Potomac reaches 80 win plateau

High Single-A Potomac beat Wilmington 6-2 Sunday at Pfitzner Stadium for victory No. 80 of the season. The P-Nats are now 80-51 overall, a sterling winning percentage of .611. They have already clinched a postseason berth after winning the first-half of the season. The P-Nats are 36-24 (.600) with the second-half of the season winding down. Michael Taylor, Caleb Ramsey, Adrian Sanchez, Cutter Dykstra, Kevin Keyes, Adrian Nieto, Billy Burns, Jason Martinson and others have provided fairly consistent at-bats throughout the season. But the strength of this team has been its starting pitching, especially at the beginning of the campaign. A lot of these guys have moved up, even to the majors. Blake Schwartz, A.J. Cole, Robbie Ray, Taylor Hill, Brian Rauh, Matt Purke, Sammy Solis, Paul Demny and Taylor Jordan have all had starts for the P-Nats. Robert Benincasa, Richie Morowski, Greg Holt, Derek Self, David Fischer, Colin Bates, Brian Dupra and Rafael Martin have made solid steps this season, just to name a few. It is always impressive when a minor league team has success. But to have continued success, to fight through droughts and more importantly, absorb call-ups and new personnel from other teams, and be able to maintain consistency for an entire season is extremely rare. Nationals director of player development Doug Harris said the season Potomac has had began with players from low Single-A coming up and playing well. "We really stepped up with Hagerstown, especially the way they have played since the call-ups," Harris said. "They have been able to maintain consistency. "The roster is filled with quality young men who play the game the right way. They have the opportunity to win every night because they go out and get strike one, catch the baseball and situational hit so well." The Nationals will tell you that wins and losses are not the most important statistic, that development of each individual prospect is paramount. But when you have a group of guys that can learn quickly how to play together and have the talent to beat other teams best players over an entire season cannot be ignored. The organization has done this before. In 2010, the P-Nats won the Carolina League title with Steve Lombardozzi, Tyler Moore, Derek Norris, Marcos Frias, Bill Rhinehart, Francisco Soriano and others. Many of those players are now in the majors. That could happen to a select few on this current roster as well.