HVR Game Notes - April 17, 2022
April 17, 2022 - South Atlantic League (SAL)
Hudson Valley Renegades News Release
Hudson Valley Renegades (4-4) at Rome Braves (5-3)
RHP Blas Castaño (0-0, 3.00) vs. LHP Luis De Avila (0-1, 7.36)
| Game 9 | Road Game 9 | AdventHealth Stadium | Rome, GA | April 17, 2022 | First Pitch 2:00 p.m. |
WHEN IN ROME: The Hudson Valley Renegades complete their second series of the season today when they take on the Rome Braves at AdventHealth Stadium. The game also brings an end to a marathon nine-game, 10-day road trip to begin the season for Hudson Valley. After today's contest, the Renegades head back home on Monday to start a 12-game homestand as the Brooklyn Cyclones come to The Dutch.
ABOUT LAST NIGHT...: The Renegades mounted a late comeback on Saturday night, but fell to the Rome Braves 3-2. Trailing 3-0, Aaron Palensky's RBI double in the eighth inning gave the Gades their first run of the night, then he scored on a Trey Sweeney single to get HV within one. In the top of the ninth, the Renegades put the tying run at third base with two outs, but could not score. Righty Will Warren turned in a solid start, allowing one run on four hits in 4.2 innings, striking out five and not issuing a walk.
NOT A FAN: Through the first five games of the current series with the Rome Braves, Hudson Valley batters have struck out an incredible 71 times (14.2 K/9). That culminated with three Braves pitchers striking out 18 Renegades on Saturday, and they have also posted games of 16 strikeouts and two with 14 strikeouts.
A NEW ERA: Friday night marked an historic day for the South Atlantic League and across Minor League Baseball as it was the first game in which the new pitch clock rules were enforced. In the first night under the rules, game times across Minor League Baseball plummeted, with nearly 30 minutes shaved off the average game, according to numbers run by J.J. Cooper of Baseball America. On Saturday, the Renegades and Braves played another incredibly speedy contest, needing only 2:14 to complete the game for the second consecutive day. This was not the norm across MiLB on Saturday, as game times crept longer. The Hudson Valley-Rome game was tied for the fastest 9-inn. game in MiLB last night, tied with the Fredericksburg-Carolina contest in the Carolina League.
OFF TO THE RACES: Through seven games of the season, the Hudson Valley Renegades are in second place among High-A teams in stolen bases with 18. Jersey Shore (PHI) has 26 to pace all clubs at the level, while Hillsboro (ARZ) ranks just behind the Gades, with 17. However, the team has been caught stealing six times, leading to a success rate of 75%, right at the break-even mark for stealing. The Renegades have stolen the most bases of any team in the Yankees organization, with Tampa (A) and Somerset (AA) tied for second with 11 swipes, and no other team posting double digits. With 18 steals through seven games, the Renegades are stealing an average of 2.57 bases per game, which puts them on pace for 339 on the season, which would obliterate the previous franchise record of 149 in 2021.
UNPRECEDENTED TIMES: The 2022 season is set to be the longest in the history of the Hudson Valley Renegades. While operating as a Short Season-A team in the New York-Penn League from 1994-2020, the Renegades had never played more than 76 games in a season. In 2021, the club played 120 games in a season shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The "new normal" for Hudson Valley is the 132-game schedule that is now uniform across Class-A leagues, beginning in 2022. The record-setting schedule length includes the earliest Opening Day in franchise history (April 8), earliest Home Opener (April 19), longest season-opening road trip (9 games), and first games played in South Carolina and Georgia.
MEET THE NEW LEAGUE, SAME AS THE OLD LEAGUE: Last month, MLB announced the return of traditional names for its minor leagues, re-christening "High-A East" as the South Atlantic League. The 2022 South Atlantic League is actually the third major iteration of a league with that name. The original South Atlantic League lasted on and off from 1904-1963, when it was moved up to Double-A and re-branded as the Southern League, which still exists today. The next SAL also began in 1903 under the name of the Western Carolinas League. It changed its name in 1980 and operated at the Single-A classification. High-A East (2021) and the current South Atlantic League are considered by MiLB to be one continuous league with the WCL/old SAL.
PROSPECTS GALORE: The Renegades Break Camp roster features six of the Yankees' top 30 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline. Catcher Austin Wells (#4) and infielder Trey Sweeney (#5) are joined by outfielder Everson Pereira (#11), pitchers T.J. Sikkema (#20) and Beck Way (#22) and infielder Cooper Bowman (#25). Each of the Yankees last three first round draftees (Sikkema, 2019; Wells, 2020; and Sweeney, 2021) begin the season with Hudson Valley.
RECORD-SETTING SEASON: To nobody's surprise, the Hudson Valley Renegades set 19 new franchise hitting records during the 2021 season, the first in team history as a full-season affiliate. The team and individual players set 19 new single-season hitting records, and 20 new single-season pitching records. Among the most ludicrous was the single-season mark for most team home runs hit (156 -- previous record, 53 in 1999 and 2002), and most strikeouts recorded by the pitching staff (1,308 -- previous record, 693 in 1998).
WELLS MOVING UP: With the graduation of San Francisco Giants catcher Joey Bart from MLB Pipeline's top prospects list, Renegades catcher Austin Wells is now the No. 10 catching prospect in all of baseball. The 2020 1st rounder is rated as the Yankees' No. 4 prospect, and No. 95 overall in MiLB.
South Atlantic League Stories from April 17, 2022
- Drive Win by One Run - Greenville Drive
- Renegades Fall in Easter Matchup at Rome - Hudson Valley Renegades
- Seven Run Sunday Gives Braves Series Win - Rome Emperors
- Tourists Build Big Lead, Collapse Late - Asheville Tourists
- Cyclones Take Series Finale from BlueClaws 6-1 on Sunday - Jersey Shore BlueClaws
- Cyclones with an EGG-Citing Win on Easter Sunday - Brooklyn Cyclones
- Greensboro Holds Winston-Salem to 3 Hits in 6-1 'Hoppers Win - Winston-Salem Dash
- HVR Game Notes - April 17, 2022 - Hudson Valley Renegades
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