{"id":14748,"date":"2018-05-04T11:08:56","date_gmt":"2018-05-04T15:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=14748"},"modified":"2018-05-05T08:05:47","modified_gmt":"2018-05-05T12:05:47","slug":"minor-league-staffs-one-month-check-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=14748","title":{"rendered":"Minor League Staffs &#8211; one month check-in"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_13116\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/vothaustin-nats-official-via-mlb.com_.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-13116\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13116\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13116\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/vothaustin-nats-official-via-mlb.com_-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"Voth has completely remade his career in less than a month. Photo mlb.com official\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/vothaustin-nats-official-via-mlb.com_-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/vothaustin-nats-official-via-mlb.com_.jpg 213w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-13116\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Voth has completely remade his career in less than a month. Photo mlb.com official<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I havn&#8217;t been doing regular check-ins with the minor league staffs for a few years, but I have always maintained little &#8220;cheat sheet&#8221; notes on the staffs of the levels day in\/day out (thanks in no small part to the daily work of\u00a0<strong>Luke Erickson<\/strong> over at <a href=\"https:\/\/nationalsprospects.com\/2018\/05\/fridays-news-notes-156\/\">Nationals Prospects<\/a> of course).<\/p>\n<p>It occurred to me, doing updates this week, that the four full season rotations have been about as stable as I can ever remember them this year.\u00a0 So I thought i&#8217;d do a quick swing through the four staffs, with quick notes on who has looked good or bad and what we may see in terms of movement going forward.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Syracuse<\/strong> <\/span>(stats link here:\u00a0http:\/\/web.milb.com\/milb\/stats\/stats.jsp?t=t_ibp&amp;cid=552&amp;stn=true&amp;sid=t552)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Opening day rotation:\u00a0Voth, Milone*, Fedde, EJackson, Vargas<\/li>\n<li>Current rotation:\u00a0Milone*, Voth, Fedde, EJackson, Vargas<\/li>\n<li>spot starts\/swingman: Simms, Goforth<\/li>\n<li>bullpen: Collins*, Cordero, CSmith, Miller, Adams, Valdez<\/li>\n<li>promotions: Torres, Gott, Suero<\/li>\n<li>up-and-back: Adams, Voth<\/li>\n<li>demotions: Long,<\/li>\n<li>dl\/restricted\/TIL: Barrett, Satterwhite<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Rotation thoughts<\/strong><\/span>: A month in and the only change we&#8217;ve seen to the AAA rotation was the flipping of\u00a0<strong>Milone<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>Voth<\/strong> thanks to Voth&#8217;s brief call-up earlier this week.\u00a0 Voth has absolutely re-made his career so far this year, going from possible &#8220;first man to be DFA&#8217;d&#8221; off the 40-man to a guy who is forcing his way into the conversation the next time the Nats need a starter.\u00a0 For May he&#8217;s posted a 0.76 ERA, a 0.68 WHIP, has a 30\/3 K\/BB ratio in 23 innings and has given up just 13 hits.\u00a0 Man, is he found gold for a team who has traded away an awful lot of pitching prospects over the past couple of seasons?<\/p>\n<p>The veteran insurance policies\u00a0<strong>Jackson<\/strong> and Milone are both pitching about as I&#8217;d expect them to be: Milone slightly better, with better base-runner control, Jackson with more wildness and worse stats.\u00a0 \u00a0<strong>Erick Fedde<\/strong> has not been either good or bad, giving up a hit an inning and maintaining a 4-1 K-BB ratio but not showing any real dominance.\u00a0 My guess is that he&#8217;ll be sticking in AAA for a while.<\/p>\n<p>The last guy in the rotation may be the most interesting:\u00a0<strong>Cesar Vargas<\/strong> was a low-key spring MLFA signing after bouncing around San Diego&#8217;s system last year.