Monday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Lost, 6-1; Won, 9-4 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 5-4 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Wilmington | Won, 5-2 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Frdericksburg | Won, 7-0 | OFF DAY | N/A |
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 6 Rochester 1
• Alvarez (L, 2-1) 4⅓ IP, 7H, 5R, 4ER, 2BB, 2K, HR, E(2)
• Penrod 1⅔ IP, 3H, 1R, 1ER, 2BB, 0K, WP, 2-1 IR-S
• Hassell 2-3, R, 2B, SB
• Glasser 2-3, RBI
Rochester led this but for one half-inning as the RailRiders scored the last six runs without an answer for a 6-1 win. Andrew Alvarez lost for the first time, giving up five runs on seven hits (one HR) and two walks over four and a 1/3rd innings. He struck out two. Robert Hassell doubled and scored ahead of Phillip Glasser’s two-bagger in the 2nd inning. Both added a single later on as did Christian “Hey It’s” Franklin. The rest of the lineup went 0-for-17 with two walks.
Rochester 9 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 4
• Ogasawara 3⅔ IP, 3H, 0R, 1BB, 3K
• Shuman (W, 3-0) 1IP, 2H, 2R, 2ER, 1BB, 1K, 2-0 IR-S
• Hassell 3-4, R, 2B(5), 3RBI
• Ortiz 2-2, 3R, 2BB, 2B
• Pinckney 2-4, 2R, 2B, HR, 3RBI
In the second game, the Red Wings scored in each of the first four innings to build a 7-0 lead and kept the RailRiders off track for a 9-4 win to split the doubleheader. Shinnosuke Ogasawara got 11 outs on 45 pitches as he allowed three hits and a walk while striking out three. Seth Shuman stranded two while getting out of the 4th. He was awarded the win despite coughing up two runs on two hits and a walk in the 5th. Andrew Pinckney doubled, homered, and drove in three as did Robert Hassell with two singles and a double to lead the the Rochester offense. Roster moves: RHPs Andre Granillo, Paxton Schultz recalled to Washington; 1B Andrés Chapparro recalled to/optioned from Washington.
Altoona 5 Harrisburg 4
• Luckham 5IP, 7H, 4R, 3ER, 1BB, 4K, HR, E
• Gaston (L, 1-1) 1⅓ IP, 3H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 1K
• King 2-4, 3R, BB, 3B, HR, RBI
• Thomas 2-4, 2B, RBI
Altoona’s four-run 3rd erased an early 3-0 Harrisburg lead. Seaver King went oppo-boppo for his fourth HR to tie it at 4-4, but back-to-back doubles off losing pitcher Sandy Gaston put the Curve up 5-4. The Senators got runners as far as second and third with two out but Cayden Wallace whiffed to end it for a 5-4 loss. Kyle Luckham wobbled through five innings with four runs allowed on seven hits (one HR). He walked one and struck out four. King anlso walked and tripled while Johnathan Thomas singled, doubled, and drove in a run to lead the Harrisburg offense.
Wilmington 5 Frederick 2
• Lyon 3IP, 0H, 0R, 2BB, 2K
• Hill (W, 1-0) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 1K
• Bruni (H, 1) 3⅓ IP, 3H, 2R, 2ER, 1BB, 4K
• R. Cruz 2-4, R, BB, HR, 2RBI
• Farmer 2-3, R, BB, 2B, 2RBI
• Nunez 2-4, R
Wilmington no-hit Frederick for five and a 1/3rd innings but settled for a 5-2 win in the series finale. Isaac Lyon walked two and struck out three over three innings in his second High-A start. Brady Hill was awarded the win for pitching a scoreless bottom of the 4th after the Blue Rocks scored all five of their runs in the top of the 4th. Ronny Cruz walked, singled, and homere while Caleb Farmer walked, singled, and doubled to lead Wilmington’s 11-hit parade.
• Portorreal 2IP, 0H, 0R, 3BB, 0K
• Sullivan (W, 1-0) 3IP, 1H, 0R, 3BB, 1K
• Moroknek 2-3, BB, 15G hit streak
• Walsh 2-5, R, 2B, 2RBI
• James 1-4, R, BB, HR, 3RBI, E
Five FredNats pitchers combined to shut out the RidgeYaks, 7-0 on three hits. Leuris Portorreal went the first two frames, walking three but allowing no hits. Liam Sullivan lost the no-no with a single in the 3rd but said yes-yes to keeping the donut shop open as he put up three of ’em and walked three while fanning one. Jack Moroknek singled twice and walked once to extend his hit streak to 15 and his on-base string to 16 while Coy James went yard for the fourth time to power the Fredericksburg offense.
