2008 Following the Minor League Teams

[spidernat]

Check out this line from one of our youngsters (18 allegedly) in the DSL:

PEREZ, EURY        15 G   48 H  19 R  21 H  1 2B 1 3B 4 HR  15 RBI   9 BB   5 K  10 SB .438 AVG .548 OBP      

then again there is this kid there impersonating Mike O'Connor:


ALMONTE, RAUDY            0 W 3 L  28.71 ERA .379 OBP  5.1 IP 11 H  17 R  17 ER  11 BB  7  K

What about this guy's pitching line:

MOJICA, FRANCISCO         2 W  0 L  2.70 ERA .179 OBP  10.0 IP  7 H  3 R  3 ER  0 BB 12 K

[JMUalumni]

Just saw on BA and NFA that the Clippers could be looking at returning to New Orleans next summer, as their contract is running out with Columbus at the end of this season.  NFA reports that it is down to New Orleans, Buffalo, Syracuse, and Columbus.  The likely pairings are Columbus-Indians, Syracuse-Mets, Buffalo-Toronto, New Orleans-Nats.  I never head out towards Columbus, so this will not really effect me, but I do have a bunch of family outside of N'Orleans and would probably be able to catch them if they moved down there.

[spidernat]

Buffalo would be a good location for AZ. He would be able to catch a few games every season. Of course if that were to happen he could start rooting for Dukes to be demoted to AAA in order to have Dukes nearer. 

[PANatsFan]

Just saw on BA and NFA that the Clippers could be looking at returning to New Orleans next summer, as their contract is running out with Columbus at the end of this season.  NFA reports that it is down to New Orleans, Buffalo, Syracuse, and Columbus.  The likely pairings are Columbus-Indians, Syracuse-Mets, Buffalo-Toronto, New Orleans-Nats.  I never head out towards Columbus, so this will not really effect me, but I do have a bunch of family outside of N'Orleans and would probably be able to catch them if they moved down there.

You mean the Nats affiliation would move to NO? The Clippers belong in Columbus.

This makes little sense, as they are trying for regional consolidation. Buffalo, Syracuse, NO are all farther away. Richmond is out of course. Also Columbus has a brand new stadium.

[JMUalumni]

Buffalo would be a good location for AZ. He would be able to catch a few games every season. Of course if that were to happen he could start rooting for Dukes to be demoted to AAA in order to have Dukes nearer. 

I havent been here that long, but Ive seen enough where that one got me  .

You mean the Nats affiliation would move to NO? The Clippers belong in Columbus.

This makes little sense, as they are trying for regional consolidation. Buffalo, Syracuse, NO are all farther away. Richmond is out of course. Also Columbus has a brand new stadium.

Yeah thats what I meant to write.  I know it does not make much sense, but there are only four affliations right now that do not have contracts for 2009 (Columbus, Buffalo, Syracuse, New Orleans), so it will have to be one of those four.  From what I have read, the Indians look to be closing in on the Columbus contract for 2009 and the Mets are close on Syracuse.  That leaves Buffalo and New Orleans.  You are right too that they are going for regional considerations, that is probably why Toronto will get Buffalo, leaving us as the odd men out with NO.

[PANatsFan]

I havent been here that long, but Ive seen enough where that one got me  .
Yeah thats what I meant to write.  I know it does not make much sense, but there are only four affliations right now that do not have contracts for 2009 (Columbus, Buffalo, Syracuse, New Orleans), so it will have to be one of those four.  From what I have read, the Indians look to be closing in on the Columbus contract for 2009 and the Mets are close on Syracuse.  That leaves Buffalo and New Orleans.  You are right too that they are going for regional considerations, that is probably why Toronto will get Buffalo, leaving us as the odd men out with NO.

Nice reporting. How are we the odd ones out again. The Lerners can certainly outbid the Indians, but I can see how they want a regional tie in. Would be nice to sign with a AAA team we could move, like Philly did with Ottowa, but moving NO would not be popular. Syracuse could be moved to say Fredricksburg (assuming the home plate - to -home plate distance rules aren't violated) or Annapolis.

[ronnynat]

Here's the article:

And Then There Were Four

Baseball America has the update on Player Development Contracts (PDCs).

"The Phillies pulled off a two-for-one by extending through 2010 relationships with Triple-A Lehigh Valley (International League) and Double-A Reading (Eastern)."

The sweepstakes for the 2009 home of the Washington Nationals is likely down to four candidates:

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE (expiring after 2008)

    * Buffalo Bisons - Indians
    * Columbus Clippers - Nationals
    * Syracuse Chiefs - Blue Jays

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE (expiring after 2008)

    * Albuquerque Isotopes - Marlins
    * Las Vegas 51s - Dodgers
    * Memphis Redbirds - Cardinals
    * New Orleans Zephyrs - Mets
    * Omaha Royals - Royals
    * Portland Beavers - Padres
    * Tacoma Rainiers - Mariners

Buffalo, Columbus, Syracuse and New Orleans is it. The other options are almost certain to re-up with their parent affiliate (yes, even St. Louis/Memphis who have rumored disagreements).

