Thursday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Lost, 5-2 | @ Syracuse, 6:35pm | Cavalli (0-1, 9.35) vs. McLean (1-1, 3.00) |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 6-4 (11 inn.) |
vs. Chesapeake, 6:30pm | TBD vs. Long (2-1, 3.94) |
| Wilmington | Postponed | @ Aberdeen, 7:05pm | Sthele (2-2, 4.74) vs. Money (2-2, 2.18) |
| Fredericksburg | Postponed | vs. Carolina, 6:35pm | Meckley (2-3, 4.82) vs. Hostetler (1-1, 6.75) |
| FCL Nationals | Lost, 8-0 | @ FCL Marlins, 12pm |
Syracuse 5 Rochester 2
• Solesky (L, 1-4) 6IP, 6H, 2R 2ER, 2BB, 7K, HR
• Grissom 1IP, 1H, 0R, 1BB, 1K
• Lile 1-2, 2BB, RBI, CS
• Baker 1-4, R, E
Rochester’s bullpen couldn’t keep it close, giving up three in the 7th to turn a two-run game into a 5-0 deficit. Daylen Lile broke up the shutout with a two-run single in the 9th but the Red Wings still fell, 5-2. Chase Solesky lost for the fourth time despite turning in a quality start of two runs on six hits (one HR) and two walks over six innings. Darren Baker, Brady House, Trey Lipscombm, and J.T. Arruda also singled as Rochester had no extra-base hits and just two walks (Lile for both). Roster moves: OF Robert Hassell recalled to Washington.
Chesapeake 6 Harrisburg 4 (11 inn.)
• Conley 5IP, 4H, 0R, 2BB, 5K, PO @ 2B
• Mejia (BS, 1) ⅔ IP, 1H, 4R, 0ER, 2BB, 2K, HR(GS), HBP
• Peterson (L, 1-1) 1⅔ IP, 2H, 2R, 1ER, 2BB, 0K
• Glasser 2-6, R, 3B, E
• Lawson 2-4, BB, 2RBI
• Morales 1-4, BB, 2B(10), SF, RBI
The Senators jumped out to a 4-0 lead after two and then left on 12 baserunners over the next nine innings to lose in extras, 6-4. Bryce Conley tossed five scoreless with four hits and two walks allowed. He struck out five in the no-decision. Erick Mejia walked two, loaded the bases with the “help” of an error by Phillip Glasser, struck out the next two, then was torched for game-tying grand slam to earn the blown save. Harrisburg loaded the bases in the 10th with one out on two walks but Max Romero Jr. ran into the shortstop to be out on interference, which, by rule, gave a single to the batter but kept the bases loaded. Chesapeake then got the next man out and plated two in the top of the 11th to take the lead. The Senators went in order to finish the afternoon with a 3-for-15 mark and 14 total LOB, with 11 walks drawn (one intentional). The loss went to Todd Peterson.
Wilmington vs. Aberdeen – PPD
Aberdeen waited until well past 6pm to make the call to postpone. On social media, where commenters noted that the lack of communication forced fans to show up to find this out. Where they also announced a Saturday doubleheader to make this one up. One can only hope that this comes to fruition. Also seen on social media: Travis Sykora will make his next start for Wilmington.
Carolina vs. Frdericksburg – PPD
Rain washed out Game Two of the series between the Mudcats and the FredNats. Ostensibly, with rain forecast for today, they’ll shoot to make this up tomorrow night.
FCL Mets 8 FCL Nationals 0
• J. Feliz (L, 0-1) 4⅔ IP, 8H, 5R, 4ER, 0BB, 6K, 3E, PO @ 2B
• Colon 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Tavarez 2-3
The FCL Nationals were shut out, 8-0 on two hits. Jose Feliz gave up five runs (four earned) on eight hits and no walks and struck out six over four and 2/3rds. He was 1-for-4 with three errors on pickoffs. Feldi Tavarez singled and doubled while Enmanuel Ramirez and Elian Soto both walked once to account for the four (4) F-Nats baserunners.
Interesting that Lile was moved out of the leadoff spot to batting 3rd. He’s certainly earned it.
Another interesting development: now with Hassell gone, Lile started at CF, his 5th game there (compared to 12 in RF and 20 in LF). If Lile can play even decent CF, his path to the majors looks a lot more interesting.
I know I’m harping on about this, but I refuse to let Morales’ excellent season go under-noticed. After an ice cold start (probably because it was ice cold out), Morales is hitting .354 over his past 29 games with a triple slash of .354/.397/.584. Methinks after 106 games in Harrisburg, he’s up for a new challenge.
