“I think we have the best talent in all of Minor League baseball”. That is what Nationals 11th round pick Jack Moroknek said about the Low-A Fredericksburg Nationals team he plays on. That is not much of an exaggeration either, with MLB.com ranking them as the 5th most stacked roster in the minors. I got to see this group live and in the flesh yesterday, and they did not let me down.
Fredericksburg is your classic minor league town. As I entered the town with my dad, we passed a duck crossing sign and a plethora of fast casual food options. Before the game began, we were serenaded by the Garrison Elementary choir, who delivered a cute, but excellent rendition of the National Anthem. I got to see minor league baseball at its finest.
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As much as I was charmed by the pageantry, I was here to see a ball game. While prized prospects Gavin Fien and Coy James were not playing, due to injury and an off day, I still got to see plenty of talent. The Fred Nats top three hitters were first overall pick Eli Willits, top 10 prospect in the system Luke Dickerson, and MacKenzie Gore trade piece Yeremy Cabrera. Those three players combined to get on base 8 times in this game.
Eli Willits was the main attraction though, and seeing him live and in the flesh was quite the experience. He is such a well rounded player, with hitting skills, outstanding defense and insanely aggressive base running. Willits got a base hit on the first pitch he saw yesterday afternoon, and finished the game with two hits, a walk and two stolen bases.
Jack Moroknek raved about Willits when I asked about him. He said that Willits is “35 in an 18 year old’s body. He is the most mature 18 year old I have ever met”. You can see that maturity on the field, with Willits playing shortstop at a big league level already on the defensive end.
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Willits is just such a smooth player, and you could tell who the former first overall pick was pretty easily. Once he gets to the big leagues, fans are going to have so much fun watching Willits in the field and on the bases. He already has 21 stolen bases on the season, and is an absolute mad man when he reaches first base. Eventually, he may need to be tamed a little bit on the bases, but for now, his all out aggression is super exciting.
The fun thing about A ball is that you have elite prospects like Willits, but you also have lesser known guys chasing their dreams like Moroknek and Juan Cruz. Moroknek told me that, “I never thought baseball was going to be my job, so every day is a dream for me”.
While Moroknek acknowledged the velocity is different in pro ball compared to what he saw in college at Butler, he has adapted well. He has a .344 average and an OPS over 1.000. The 22 year old also had a 16 game hitting streak that was recently snapped, though he did say plenty of those hits came on “broken bat flub shots”.
Like Moroknek, Juan Cruz was also a small school guy, going to Alabama State University. He had an offer in the transfer portal to go play at Georgia, but when the Nats drafted him in the 20th round, he could not pass up the opportunity. Cruz told me he decided to sign because “it is every kid’s dream to play professional baseball”.
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Cruz and Moroknek are two underdogs just following their dreams, while Eli Willits is the son of a big leaguer who is a former first overall pick. The great thing about minor league baseball is that these guys become brothers as they play six days a week, and ride the bus to small towns across Virginia and North Carolina.
Minor league baseball is so much fun, and it is not just because of the big name prospects. Players like Cruz and Moroknek who are the lifeblood of the system. It will be an uphill climb for these guys to make the big leagues, but the great thing about baseball is that it is possible. Baseball is a true meritocracy, and if these guys put up numbers as they climb through the system, they will make the big leagues eventually.
Back to the prospect side of things though, another player who really stood out yesterday was Yeremy Cabrera. At one point, Cabrera was an underdog just like Cruz and Moroknek. He signed for only $10,000 out of the Dominican Republic. Cabrera managed to turn himself into a real prospect in the Rangers system. This winter, he was traded to the Nationals as part of the MacKenzie Gore deal.
Last year, Cabrera played for the same Hickory Crawdads team he was facing yesterday. He put up solid numbers, but the Nats wanted him to repeat the level. Based on what he has done this season, a promotion should be on the way. Cabrera went 3-5 with a homer and a double yesterday. He is now hitting .297 with a 1.022 OPS at just 20 years old.
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If you want to see this Fred Nats team, which is 19-8 to start the season, you should come down soon. Before too long, players like Willits, Cabrera and maybe even Moroknek will be promoted to High-A Wilmington with how they are performing. Minor League games are always fun, but they are even better when you get to see high end prospects like the Fred Nats have.
Even with a couple absences, this Fred Nats lineup was absolutely stacked. They set the tone in the first inning, with four runs against Hickory. It was a nice and easy win for the Fred Nats, who cruised to a 9-1 victory.
I did not get to see Miguel Sime Jr., or Landon Harmon, the Fred Nats top two arms, but the pitching was solid. Grant Manning, a minor league free agent signing, impressed me, striking out four in three scoreless innings.
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As I was talking to Jack Moroknek in a little tunnel down the left field line, I could not help but compare the Fred Nats locker room I was looking at to the Nats locker room. Obviously, things are much more glamorous in the big leagues. However, these guys are not here for glamor, they are here to grind and play ball. As Jack Moroknek told me, “The grind is fun. With the group of guys we have, it does not make it seem like a grind for me”.
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