Columbus and the Indians are the rumored pairing with Syracuse opting for the Mets. That leaves Buffalo and New Orleans for the Nationals and the Blue Jays. Conventional wisdom says Buffalo would opt for the much closer Jays leaving the Nationals back in New Orleans after a two-year absence.

http://farmauthority.dcsportsnet.com/2008/06/18/and-then-there-were-four/

[JMUalumni]

Nice reporting. How are we the odd ones out again. The Lerners can certainly outbid the Indians, but I can see how they want a regional tie in. Would be nice to sign with a AAA team we could move, like Philly did with Ottowa, but moving NO would not be popular. Syracuse could be moved to say Fredricksburg (assuming the home plate - to -home plate distance rules aren't violated) or Annapolis.

I use the term "odd men out" only because of geographic considerations.  Here are the distances of travel from DC to the four locations (using google earth):
DC to Syracuse (373 miles)
DC to Buffalo (456 mi)
DC to New Orleans (1085 mi)
DC to Columbus (418 mi)

While
Toronto to Buffalo (101 mi)
New York to Syracuse (219 mi)
Cleveland to Columbus (142 mi)

We are more than 300 miles from any of the locations, while the other teams are no more than 219 miles from their geographical pairings.  I am just saying we are odd men out because while we may be closer to Columbus, we are not the closest (the same goes for the other two).  So we are the ones "stuck" with returning to New Orleans.  It would be nice if the Lerners could throw down and move the team closer to home (I wouldnt mind a stadium in NoVA somewhere) and maybe that will happen down the road.  But it is looking more and more apparent that Clippers ---> Zephyrs

[PANatsFan]

Here's the article:

http://farmauthority.dcsportsnet.com/2008/06/18/and-then-there-were-four/

At least Memphis is closer than NOLA. Could be worth a shot. Although, after Katrina, the Zephyrs were the first pro team to begin playing, as their facilities were magically untouched. A neat story.

[JMUalumni]

Although, after Katrina, the Zephyrs were the first pro team to begin playing, as their facilities were magically untouched. A neat story.

Really?  That is quite an amazing story, do you happen to know where you read that story or did you just hear about it?

[PANatsFan]

Really?  That is quite an amazing story, do you happen to know where you read that story or did you just hear about it?

http://www.gumbogroove.com/node/1205

Scroll down - Tulane played at the Zephyrs field because it was playable and the Tulane field was not. Still looking for the article on the Zephyrs themselves - a search on nationals.com returns nothing for Zephyrs.

http://www.usavolleyball.org/VolleyballNews/news.asp?id=1126  - small note that the Zephyrs had already been playing in 2006.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans_Zephyrs - search for Katrina

[tomterp]

Really?  That is quite an amazing story, do you happen to know where you read that story or did you just hear about it?

We were all following the story since the Zephyrs were our AAA club at the time.

[houston-nat]

AA Harrisburg was one-hit yesterday.

[JMUalumni]

Zech Zinicola just got promoted to Columbus to fill out the roster (replacing injured Tritian Crawford).  Zech was doing amazing at Potomac earlier this season, but he has not done quite as well with Harrisburg.  He has not been at AA that long and has struggled in a few of his games.  In his last 10 games he has pitched 12.2 innings, let up 16 H, 5 ER, and 10 BB while striking out 7 .  He is 3-2 with 6 saves in 15 games with the Senators.  I dont know about this move at this point, I like Zinicola a lot.  He is 23 years old and this move might pave the way to move up Wilkie or Beno from Potomac (to Harrisburg).  They may be getting desperate for relievers up at the major league level, as the bullpen has been faltering as of late.

http://senatorsbaseball.com/cgi-bin/dist/news.cgi?id=1213890153

[sportsfan882]

Lots of excitement going on in the Minor League system tonight.

Hagerstown

• GREAT start for Willems. He's starting to turn it around. Matter of fact, this is the longest start by a Nationals Minor (or Major) leaguer all year:
  
  8.2 IP 6 H 1 R 0 ER 1 BB 5 K 0 HR. He had 16 groundouts.
• Burgess the Beast went 2/2 including his 15th HR of the year. His AVG. is now up to .268 too. We may be seeing him in Potomac soon.