The AAA-DC roster moves are interesting, to put it nicely. It seems that there could be some better alignment between the Nats front office and the Red Wings’ coaching staff. I say this because the promotion of Granillo makes no sense on a performance level, but only on a usage level. Granillo has been terrible since getting demoted, with a 18 ERA in 5 games, where he’s just getting rocked by opposing batters (3 HR allowed in 5 IP). Meanwhile, Ribalta has been very good (2.25 ERA in 9 G). They’re also both RHPs, so there’s no platoon advantage here either. The difference is Ribalta pitched yesterday and in 3 of the past 5 games, whereas Granillo has only thrown once in the past 5 games (and 4 days ago at that). So we get a perverse outcome where the Nationals field a worse team so that Rochester can field a better team. I hope they can work out a better way to handle the regular rotating door of relievers as the season goes on, and that LeCroy, totally understandably leaning on his best relievers, can do that with some sort of alignment with the Nats’ plans as well. This isn’t something LeCroy would have dealt with in years past.
The Rochester shuttle ( or gas money provided to the call up with an all night drive south – I know airlines and their tendencies !)
Reminds me of the heavy useage the Yankees partnered with Columbus Clippers ( ring your bell !).
The Gabr Paul years .
We recall how Thurman Munson thought he could fly a plane).
How often do I make fun of the Stanford Cardinal ( RIP Mark Marquess ) pitching assembly line stud churn out only ending up in nashing of teeth years later of expectations not met
I’m going to go back into Expo years
Bound baby Stanford arms : Stan Spencer and Justin Wayne
A great comparison to Dylan Crews ( Golden Spikes winner ) in Expo years is Florida Stsre Seminole Mike Fuentes .
Aluminum bats to wooden bats transitions really stalls some hitters approach
This is not being negative or rhubarbing Snarkles like Luke
Did anyone ever think player Chad Tracy would evolve into MLB manager ??
Brenner Cox takes the mound career path now in FCL
Nats sign a purdue boilermaker alum from Trumball , Texas
I’m getting increasingly worried about Dylan Crews. He now has a .652 OPS, and is 1 for his last 23… if the demotion was supposed to be a wake call, Crews hit the snooze button.
Meanwhile, Ronny Cruz… words fail to describe how good he’s been. He got an extremely aggressive early promotion to Wilmington, and has somehow been even better there with a 1.117 OPS. He’s been fortunate to only play away from home so far, but I’m curious to see what effect the Wilmington stadium will have on his – so far – prolific power. He’ll get that chance on Tuesday.
I share your concern. watching Crews extensively I cannot detect any change in his technique. you’d think that something might be tweaked in order to generate some improvement.
good to see Seaver King drawing walks at at 17% clip. while his triple probably should have been a lineout it was still smoked to right, as was his homerun.
@Will: remember that just because we can’t think of a good reason for [x] doesn’t mean that there isn’t one. The Nats’ late discovery of the AAA shuttle used by many MLB teams is a sign of progress to me. YMMV
I hadn’t seen Crews’ name lately in Luke’s summaries so I checked out the box scores for yesterday’s DH and saw 0-8 with average at .222. Has the demotion cost his confidence or is he just in a rut right now?
Dylan Crews now has over 1000 professional plate appearances.
Thinking of him as the #2 oveall pick in the 2023 draft is pointless now. There is a big enough sample size for Crews to be judged on his production (or lack of production) in his 3 seasons as a pro. He is a mediocre defensive outfielder with limited pop, and slightly above average wheels. His best tool is his hit tool, and not sure how elite that tool really is. Never understood the Crews’ hype as his tools scream Lane Thomas, with slightly less swing and miss, but not as good of an arm.
I’d like to know why everyone in baseball thought Crews was such a can’t-miss prospect. It’s not like Rizzo said “oh, that’s my guy and you’re all missing what I see” — people were surprised when Pittsburgh passed on him for Skenes, and yet he’s really disappointed here.
Maybe Scott Boras told him to dog it in Rochester so he could get released and sign with the Phillies as a free agent and land a fat deal to be their cornerstone.
There’s an interesting thread in the recent FanGraphs Nats prospects list on exactly where Crews’ overratedness stems from. Apparently there’s rumors of some creative tampering with the bats that could artificially inflate the already inflated metal bat numbers, as well as generally sub-standard stat-keeping in college.
Still, Crews was hyped as a generational talent. And not in an Elijah Green, “if-all-the-pieces-fall-into-place-in-exactly-the-right-way” sort of way. Crews was considered extremely polished, and essentially big-league ready, even more so than Wyatt Langford and Paul Skenes. This sort of thing can’t be explained away by some metal bat corking, or whatever you do to make a metal bat work for you better. It was his hit tool that made him elite, not his power, like Langford. There’s already 9 guys taken in the 1st round in 2023, who have generated (significantly) more value than Crews, and several more highly likely to pass him (Clark, Jenkins and Emerson are all top 10 overall prospects from that same 1st round) unless things turn around quickly. Fixing Crews is pretty easily the biggest single task for the new player development team.