\u00a0 He&#8217;s come out in 2018 looking serviceable and might be putting himself ahead of the veterans in the pecking order.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Bullpen thoughts<\/strong><\/span>:\u00a0<strong>John Simms<\/strong> has looked great in a long-man role.\u00a0 He&#8217;s quietly been serviceable at every level in his journey upwards and you have to wonder if he&#8217;ll eventually push for a 9\/1 call up.\u00a0 Most of the rest of the bullpen is too SSS to make real judgements, though we have seen three relievers get pushed to the majors right now (<strong>Torres, Gott, Suero<\/strong>) and fourth who was up and is now in AAA (<strong>Adams<\/strong>).\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Cordero<\/strong> still shows the same issues that have plagued him for a while; he&#8217;s got 16\/8 K\/BB in 11 innings.\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Barrett\u00a0<\/strong>remains\u00a0 with the system and we hope he can get back to his former self; he&#8217;d certainly help out at the MLB level.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Who is making a push for promotion<\/strong><\/span>?\u00a0 Voth<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Who is in jeopardy of a demotion (or worse):<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<strong>Smith, Cordero<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Harrisburg<\/strong><\/span> (stats =\u00a0http:\/\/www.milb.com\/milb\/stats\/stats.jsp?t=t_ibp&amp;did=milb&amp;cid=547)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Opening day rotation:\u00a0Dragmire, JRodriguez, Darnell*,\u00a0 LReyes, Estevez<\/li>\n<li>Current Rotation: Dragmire, JRodriguez, Long, LReyes, Estevez<\/li>\n<li>spot starts\/swingman: AWilliams,\u00a0Darnell*<\/li>\n<li>bullpen: Fleck, Guillon*, BHarper*, RMendez, Self,\u00a0 Ames<\/li>\n<li>promotions: Valdez<\/li>\n<li>dl\/restricted: Brinley, Bacus<\/li>\n<li>Missing from 2017: NLee*<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Rotation thoughts<\/strong><\/span>: The only substantive change in the rotation from the first pass through was to replace\u00a0<strong>Darnell<\/strong> with Long.\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Dragmire<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>Jefry Rodriguez<\/strong>\u00a0 have both excelled thus far, though Rodriguez&#8217;s stats look more like a guy who might be pressing for promotion (more Ks, fewer hits).\u00a0 Dragmire is showing more of what he displayed last year at AA and he may need the additional challenge of AAA soon.\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Estevez<\/strong> and <strong>Reyes\u00a0<\/strong>are not faring as well thus far, with elevated ERAs and WHIPs.\u00a0 And Long, upon his demotion from AAA, has been poor in his three AA starts, with just 6 punch-outs and a 1.85 WHIP in 13 innings.\u00a0\u00a0Rodriguez seems like the first starter in line for promotion.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Bullpen thoughts<\/strong><\/span>:\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Austen Williams<\/strong> has looked great since getting moved out of the rotation.\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Kaleb Fleck<\/strong> has some interesting stats: he&#8217;s got an 18\/1 K\/BB ratio in 10 innings but has an ugly 5.91 ERA (I&#8217;m sure his FIP is like 3 points lower).\u00a0\u00a0Fleck is too good for AA; he spent all last\u00a0 year in AAA and isn&#8217;t proving anything here.\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Bryan Harper<\/strong>&#8216;s return from injury is going ok .. he&#8217;s got nearly a 2.00 WHIP though.\u00a0 Long serving Nats farmhand\u00a0<strong>Dakota Bacus<\/strong> got shelled in four appearances and currently sits on the D\/L; he had excellent numbers in 2017 but is getting a bit long in the tooth for AA and I wonder if he&#8217;s running out of time.\u00a0 One big name still sits in XST:\u00a0<strong>Nick Lee<\/strong>, who looked promising before injuries derailed his progress.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Who is making a push for promotion<\/strong><\/span>?