Potomac

• Detwiler made his first start since June 9th tonight in Winston-Salem: 5 IP 9 H 3 R 3 ER 0 BB 2 K 0 HR. So-so outing. He gave up a bunch of hits but he didn't walk any batters.
• Luis Atilano pitched 2 scoreless innings in relief. He now has a 1.13 ERA in 8 innings since being moved up to Potomac. He was the player we received from Atlanta back in 2006 for Daryle Ward. He was drafted by the Braves in the first round of the 2003 draft (35th overall) but prior to being traded here he had a severe elbow injury. Looks like he is finally beginning to fully recover so we may have a gem in the rough (he's only 23). He doesn't record a lot of strikeouts but he knows how to get outs.
  

Harrisburg

• Jordan Zimmermann had a solid start despite only going 5 innings: 5 IP 2 H 1 R 1 ER 1 BB 3 K 0 HR.
• Garrett Guzman went 2/4 with 2 HRs and 4 RBIs. He is really starting to hit albeit at the AA level. The dude couldn't hit a lick in Columbus but he's ripping in AA. Is there really that big of a difference from AA to AAA?
• Mike Daniel hit his 8th HR of the season. He has 3 HRs in his last 5 games.
• Bernardina had 2 hits and he also stole his 25th bag of the season. His AVG is up to .335.
• Carr pitched a scoreless 9th inning to preserve the 7-3 victory.

Columbus

• Good game for Balester against the Red Sox AAA team: 6 IP 6 H 2 R 2 ER 1 BB 5 K 1 HR (96 pitches, 61 strikes). He came out for the 7th inning but gave up back-to-back singles and was pulled.

[PANatsFan]

Lots of excitement going on in the Minor League system tonight.

Hagerstown

• GREAT start for Willems. He's starting to turn it around. Matter of fact, this is the longest start by a Nationals Minor (or Major) leaguer all year:
  
  8.2 IP 6 H 1 R 0 ER 1 BB 5 K 0 HR. He had 16 groundouts.
• Burgess the Beast went 2/2 including his 15th HR of the year. His AVG. is now up to .268 too. We may be seeing him in Potomac soon.

Potomac

• Detwiler made his first start since June 9th tonight in Winston-Salem: 5 IP 9 H 3 R 3 ER 0 BB 2 K 0 HR. So-so outing. He gave up a bunch of hits but he didn't walk any batters.
• Luis Atilano pitched 2 scoreless innings in relief. He now has a 1.13 ERA in 8 innings since being moved up to Potomac. He was the player we received from Atlanta back in 2006 for Daryle Ward. He was drafted by the Braves in the first round of the 2003 draft (35th overall) but prior to being traded here he had a severe elbow injury. Looks like he is finally beginning to fully recover so we may have a gem in the rough (he's only 23). He doesn't record a lot of strikeouts but he knows how to get outs.
  

Harrisburg

• Jordan Zimmermann had a solid start despite only going 5 innings: 5 IP 2 H 1 R 1 ER 1 BB 3 K 0 HR.
• Garrett Guzman went 2/4 with 2 HRs and 4 RBIs. He is really starting to hit albeit at the AA level. The dude couldn't hit a lick in Columbus but he's ripping in AA. Is there really that big of a difference from AA to AAA?
• Mike Daniel hit his 8th HR of the season. He has 3 HRs in his last 5 games.
• Bernardina had 2 hits and he also stole his 25th bag of the season. His AVG is up to .335.
• Carr pitched a scoreless 9th inning to preserve the 7-3 victory.

Columbus

• Good game for Balester against the Red Sox AAA team: 6 IP 6 H 2 R 2 ER 1 BB 5 K 1 HR (96 pitches, 61 strikes). He came out for the 7th inning but gave up back-to-back singles and was pulled.

I really dig Atilano and hope to see him continue to succeed. What a great trade so far.

[JMUalumni]

Thanks for the little report, saves me the time of wading through all the box scores and recaps on the generally horrible minor league team's websites (save Potomac). 

I am kind of confused of what they are doing with Atilano, because they called him up to Harrisburg a couple weeks ago to make a spot start (which he did well in), then used him to pitch an inning of relief.  They then swapped him with Alaniz and Carr, so he can pitch relief with Potomac.  Is he going to be a starter or a reliever.  I can understand that they probably do not want to overwork him too much, coming back from Tommy Johns and all, it just seems that he would be a good reliever and they should let him work as such.  I've never managed a minor league team, though, so I guess I shouldnt be second guessing.

Atilano joins Martin Beno (a 36th rounder) and Josh Wilkie, a guy that signed with us as an UFA out of GW on the recommendation of Jose Guillen in 2006.  It seems as though we have a bunch of good relievers in waiting and I could not be happier, because our major league relievers are making me sick at this point (excluding Rauch).  Great steals, all three of them, and if there is anything this organization is doing right it is stocking the farm systems with future product.

