Rangers Farm Report: Games of Sunday 1 May

Box Scores

AAA: Round Rock 9, at Salt Lake (LAA) 4
Round Rock: 11 hits, 8 walks, 7 strikeouts
Opponent: 4 hits, 9 walks, 4 strikeouts
Record: 15-9, tied for first

SP Cole Winn: 5 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 6 BB, 2 SO, 83 P / 40 S, 3.38 ERA
CF Leody Taveras: 1-3, 2 BB, .375/.402/.625
DH Yohel Pozo: 3-5, 3 2B, .270/.303/.397
RF Elier Hernandez: 2-4, 2B, HR (2), .222/.300/.365

Well, if you’re pitching at altitude and took a shot off your foot in your previous start, you’d like to avoid hard-hit balls. Winn achieved that, after a fashion, by issuing a career-high six walks. The hits were on a bloop and hard grounder. Going off the data, no pitch looked particularly effective, and he missed on 25 of 46 fastballs. Just one of those days.

Leody Taveras doubled his walk total. That’s been the only missing piece of his production so far.

More on Willie Calhoun later, I suppose. What a mess.

AA: Frisco 6, at Midland (OAK) 5
Frisco: 6 hits, 5 walks, 6 strikeouts
Opponent: 12 hits, 2 walks, 10 strikeouts
Record: 14-7, 3 G up

SP Cole Ragans: 5.1 IP, 8 H (1 HR), 3 R, 2 BB, 5 SO, 87 P / 55 S, 3.00 ERA
RP Seth Nordlin: 1.2 IP, 0 H ,0 R, 0 BB, 1 HBP, 2 SO, 3.60 ERA
RP Chase Lee: 1 IP, 1 H ,0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 0.00 ERA
1B Blaine Crim: 2-3, HR (3), .284/.329/.459
2B Justin Foscue: 1-2, 2B, 2 BB, .306/.366/.583

Ragans got a chance at six innings after completing five on just 77 pitches, but a single, double and walk ended his afternoon slightly early.

Justin Foscue had seven hits (four for extra bases) and four walks in the five games he played at Midland. Blaine Crim also had a nice series after hitting well at San Antonio, giving him an absurd split of .194/.257/.290 at home and .349/.380/.581 on the road. Doesn’t mean anything, though I’m sure he’d like a few more hits in front of people wishing him success.

High-A: Hickory 5, Greenville (BOS) 10
Hickory: 10 hits, 2 walks, 10 strikeouts
Opponent: 12 hits, 4 walks, 13 strikeouts
Record: 11-10, 3 GB

SP TK Roby: 4 IP, 5 H (1 HR), 6 R, 4 BB, 4 SO, 72 P / 40 S, 7.41 ERA
RP Josh Smith: 1 IP, 1 H ,0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO, 1.17 ERA
DH Chris Seise: 1-4, HR (5), .233/.292/.533
2B Thomas Saggese: 2-4, .247/.304/.356

Seise has three homers in the past week, already equaling his best from any complete season. He’s played in 16 of Hickory’s 21 games, never more than three in a row and still exclusively as a DH.

Low-A: Down East 4, Carolina (MIL) 6
Down East: 6 hits, 5 walks, 14 strikeouts
Opponent: 8 hits, 3 walks, 13 strikeouts
Record: 9-12, tied for first

SP Winston Santos: 5.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 SO, 76 P / 56 S, 5.87 ERA
C Tucker Mitchell: 1-3, 3B, 2 BB, SB (2), .276/.488/.379
SS Maximo Acosta: 2-3, 2B, HR (1), SB (6), .200/.314/.350

Like last year in Arizona, Maximo Acosta’s production has been modest. What he needs is continued health; last year was limited to 17 games by a shoulder injury.

Last year’s 14th-round pick Tucker Mitchell is catching every third game a drawing a handful of DH assignments. Outside of the best prospects, that’s about the most a catcher can hope for in low-A, where three and sometimes even four catchers are splitting duty. Mitchell has been hit once every ten plate appearances, an effective if painful way to boost one’s OBP to nearly .500.

Santos rebounded nicely from last week’s career-worst four walks. His control is typically impeccable.

Five Years Ago Yesterday
Round Rock baserunners allowed: 373 (most allowed among 8 eastern teams in PCL)
Frisco baserunners allowed: 318 (most in 8-team league)
Down East baserunners allowed: 341 (most in 10-team league)
Hickory baserunners allowed: 353 (most in 14-team league)

Fortunately, only Round Rock would remain such, and Down East in particular had a pitching-dominant squad by season’s end.