\u00a0 \u00a0Fleck, JRodriguez, AWilliams<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Who is in jeopardy of a demotion (or worse):\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Bacus<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Potomac<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>(stats link:\u00a0http:\/\/www.milb.com\/milb\/stats\/stats.jsp?t=t_ibp&amp;did=milb&amp;cid=436)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>opening day rotation:\u00a0Crownover*, Sharp, Baez, Mapes, Crowe<\/li>\n<li>starters: Crownover*, Sharp, Baez, ?, Crowe<\/li>\n<li>spot starts\/swingmen: Pantoja, Howard*, Guilbeau*, McGowin<\/li>\n<li>bullpen: JMills*, Bourque, Klobosits, RPena, Peterson, Rivera<\/li>\n<li>demotions: Fuentes<\/li>\n<li>dl\/restricted: Borne*, Mapes<\/li>\n<li>Missing: Romero*<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Rotation thoughts<\/strong><\/span>:\u00a0The only change to the opening day rotation literally happened yesterday, with\u00a0<strong>Mapes<\/strong> dropping to the D\/L and (likely)\u00a0<strong> McGowin<\/strong> (freshly taken off the AA D\/L and demoted to Potomac) likely to take his place.\u00a0 Mapes has the best starter ERA &#8230; but the worst WHIP.\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Crownover<\/strong> may have the nicest looking stat line, with a nifty 28\/4 K\/BB ratio and solid peripherals.\u00a0\u00a0Perhaps the most important high-A arm may be\u00a0<strong>Wil Crowe<\/strong> and so far he&#8217;s more than handling high-A; the 2017 2nd rounder\u00a0 has a great whip, good ratios and is looking like an excellent draft pick.\u00a0 \u00a0<strong>Baez<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>Sharp<\/strong> fill out the rest of the rotation; both showing mid 4 ERAs and not really being good enough or bad enough to comment on thus far.\u00a0\u00a0The one big notable missing name here is\u00a0<strong>Seth Romero<\/strong>, who should be featuring in this rotation as we speak but instead apparently still sits not at XST but at home in Houston.\u00a0 Its hard to prove the &#8220;i told you so&#8221; guys wrong when it literally took less than a season for his well-publicized maturity issues to come to the forefront.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Bullpen thoughts<\/strong><\/span>:\u00a0 Some good and some bad in the bullpen;\u00a0<strong>Rivera\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0<strong>Howard<\/strong> have gotten dinged so far, while\u00a0<strong>Bourque, Mills\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0<strong>Pantoja<\/strong> look solid.\u00a0 Bourque in particular now boasts a 22\/4 K\/BB ratio in 12 relief innings; like that ratio.\u00a0 36th rounder\u00a0<strong>Klobosits<\/strong> still looking solid; how exactly was he still around that late in the draft if he&#8217;s already succeeding in high-A?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Who is making a push for promotion<\/strong><\/span>?\u00a0 Bourque<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Who is in jeopardy of a demotion (or worse):\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Rivera perhaps<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Hagerstown<\/strong> <\/span>(stats =\u00a0http:\/\/www.milb.com\/milb\/stats\/stats.jsp?t=t_ibp&amp;did=milb&amp;cid=563<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Opening day rotation: BHill\/Braymer*, Raquet*\/Acevedo, Tetreault\/Bogucki, Alastre\/Troop*, Stoeckinger*\/Johnston<\/li>\n<li>Current rotation: Troop*, Raquet*, Acevedo, Tetreault, Alastre, Stoeckinger*<\/li>\n<li>spot starts\/swingman: Johnston, Bogucki, Held, Braymer*<\/li>\n<li>bullpen: McKinney, Brasher, Fuentes<\/li>\n<li>promotions: Guilbeau*<\/li>\n<li>dl\/restricted: Howell, BHill<\/li>\n<li>Cut\/Released\/FA from 2017: Engelbrekt (retired)<\/li>\n<li>missing from 2017\/XST: YRamirez*, DeRosier, CPena, Simonds, Barnett*, Morse, Dickey, WDavis,<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Rotation thoughts<\/strong><\/span>:\u00a0It was clear to this observer that the first few turns through the rotation were in the &#8220;tandem starter&#8221; configuration, with each of the names in the &#8220;opening rotation&#8221; throwing roughly 3-4 innings each.\u00a0 That has now settled into the current 6-man rotation, all of which now seem to be getting the lion&#8217;s share of the innings each time through.