My podcast partners were joined by Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News this week. Link in signature. Yours truly is in Michiganon a federal takings case. I hope to be back next week, perhaps in a location more germane to Texas baseball.
Box Scores
AAA: Round Rock 6, at Reno (ARI) 3
Round Rock: 14 hits, 3 walks, 9 strikeouts
Opponent: 9 hits, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts
Record: 17-9, 1.5 G up
SP Jake Latz: 5 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 6 SO, 95 P / 65 S, 4.18 ERA
LF Steele Walker: 3-5, SB (1)
DH Sam Huff: 2-4, 2 HR, (6), .258/.329/.561
RF Elier Hernandez: 3-4, SB (3), .268/.342/.437
Ho hum, two more balls off the bat at 106+ for Sam Huff, who homered twice. (At 106 MPH, launch angle practically doesn’t matter in terms of getting a hit. Launch angle greatly affects the type of hit, of course.) Reno favors hitters like almost nowhere else, but those shots are leaving any park. Huff has 13 balls in play at this velocity. No teammate has more than four, and the entire rest of the team has 23. Duty requires me to point out that he’s also striking out in more than one-third of his plate appearances.
Steel Walker, injury free and also happy to be in Reno.
Following Latz, Hever Bueno, Yerry Rodriguez and Jesus Tinico threw scoreless innings on a combined 30 pitches.
AA: Frisco 3, Arkansas (SEA) 6
Frisco: 8 hits, 1 walk, 11 strikeouts
Opponent: 10 hits, 5 walks, 13 strikeouts
Record: 15-8, 1 G up
SP Kevin Gowdy: 3 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 3 SO, 58 P / 35 S, 6.35 ERA
RP Avery Weems: 5 IP, 5 H ,3 R, 3 BB, 8 SO, 8.04 ERA
2B Justin Foscue: 2-5, 2B, .295/.360/.545
SS Ezequiel Duran: 1-4, HR (2), .227/.277/.398
3B Jonathan Ornelas: 2-4, HR (2), .370/.386/.481
Duran has his second homer. He’s off to a fairly slow start, but there’s plenty of time. Duran his a more robust .278/.333/.611 in the Arizona Fall League, but 1) that was in Arizona, and 2) the pitching quality was relatively weak.
High-A: Hickory 8, at Winston-Salem (CHW) 2
Hickory: 12 hits, 9 walks, 15 strikeouts
Opponent: 5 hits, 4 walks, 8 strikeouts
Record: 12-11, 3 GB
SP Ben Anderson: 5 IP, 5 H (1 HR), 2 R, 1 BB, 3 SO, 68 P / 38 S, 2.16 ERA
RP John Matthews: 3 IP, 0 H ,0 R, 2 BB, 5 SO, 3.09 ERA
RF Aaron Zavala: 1-3, 2 BB, HBP, .217/.419/.304
3B Cristian Inoa: 3-6, .329/.393/.474
CF Evan Carter: 2-5, 2B, BB, .329/.432/.534
C Cody Freeman: 2-4, 2 HR, (5), .219/.301/.453
2B Keyber Rodriguez: 2-3, 2 BB, .306/.359/.361
A fiesta for Hickory’s hitters. Cody Freeman barely showed doubles power in a homerless 2019. Last year he went deep six times in 71 low-A games. Now, five in just 17 games at high-A. According to this progression, Freeman will hit nothing but homers once assigned to Frisco.
Trevor Hauver reached on a single and, yes, two walks.
Low-A: Down East 4, at Kannapolis (CHW) 5
Down East: 8 hits, 5 walks, 11 strikeouts
Opponent: 8 hits, 5 walks, 9 strikeouts
Record: 11-12, 4.5 GB
SP Brandon Webb: 5 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 5 SO, 72 P / 44 S, 6.14 ERA
RP Emiliano Teodo: 3.1 IP, 1 H ,1 R, 3 BB, 3 SO, 0.75 ERA
SS Maximo Acosta: 2-3, BB, .235/.342/.368
CF Daniel Mateo: 2-4, 2B, .229/.282/.286
Down East’s last six losses have been by one or two runs. An attempt to get Emiliano Teodo through four innings didn’t go as hoped, as a leadoff error and HBP put two on with one out. Bubba Hoopii-Tuionetoa struck out the next batter, but an 0-2 single ended the game.
Today’s Starters
AAA: Howard
AA: Slaten
Hi-A: Krauth
Lo-A: TBD, maybe a Corniell / Ahlstrom tandem
Five Years Ago Yesterday
Frisco’s Ariel Jurado walked four batters for only the second time in 75 starts but managed to keep San Antonio off the board. Round Rock had knuckleballer Eddie Gamboa. When he signed, I remember thinking how much fun I’d have seeing a knuckler from directly behind the plate. I had exactly zero fun, as Gamboa had a 6.49 ERA with even worse peripherals, and he was released in June.