Regular Season Record: 70-67
It wasn’t that Reading was a black hole like Jersey Shore to open the year, they were mostly mediocre, but there were some bright spots and some hits to their team. They had injuries to Dante Nori and Carson DeMartini, lost Dylan Campbell to trade, Chuck King to promotion, and had a pitching staff that had some injuries and infectiveness. Bryan Rincon really broke out offensively, and Raylin Heredia stayed healthy all year. Alex Binelas carried the team for weeks at a time with his bat. Adam Seminaris, Luke Russo, and Braydon Tucker proved to be a stabilizing rotation force, while Alex McFarlane was dominant in the bullpen.
Over the second half they had the gradual return of injured players, but also internal reinforcements. Gage Wood joined the team back in May and became fully stretched out over the second half. Cody Bowker joined the team over the summer and solidified the rotation overall. Alex McFarlane ended up in Philadelphia but the promotions of Wen-Hui Pan and Mavis Graves, the return of Christian McGowan, and improvements from Estibenzon Jimenez gave them a strong back of the bullpen. They have also benefited from the number of AAAA players on the IronPigs with Pedro Leon and Caleb Ricketts joining the team over the course of the season due to a lack of spots in Lehigh Valley. They also have gotten Aidan Miller this week from AAA, and presumably will have him for the postseason run.
Coming into the postseason, Reading will move Gage Wood to Game 1 and Cody Bowker in Game 2, and then Luke Russo for then likely have Games 3, with Braydon Tucker and Adam Seminaris as depth and potential starters. Russo can go 6, but it is likely Bowker and Wood will be capped at 5 due to various limits. Back of games with leads will likely go to Pan, McGowan, Graves, and Jimenez, but that still likely will leave some innings where they are going to need Jack Dallas, Daniel Harper, Sam Carlson, and new additions Keegan Batka and Kevin Warunek to make some outs over the course of the series. Minor league bullpens are shaky, but middle relief especially. The lineup is relatively set. If Miller is still with the team, presumably he and Rincon will split the DH and SS role, then there will be Aroon Escobar at second, Carson DeMartini at third, and then Pedro Leon, Dante Nori, and Raylin Heredia across the outfield. Caleb Ricketts will likely do the catching, he has gotten better at throwing out runners, but that has been a weakness. If he has to sit or play first or DH then Luis Caicuto is coming off a blistering last week of the season. First base feels like it will be a mix of Raider Tello, Bryson Ware, and Austin Murr. They haven’t always hit on all cylinders, but that is a fairly deep lineup with power and on base.
Their opponent will be the Hartford Yard Goats who were much better in the first half, and is light on top Rockies prospects. However, they currently have major league LHPs Kyle Freeland and Jose Quintana assigned on rehab, and if either or both is pitching on a normal workload in this series it could be tough going for Reading. A fully healthy Reading team should be the favorite in this series and should have a legitimate chance to win the league. It is best of three series, which will make it much more swingy.
Playoff Schedule
- Tuesday September 15 6:45pm – Division Series Game 1: Hartford @ Reading
- Thursday September 17 6:30pm – Division Series Game 2: Reading @ Hartford
- Friday September 18 6:30pm – Division Series Game 3: Reading @ Hartford
- Sunday September 20, 22, 23 – Championship Series