\u00a0 \u00a0Of the &#8220;starters,&#8221; only really\u00a0<strong>Raquet<\/strong> has acquitted himself well, though i&#8217;m concerned about the lack of swing and miss in his game (19\/8 K\/BB ratio in 27 innings supporting a 2.28 ERA and a 1.05 whip).\u00a0 The rest of the starters are struggling:\u00a0<strong>Stoeckinger<\/strong> hasn&#8217;t walked a soul yet in 24 innings &#8230; .but has given up 37\u00a0 hits for an ugly 7.50 ERA.\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Tetreault, Alastre<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>Acevedo\u00a0<\/strong> each have ERAs north of 7.00.\u00a0 \u00a0<strong>Troop<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>Hill<\/strong> (both 2017 top-10 round draftees) have been less bad but have room for improvement.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;tandem&#8221; starters have been a different story though.\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Bogucki<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>Braymer<\/strong> each have been solid, with Braymer sporting a 23\/2 K\/BB ratio and a 0.81 WHIP and Bogucki sporting a 20\/3 K\/BB ratio.\u00a0 I wonder how long it&#8217;ll be before these guys become the &#8220;starters&#8221; instead of the &#8220;finishers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Bullpen thoughts<\/strong><\/span>: There&#8217;s really only a couple of real &#8220;relievers&#8221; in Low-A, but one of them has been quite solid.\u00a0\u00a0<strong>McKinney<\/strong> has a 14\/1 K\/BB ratio in just 8 2\/3 innings and has yet to give up an earned run.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s still a slew of guys technically in &#8220;XST&#8221; or assigned to the Short-A roster who could fill in here, most of whom have prior Low-A experience and could contribute.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Who is making a push for promotion<\/strong><\/span>?\u00a0 \u00a0Braymer, Bogucki, McKinney<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Who is in jeopardy of a demotion (or worse):\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Acevedo, Alastre<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s a quick run through the systems.\u00a0 Did anyone want to point out someone in particular who they think needs to be talked about?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I havn&#8217;t been doing regular check-ins with the minor league staffs for a few years, but I have always maintained little &#8220;cheat sheet&#8221; notes on the staffs of the levels day in\/day out (thanks in no small part to the daily work of\u00a0Luke Erickson over at Nationals Prospects of course). It occurred to me, doing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,13],"tags":[916,3328,3610,2469,3379,1815,3333,3753,3606,945,3037,2325,3751,3752,2005,3755,253,2425,3647,3215,3626,2924,1876,3643,3390,3028,1967,3732,2885,3754,3745,2138,2823,3387,1873,3604,3565,3335,3756,3617,34,3067,2936,1877,3588,918],"class_list":["post-14748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-minorspitching","category-minorleaguerotationreviews","tag-aaron-barrett","tag-aj-bogucki","tag-alex-troop","tag-austen-williams","tag-austin-adams","tag-austin-voth","tag-ben-braymer","tag-brady-dragmire","tag-brigham-hill","tag-bryan-harper","tag-carlos-acevedo","tag-carlos-torres","tag-cesar-vargas","tag-chris-smith","tag-dakota-bacus","tag-dustin-mcgowin","tag-edwin-jackson","tag-erick-fedde","tag-gabe-klobosits","tag-hayden-howard","tag-jackson-stoeckinger","tag-james-bourque","tag-jefry-rodriguez","tag-jeremy-mckinney","tag-jimmy-cordero","tag-joan-baez","tag-john-simms","tag-jordan-mills","tag-jorge-pantoja","tag-kaleb-fleck","tag-logan-darnell","tag-luis-reyes","tag-mariano-rivera-jr","tag-matthew-crownover","tag-nick-lee","tag-nick-raquet","tag-seth-romero","tag-sterling-sharp","tag-tetreau","tag-tomas-alastre","tag-tommy-milone","tag-trevor-gott","tag-tyler-mapes","tag-wander-suero","tag-wil-crowe","tag-wirkin-estevez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14748"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14753,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14748\/revisions\/14753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}