Detwiler getting closer to bigs in AFL

Print

Detwiler getting closer to bigs in AFL
10/13/2008 9:00 AM ET
By Lisa Winston / MLB.com

Ross Detwiler spent the 2008 season pitching for the Potomac Nationals in Woodbridge, Va., just a 30-mile drive south down I-95 from Nationals Stadium in downtown Washington, D.C.
He's a little further away from our nation's capital right now with the Peoria Saguaros in the Arizona Fall League, but every pitch he throws there is getting him closer and closer to a return to the big leagues.
The club's No. 1 pick in the 2007 Draft out of Missouri State, Detwiler became the first member of his Draft class to get a taste of the Majors when he tossed one hitless inning with one strikeout for the Nationals against the Atlanta Braves on Sept. 7. He had made his pro debut earlier that summer between the Gulf Coast League and Potomac.
But as planned, he returned to the Minors full-time in 2008. He went 8-8 with a 4.26 ERA and 114 strikeouts in 124 innings as he helped anchor the staff that took the P-Nats to the Advanced A Carolina League championship. It was the club's first league title since 1989 when it was an affiliate of the New York Yankees.
Armed with a sinking fastball in the mid-90s and a great curve, the 22-year-old tossed two scoreless innings of one-hit ball against the Mesa Solar Sox in his AFL debut Oct. 9.
His marching orders in the AFL were simple.
"I'm just working on throwing strikes, getting ahead in the count," Detwiler said. "I was sent to get in some extra innings and see how I do against the best of the best."
The likely plan will be for him to start the 2009 season at the Nationals' next level, Double-A Harrisburg in the Eastern League, and he'll probably see a lot of familiar faces in the stands there.
With several of their farm teams strategically located within less than two hours from downtown Washington, the Nationals are building a fan base that consists not just of Major League fans, but also of Minor League aficionados who follow the prospects.
"There were a few fans I got to talk to who became Potomac fans even more than Washington fans, and they're following us and following the guys who get moved up," Detwiler said. "I think that's really going to help the fan base in the area because they're going to follow players all the way to the big leagues. We have a really good Minor League organization now, and we're going to have some good fans in the area."

Other Nats in the AFL
OF Leonard Davis was one of the organization's top offensive players in 2008, combining to hit .308 with a system-best 25 homers as well as 76 RBIs and a .566 slugging percentage between three levels. Davis, an eighth-round pick in 2004 out of Fresno State, began the year at Potomac and spent the first half of the season there, before moving up first to Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Columbus. In four games in the first week of action, Davis was hitting .267 with a pair of RBIs.
Like Davis, 1B Bill Rhinehart saw time at three levels in 2008, his first full season after being drafted in the 11th round of 2007 out of Arizona. Hitting .269, Rhinehart led the organization with 89 RBIs, adding 18 homers. Before hitting .299 at short-season Vermont in his pro debut in 2007, Rhinehart had led the Wildcats in average, homers and RBIs, just the third Arizona player to do so since 1950. Rhinehart had just one hit in his first 10 at-bats with Peoria.
SS Ian Desmond, a third-round pick in 2004 out of high school in Florida, batted .251 with 12 homers, 44 RBIs and 12 steals in 93 games at Harrisburg, missing six weeks midseason with a wrist injury, so he's in the AFL to make up for lost time. Desmond was hitting .333 in his first three games there.
The Nationals also sent a trio of pitchers to the AFL, led by LHP Cory Van Allen. The fifth-round pick out of Baylor in 2006 was 6-3 with a 3.32 ERA between Potomac and Harrisburg, but spent two months on the DL midway through the season. He was tabbed as the Saguaros' Opening Day pitcher in the AFL and allowed one earned run in his two innings of work with two strikeouts in that game.
As a sixth-round pick in 2006 from Arizona State in nearby Tempe, RHP Zech Zinicola has local ties to the AFL. He also has some previous experience, having posted a 3.48 ERA for the Saguaros in 10 games in 2007. Zinicola combined for a 4.80 ERA at three levels this season, finishing the year at Columbus after starting the summer with 12 1/3 shutout innings at Potomac and a 2.89 mark in 15 games at Harrisburg. His nine saves at the three stops tied for fourth in the organization. Zinicola had pitched twice in the first week of AFL action and had a 3.38 ERA in 2 2/3 innings.
Finally, RHP Adam Carr led the system with 16 saves between Potomac and Harrisburg, but had a 6.60 ERA in 51 games -- including an 11.08 ERA in August. It was a far cry from his old form of just a year ago, when he combined for a 1.78 ERA between the same two stops. An 18th-round pick in 2006 out of Oklahoma State, Carr pitched for the Saguaros in the AFL in 2007, posting a 3.18 ERA in seven games and participating in the Rising Stars Showcase. The early results were encouraging in Arizona as he'd yet to allow a run in 2 1/3 innings, striking out two.
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.