massachusetts this season. This week, it’s six against the second-place RailRiders with a matinee tomorrow afternoon.
Harrisburg Senators, 32-25, 2nd Place E.L. Southwest, 1GB
The Senators won just two of six against the Fightins to fall a game off the pace. Somehow, it’s nearly mid-June and this week is the first series between Bowie and Harrisburg.
Wilmington Blue Rocks, 27-30, 6th Place Sally Lg. North, 5GB
Wilmington took three of eight from Hudson Valley to remain in last place. This week the Blue Rocks are headed to Jersey Shore for six against the BlueClaws.
Fredericksburg Nationals, 30-27, 4th place C.L. North, 6BG
Three weeks ago, the FredNats were 25-14 and in first place, a game ahead of the MudCats with this series on the horizon to potentially settle the first-half title. Since then, they’ve lost 13 games and three series and are now playing to stay above .500 and out of fifth place.
FCL Nationals 7 FCL Mets 2
• Colon 4IP, 4H, 0R, 2BB, 3K, 2WP
• D. Perez (W, 5-1) 3IP, 3H, 2R, 0ER, 4BB, 5K, WP
• Soto 3-3, BB, 2B, 3RBI
• E. Ramirez 2-4, R, 2B, RBI
• Arias 1-2, R, 2BB, SB
The FCL Nationals marched to a ten-hit parade to trample the FCL Mets, 7-2. Leodarlyn Colon shut out the F-Mets for four innings, allowing four hits and two walks. Doimil Perez won for the fifth time in nine appearance, though he lost the shutout with two unearned runs in the 7th. Elian Soto reached base four times on a walk, two singles, and a double while driving in three while Emmanuel Ramirez singled, doubled, scored a run, and plated a run to lead the FCL Nationals offense.
DSL Nationals 6 DSL Cardinals 3
• J. Feliz 4IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 5K
• Familia (W, 1-0) 2IP, 2H, 0R, 2BB, 4K
• Santos 2-4, R, 3RBI, 3B, 2K
• Liriano 1-2, 2R, 2BB, HR, RBI
• Hurtado 1-3, R, BB, SB
The D-Nats got all six runs in their last three “ups,” including a three-run 8th to double up the D-Card, 6-3. Jose Feliz went the first four innings and let in a run in two hits, walked none, and struck out five. Jeffrey Familia closed out the game with two scoreless innings with two hits and two walks allowed and four strikeouts. Robert Santos cleared the bases with a triple in 8th after singling in the 7th; Hector Liriano walked twice and homered; Dashyll Tejeda stole four bases to power the DSL Nationals offense.
Questions and thoughts:
Any injury updates on Hassell and Woods? Any opinions on Crews’ season so far? Impressed and pleasantly surprised so far with how Irvin and Parker have adapted to MLB. Herz continues to intrigue!
Crews is solid, but he’s not a superstar.
Love Jake Irvin. If he was a 1st round pick, he would be generating much more buzz. He throws mid-90s with out max effort, has a solid breaking pitch and elite control. His results are legit.
Parker is starting to convince me, but the sample-size is still small. Not sure what he and/or the pitching staff did to overcome command issues, but love seeing it.
Herz has a long way to go. Doesn’t belong at the MLB level. He’s on the verge of a start where he doesn’t make it out the 2nd inning.
I was thinking a more athletic Richie Zisk with Crews
Very cool that the divisional rivalries picking up steam with position jockeying already in play for AAA and AA.
Let’s see how JR manages his pitch count early versus riders
May he not get railed .
Agreed with your assessments, yet Herz “continues to intrigue”!!
Interesting reads:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2022/02/24/for-dj-herz-the-chicago-cubs-2021-minor-league-pitcher-of-the-year-success-is-rooted-in-his-3-sport-past-it-got-me-ahead-of-the-game/
https://northsidebound.com/2023/01/27/the-5-series-dj-herz-is-bringing-a-slider-and-red-contacts-to-improve-in2023/
https://www.cubshq.com/cubs-baseball/story/cubs-prospect-focus-dj-herz-18924
The affiliates are beginning to cool off after their torrid start. Win percentage in the minors isn’t everything (or anything, for that matter), but it definitely is more fun when the teams are winning, and it’s been a long time since we had the majority of the teams finish above .500.
Meanwhile, in the DSL, the Nats’ two bonus babies, Hurtado and Arias, have started extremely poorly. Feliz is hitting .133/.350/.200 and Hurtado .118/.211/.294 in an admittedly minuscule sample size (5 games), a continuation of the 2023 IFA’s class underperformance (Acevedo and Solano as the two 7 figure signings).
Speaking of Acevedo and continuing Don’s inquiry on missing players, what happened to Acevedo? He last appeared in a game on May 29, 13 days ago.
This backtracking on transparency on player injuries is rather disconcerting. It’ll be much easier for teams to hide player injuries and sell damaged goods. It’s also not good for the fans. As the minor leagues are systematically gutted, including media coverage, important prospects like Jake Bennett, Robert Hassell, and even James Wood while he was in the Padres’ org have disappeared without any acknowledgement of why for weeks at a time, while we dedicated fans are given no explanation as to why the best players are playing. It’s not exactly a good marketing strategy.
My prior question says ago RE: Saenz health answered by Cale Solecky signing for skipper Delino .
Big guy six foot three . Can he eat innings for the competitive Sens .?
PS on Sens : Could Delino see Shuman sooner than later ??
I cherry-picked some stats a little while ago, and this is from memory, but I’m optimistic on Parker and Crews.
Parker’s issue in the minors was always that he walked too many guys, but he turned things around in the middle of last year. I think he was at 2.7 bb/9 from July to September in AA last year. He’s been even better this year at 1.9/9. He’s not striking mlb guys out anywhere close to what he did in the minors, which may limit his ceiling. But he’s coming up on a year of limiting the walks. That’s statistically significant. I’d bet on him.
Crews was absolutely terrible in his first 3 games of the year and his first 2 games back after his injury. Those games count, too (to the extent that milb games count), but if we assign a “slow starter” narrative, he otherwise has an OPS around .900 and a k rate around 20%. Either way, that still is a small sample, but I’m not ready to downgrade my overall expectations for him based on his current stat line. I’d say star player is still on the table.
I’ll jump aboard your Parker bandwagon, but more for what he’s done this year. he’s made roughly 1/3 of a full season’s of starts and if the next few are good ones he’ll have better stats that Gray did at this point last year when he garnered an All Star berth.
Hassell III is leading off tonight for Sens.
thx for that, any word on what sidelined him?
No, haven’t heard.
Robert told me it was a little twinge in his lower arm, not his wrist
Crews’ lack of clutch hitting was evidenced again in the game tonight. Tying runner on 3rd with one out and he fanned once more. Struggling in AA while some of his draft year mates have reached MLB or performing better. Hope he adjusts soon.