Hopefully Bernadina and Daniel will get a shot to show what they can do at the major league level later this season.  Both of these guys have been having great seasons and deserve a look against some big leaguers in late August or September.  Zimmerman has been cooling off a little since moving up to AA, but I do not doubt that he will slowly improve and soon enough he will be too much for those Eastern League players to handle.   Also, I am glad to see Willems is finally getting back on track, he has been having a somewhat disappointing season.  It is too early to expect so much from him, but he certainly showed what he is capable of doing tonight.

[JMUalumni]

Burgess the Beast went 2/2 including his 15th HR of the year. His AVG. is now up to .268 too. We may be seeing him in Potomac soon.

Garrett Guzman went 2/4 with 2 HRs and 4 RBIs. He is really starting to hit albeit at the AA level. The dude couldn't hit a lick in Columbus but he's ripping in AA. Is there really that big of a difference from AA to AAA?

I totally agree that Burgess will not be able to stay in Low-A much longer, even though he still is having issues with pitch selection/striking out.  The other night against Lakewood (6/11) he had 4 at-bats and 4 strikeouts.  Total for the season he has struck out in nearly 1/3 of his at-bats (83/246), so I think that is issue #1 with calling him up. [EDIT: to be fair to Burgess in the last 10 games he only has 8 Ks and if you excluded that awful 4K performance it would be 4 SOs in 9 games.... so he IS improving, at least recently].  I feel the difference between low-A and high-A is not too big and he will see pitchers that are somewhat similar (most are young, have only 2 good pitches).  So the difficulty will slightly increase, but he will still be able to work on his pitch selection.  Issue #2 is his position, unless he plays LF, he is not going to replace Edgardo Baez who is tearing it up (leads the league in RBIs I believe) and then above Baez at AA you have Guzman.  IMO, Guzman is an OK player with little potential or future with this club.  If they can find a way to move Guzman and promote Baez, then we have got a spot for Burgess.

[GMUTrkstar]

Yea I saw those results too. Our minors had a great night! Burgess coming off winning the HR derby jacks a homer his 1st AB. Then singles, I'm interested in knowing if those two walks we're intentional or he drew them! He's quickly became my favorite player in our system. Keep up the good work.

It was also great to see C. Willems pitch so deep into the game. 1 out away from a complete game. If he keeps this up he'll be in Class A-Advanced by the end of the year. Which is right where he's supposed to be at given his draft class. Marrero fast rise spoiled us. But it's way too early to be down on King, Willems, and Englund(who's having a nice start to his Vermont season.

J. Zimmerman, Ballester, Daniel, etc... deserve props as well for solid days.

Rookie Ball begins tommorow for the GCL Nats. I'll be looking out for E. Gonzalez, S. De Leon(catcher we signed out of Venezuela) and J. McGeary. Among others...plus J. Smoker should be pitching again sometime soon :-).

[spidernat]

Is that you in the picture JMU?

[houston-nat]

GREAT start for Willems. He's starting to turn it around. Matter of fact, this is the longest start by a Nationals Minor (or Major) leaguer all year:

8.2 IP 6 H 1 R 0 ER 1 BB 5 K 0 HR. He had 16 groundouts.

Jeezum crow!

[JMUalumni]

Is that you in the picture JMU?

No, I wish it was.  Its Kellen Kulbacki (40th overall pick out to Padres last year).  Figured I give him a little love even if he is a Padre now.

[JMUalumni]

Actually saw a National's prospect on BA's Hot Sheet,  I can not even remember the last time I saw them talk about one of our guys without it being negative.  If all goes according to "the plan," we should start to see more of our guys getting recognition on a regular basis.

No. 13 MICHAEL BURGESS, RF
NATIONALS
 Team: low Class A Hagerstown (South Atlantic)
Age: 19
Why He's Here: .586/.706/1.333 (7-for-12), 3 HR, 4 RBIs, 5 R, 2 BB, 2 SO
The Scoop: Winning a home run derby doesn't get you on the Hot Sheet on its own, but it did help Burgess' case in light of his playing an abbreviated schedule thanks to the Sally League's all-star break. After a two-week homerless drought, Burgess broke out last weekend, hitting two bombs in the final two games before the break. That rhythm continued during Tuesday's Home Run Derby at the SAL sll-star game, where Burgess put on an exhibition of one moonshot after another en route to claiming the title. It doesn't look like the derby had any ill effects on Burgess' swing either, because he hit another home run, his 15th of the season, on Thursday night.

[GMUTrkstar]

Two pitching performances of note today:

Justin Jones-Class A-Advanced:

8.2 IP 4 H 1 R 1 ER 3 BB 8 SO's 1.42 ERA

PJ. Dean Short Season Vermont(HS'er we drafted last year):

6.0 IP 1 H 1 R 1 ER 3 BB 6 SO's 1.50 ERA

[hammondsnats]

I've been hearing about this Justin Jones kid for a few years.  This kid seems legit and when he is back to full health (which seems like he is now) he'll be promoted.