Paul and other Harrisburgers: how does his defense look at 3B? Is it solid? If so, how do we accommodate both him and House?
Boy is it nice to have these sort of problems: too many options at a position!
Yoyo does well at third, I can see either him or Brady traded for pitching. He seems more natural at third than he did at first, although he does well there. They are back home this week so we will see how he does, his bat has definetly come alive.
I like keeping both Yoyo and Brady. Neither one is a sure thing. Both are good hopes. I hope one of them makes it. And what if they both make it? That’s a good thing. Yoyo can play first base too and one of them can play second base as well. The Nats are not stacked enough at any of their positions to start trading potential starters.
Let me start by saying I fully agree. The Nats farm and major league team isn’t deep/talented enough to worry too much about how players will fit just yet. There is a near future Nats team that can accommodate both House and Morales.
But the risk is… the Baltimore Orioles. They’re sitting on elite prospects like Coby Mayo and Samuel Basallo, who have no realistic path to the majors (Westburg and Holliday occupy 2B and 3B long term, Mayo’s best positions, and Rutschman behind the plate, Basallo’s position), meanwhile the state of the pitching is abhorrent. If their GM had a bit more foresight, Mayo and Basallo would’ve been flipped for some major league pitching talent. While Basallo has maintained his value relatively well, Mayo’s has dropped quite significantly after poor showings in AAA and several stints in the majors.
For the Nats, I think this reckoning will come with the OF. If Crews can find more consistency and some of the prospects continue on their trajectory, we’re going to have some hard decisions regarding what to do with Young, Lile, Hassell and Call.
One last thing, interesting article on the Frederick stadium situation… could the Nats be interesting in getting out of the cavernous Wilmington stadium, to somewhere much closer to home?
The article mentions Harrisburg as a replacement due to the stadium condition, but at least with Harrisburg there’s a legacy there. Wilmington has always felt like a bad fit, and the Nats seem to even rush prospects through there for an odd reason. Crews skipped it altogether! Morales only played 18 games there, Wood only 42…
what article are you refering to? I can’t see Harrisburg being any thing other than AA
thanks for this pull.
it appears that A+ Ironbirds have the inside track to Frederick.
Hey Will, just curious, where did you see the article about moving Wilmington?
Also, the Nats keep having a first base problem so why not keep Morales there?
Hey Will,
Just curious, where did you see the article about Wilmington possibly moving?
Also, the Nats continue to have a first base problem so why not keep Morales there.
It’s linked above in Luke’s description: https://sports.yahoo.com/article/keys-ownership-eyes-affiliated-ball-035900093.html
To be clear, there’s no formal discussion about moving away from Harrisburg, but rather the guy tasked with finding Frederick a new MILB team speculated about Harrisburg being a potential place to steal the AA spot from the Nats, basically because he’s already saying he wants to limit the possibilities to 1) Orioles affiliates, 2) Nats affiliates.
“Baroni said his ownership group is considering many possible options for current affiliates to relocate to Frederick.
“I frankly felt like Delmarva [Shorebirds, the current A-Ball affiliate of the Orioles] had a great location. The Aberdeen IronBirds represented an option, as did Norfolk [Tides, the AAA affiliate of the Orioles],” he said. “And then it was also looking at the Harrisburg Senators [AA affiliate of the Nationals]. Their stadium is in need of major investment.””
But it shows me he’s not that knowledgeable because Wilmington would have been a much better example to give for a ton of reasons.
cross referencing other articles reveals Baroni bought the Ironbirds last October. hence my speculation above
I think Will was speculating (projecting?) that perhaps Wilmington could get bought/sold, too. As I’ve noted before, Wilmington is owned by a group that owns four other teams and is very clearly being run as cheaply (poorly) as possible in hopes that Diamond Baseball Holdings (DBH) makes them an offer. Aberdeen is/was run the same way and now we can probably read the tea leaves that they’ll do the same until they get permission to relocate. While generally, I am not a fan of private equity, it’s hard to deny that things will probably improve because DBH tends to roll out what’s worked elsewhere and leverage economies of scale. It’ll be more generic/boring, but it won’t HS kids and college sophomores muddling a professional baseball team.
I haven’t been impressed with the play of Morales at 3B. I was actually surprised they moved him from 1B. There are just plays he should make, but doesn’t. He has been hitting the ball the other way a lot. House is the better 3B.