Monday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rochester | Lost, 11-6 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Harrisburg | Won, 8-6 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Wilmington | Lost, 2-0 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Fredericksburg | Won, 6-2 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| FCL Nationals | OFF DAY | vs. FCL Marins, 12pm | |
| DSL Nationals | OFFSEASON | vs. DSL Angels, 11am |
Syracuse 11 Rochester 6
• Lara (L, 2-3) 6IP, 7H, 8R, 8ER, 2BB, 1K, 3HR
• Shuman 1IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 0K
• House 2-4, 2R, 2HR, 2RBI
• Weimer 1-2, R, 2BB, 2K
• Glasser 1-4, R, 2B(5), RBI
The Mets took Andry Lara deep three times to build an 8-1 lead en route to an 11-6 win over Rochester. Lara gave up seven hits and two walks while striking out one (1) over six innings. Brady House hit a pair of solo HRs while Joey Weimer reached base three times on a single and two walks to lead the Red Wings offense.
Harrisburg 8 Reading 6
• Lyon 2⅔ IP, 8H, 3R, 3ER, 1BB, 4K
• Grissom ⅓ IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K, 2-0 IR-S
• Van Scoyoc (H, 1) 5IP, 4H, 3R, 3ER, 0BB, 7K, HR
• Mejia (SV, 6) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• M. Romero 3-4, 2R, 2B, 3RBI, HBP
• Lawson 2-4, R, 2-2B(5), RBI
• Wallace 2-5, 2R, 2B, RBI
Harrisburg took their third straight game from Reading with an 8-6 decision and a 4-2 series win. Isaac Lyon was knocked from the box with two out in the 3rd after three runs, eight hits, and a walk. Marquis Grissom Jr. struck out the only batter he faced and stranded two, which was enough to earn the win. Connor Van Scoyoc blanked the Fightins for four before faltering in the 8th for for the hold. Erick Mejia pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his sixth save. Max Romero singled twice, doubled once, and drove in three while (the law firm of) Cortland Lawson doubled twice and drove in a run to power the Senators offense.
Brooklyn 2 Wilmington 0
• Meckley (L, 0-2) 5IP, 3H, 1R, 1ER, 2BB, 5K, HR
• B. Stuart 1IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 1K
• Y. Cabrera 1-2, 2BB
• Green 1-3, BB, 2K
Five Cyclones pitchers combined to shut out the Blue Rocks on four hits to take the game, 2-0. It was the second shutout of the series. Xander Meckley lost for the second time in as many A+ starts with five innings of one-run ball on three hits, two walks, and five whiffs. Caleb Farmer doubled while Yeremy Cabrera, Elijah Green, and Ethan Petry had singles. Wilmington drew five walks, struck out 12 times, and went 0-for-5 with RISP, and left on eight baserunners.
Fredericksburg 6 Delmarva 2
• Fischer (W, 3-0) 6IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 7K
• Otanez 1IP, 1H, 0R, 2BB, 1K
• Ramirez 2-3, R, BB, E
• Jones 2-4, 2R,
• D. Tejeda 1-3, R, BB, RBI, SB
With a four-run 2nd and six shutout innings from Carson Fischer, Fredericksburg extended its latest win streak to five with a 6-2 decision over Delmarva. Fischer gave up two hits, no walks, and struck out seven as he won his third game and notched his second quality start. Rafael Ramirez Jr. reachedd base three times on a walk and two singles while Sir Jamison Jones singled twice and scored twice to lead the FredNats attack.
FCL Nationals, 10-8, 2nd FCL East, 4GB
The F-Nats won once in four games to fall to four games behind the F-Astros in the FCL East. With two games against their co-tenants, the team leaves West Palm Beach for only one of its five games this week – a trip to Port St. Lucie to visit the F-Mets on Wednesday.
It’s incredible how good Fredericksburg have been this season. They currently have a .725 win percentage!! They’re 11 games ahead of 2nd place… and it’s not undeserved. Their pythag has them sitting at “merely” two games worse than their current record. But I wonder how much of this is driven by having an older than average roster. Some guys clearly too old for the level are carrying a lot of the load. For example, their 3 pitchers yesterday were 23, 24 and 24, with league average being just under 22 for arms, and were aided by 23 year old Jacob Walsh and soon-to-be 23 year old Jack Moroknek on offense, when the average bat is just a smidge over 20 years old…
Sir Jamison Jones, though, isn’t old for the level, at age 20. He had a loud start to the season, hitting 3 HR in his 4th game of the season, but since then he went through a loooong slump going 5 for his next 56 in 17 games. Ouch. But he seems to have broken out of that slump, with a modest 4 game hit streak, going 5 for 15 with 2 HR. Hope he can sustain this.
An interesting development I hadn’t noticed until now: Cayden Wallace has been playing a lot of SS recently. 9 of his last 10 games have been there, which is… unexpected, to put it mildly. As best I can tell, Wallace never played SS before in his career! College or the minors. Paul, LM and other Harrisburgers: has Wallace looked comfortable there? What’s the story there? I’m having trouble making sense of it. For one, with King’s emergence, moving Wallace to SS only blocks his upward movement, though it does add some versatility. 2B is arguably our greatest positional need at the moment in DC and most levels, so it seems strange to move Wallace off 2B, while we have an ever growing bevy of SS (Wallace playing at SS would also complicate an eventual Fitz-Gerald promotion). There’s also no playing time pressure in Harrisburg. Pichardo, Marcus Brown and Cortland Lawson are his competition for playing time at 2B/3B. Not exactly blue chip prospects…
I bring it up because Wallace doesn’t have anything more to prove in AA. He’s approaching his 250th game in AA. The test that still remains is whether he can hit AAA pitching, a level he’s incredibly never played at yet. He’d have to move back to 2B, and unseat Glasser. But Glasser is even more positionally versatile than Wallace, and can play almost anywhere.
Romero actually hit two HRs and a double yesterday for Sens.
As for Wallace playing SS, that was a surprise. Once King was promoted I thought Marcus Brown would be playing there every day. Wallace has been fine. I’ll pay closer attention this week.