Sunday’s News & Notes

19 Commments

1. Ah ohh !! It’s Sunday with Sthele but the balancing scale might be Lords Day for ROCH
   Time for the Jack Benny hand on the chin pose .
   Well perfect timing : Wood getting hot in STL with big club , Blakenhorn getting comfy in the revised Red Wing line up .
   Now how does LeCroy replace Travis B?
   This is where a healthy Hassell 111 and on ETA would come in handy .
   Yes it seems Luke Young switching to long long relief ?

   1. Another starter for Delino in Tyler Stuart who has Jim Kern size .

      1. By Jove I think he’s got it !
         Sthele out does Lord on Sunday
         Good for TJ getting his 8 th tatter .

2. So who gets to replace Jesse Winker on the big club: Stone or Blankenthorn? I hope for Stone, who seems more than ready to return.

   1. I wonder if brass moves McKenzie up to AA
      BradLord has a HP ump with last name Krupa ( related to Gene Krupa legendary jazz drummer decades ago ?
      Wilmington facing Brad Stuart from Stuart Fl
      Maybe Stone gets the call since LeCroy could use Travis and Alu in lineup for awhile more
      Just saying
      Everybody leave your guesses where some of the NCAA draftees get placed
      King should be the highest affiliate assignment along with the two catchers

3. Maybe today is the day Stehle gets off the Sunday Schneid
   What a talent the Rox have in that RF on Hartford as Lara found out with his one pitch tattooed for a tater
   Winkler for two players off Mets ( maybe Binghamton or lower ?)
   Delino could use another lefty bat with Hassell still on just autograph duty with fans .

4. Baseball America has a new Nats Top 30 out. Here are the new guys —

   Seaver King # 7
   Caleb Lomavita # 8
   Cayden Wallace # 9
   Luke Dickerson # 15

   I thought the Nats were tapped out with draft money and then they find $500,000 for prep player Jamison Jones. Then I thought they are really tapped out and they then find money for Yoel Tejeda. Great job Mike Rizzo.

   1. Surprised Bazzell didn’t make it. Some prospect raters liked Bazzell more than Lomavita.

   2. Stuart will probably cozy up with Hanrahan to learn a cutter or something

5. Wow, the Angels got a great return for a 2 month rental in Carloa Estevez. Hoping the number of buyers on the relief market isn’t shrinking before we can find a taker for Finnegan, Floro and Law.

   I’m also a bit intrigued that no one has any info on the prospect package for Winker yet. Strangely, the prospects the Angels got for Estevez were reported even before Estevez was confirmed as the Phillies piece.

   1. So Tyler Stuart is the missing piece. He seems like an interesting piece, who is probably most likely a good relief arm. But let’s see how long the Nats stick with him as a starter. We know they have an unusually long leash for this.

      FanGraphs is pretty low on his, calling him a 35+ FV:
      Stuart is a strike-throwing behemoth who has kept his walk rates down in the 2.5 per 9 IP range since entering pro ball. He’s now accumulated 14 efficient Double-A starts and is marching toward a post-2025 40-man add. Stuart’s stuff isn’t dominant and he probably needs to find a better changeup or split to avoid an eventual bulk relief role, but his durability and command give him a really high floor. He is mostly going to live in the low 90s with both a two- and four-seamer while commanding an average slider to his glove side. His ability to vary his fastball shape helps keep him off the barrel and is a big reason why he’s run groundball rates around 50%. He’s a low-variance sixth starter type.

      MLB is higher on him, calling him a 45 FV, and already slotted him in at #16 between Bennett and Rutledge:
      Stuart worked mostly as a reliever at Southern Miss and in the Cape Cod League, but after his selection in the sixth round in 2022, the Mets transitioned him to starter — and a statistically impressive one at that. The right-hander led full-season Minor League qualifiers with a 2.20 ERA and ranked 12th among the 183 on that list with his 1.10 WHIP over 110 2/3 innings between High-A and Double-A. That said, his numbers at the higher level were closer to pedestrian (3.60 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 19.3 percent K rate) as he faced more advanced bats. He was a solid starter back at Binghamton in 2024 and was dealt to the Nationals in late July in a straight-up swap for outfielder Jesse Winker.

      Standing 6-foot-9 (yes, 6-foot-9), Stuart tends to start with his low-80s slider, which he threw roughly half the time in 2023, and for good reason. The pitch can show good two-plane break and sweep, leading to above-average whiff rates especially when it’s located on the edges of the zone. But it can hang in the zone at other times and get thumped. His 91-94 mph fastball shows sink and run in the other direction and can be tough to square up from his low three-quarters arm slot, giving him two potentially above-average pitches. Stuart’s changeup remains a distant third option.

      Stuart didn’t walk more than 7.6 percent of his batters faced at either level in 2023, and he fills the zone better than expected for someone his size. That control is one reason why the Mets wanted to give him starting looks in the pros, but he needs a more well-rounded arsenal to lock in that status. He’ll continue that work at the upper levels of the Washington system with his sights set on a potential debut next spring.

6. Overdue for Sykora to get a promotion, but it’ll be well deserved.

   Meanwhile, Matt Cronin continues to put up one of the best relief pitching seasons in Nationals farm history. It’s a shame he’s being punished developmentally for whatever reason.

   1. What would happen if this website put in a request to the Nats’ media coordinator, asking them what the deal is with Cronin?

      1. EdDC: crickets ?

      2. “Matt Cronin? Who?”

      3. They’d either ignore me or refer me to someone else who will then say something along the lines of “We only handle requests for media credentialed with the Washington Nationals.” Even if I had a credential, I wouldn’t count on getting very much out of them — especially this close to the trade deadline.

         1. Luke like getting into a Summer concert event back stage

         2. How hard or expensive is it to get a credential? Y’all are among the best reporting services out there. You ask legitimate questions pretty much every post, asking about lots of mysteries regarding injuries, delayed promotions, call-ups and much else.

            1. Expensive? No, legitimate organization would charge and no self-respecting journalist would pay (if they could 😉

               With my job having me in DC a few times a month, it’s something I’ll have to consider for next year.

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