Frisco has announced that Jack Leiter will start at home Thursday. His next date had been in question because of the addition of Antoine Kelly to the rotation.
Will Leiter get to face Fernando Tatis Jr., who’s continuing his rehab with the traveling San Antonio Missions tonight? Hope so, don’t know. I’m sure San Diego’s AAA affiliate in El Paso is texting the parent org every hour: “You know we’re at home this week, right? RIGHT?”
Rookie Recap: Games of 1-6 August
Scores: 2-8 (CHW), 4-9 (SDG), 5-7 (SDG), 9-2 (LAD), 4-11 (KAN)
Record: 29-14, +7 G, magic number 6
RHP Ivan Oviedo (19): 4.0 IP, 1 H, 6 SO, 3.21 ERA
RHP Adrian Rodriguez (21): 2.0 IP, 1 H, 3 SO, 3.18 ERA
RHP Nyan Hernandez (21): 3.9 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 3 BB, HBP, 3 SO, 4.09 ERA
LHP Luis Paulino (24): 3.9 IP, 6 H, 2 R, BB, 9 SO, 5.40 ERA
RHP Eury Rosado (21): 4.0 IP, 3 H (HR), 3 R, 2 BB, 8 SO, 6.66 ERA
OF Yeison Morrobel (18): 9-17, 3 2B, 2 HR (3), .317/.393/.472
IF Danyer Cueva (18): 6-22, 2B, HR (3), BB, .333/.385/.465
OF Jeferson Espinal (20): 7-13, 2 2B, SB (4), .277/.355/.398
OF JoJo Blackmon (19): 2-12, HR (7), HBP, .248/.371/.513
C Jesus Moreno (21): 2-7, HR (2), BB, .281/.347/.416
Yeison Morrobel was named the league’s player of the week with a two-homer, three-double, four-single stretch. Leading up to then, Morrobel was doing fine but not exactly a power source, slugging .376 with seven extra-base hits in 28 games. He’ll turn 19 in December and was Texas’s marquee signing in the ’20-’21 class.
A relatively chilly two weeks has dropped 3B Gleider Figuereo to second in the league in OPS (.276/.371/.619). At least the leader is 19 (Milwaukee’s Jack Avina) and not some 24-year-old Rockies pseudo-prospect.
Adrian Rodriguez is now a Wood Duck.
Texas has four pitchers among the league’s top 50 in strikeouts. Of these 50, Ivan Oviedo is one of a handful with a walk rate of 5% or better. The other three Rangers (Eury Rosado, Aidan Curry, DJ McCarty) are in the 10%-12% range. Oviedo has eight walks and 43 strikeouts in 33.2 innings.
Presumptive starting third-baseman-in-waiting Josh Jung played 1B for the first time professionally last week. Per local reports, he’s not moving there, but what if, say, Nate Lowe suffered an injury? Flexibility is fine, but I don’t see him switching positions regularly. He could spot at first if a third baseman, but if he became a starting 1B, I doubt he’d sub elsewhere. I guess one question is whether 1B Nate Lowe + 3B Josh Jung is better than 1B Josh Jung + 3B [to be determined]. Lowe has been okay. Taking the average of Baseball Reference and FanGraphs, he’s been worth about 1.8 wins above replacement per 150 games. That made him a standout on last year’s dire offense and middle-of-the-road so far in 2022. He’s been Mitch Moreland: not really good, but steady enough to hold the job. And first base certainly isn’t the smoking meteorite crater occupying left field: .175/.237/.242 split amongst 12 (!) players, -0.9 WAR (29th in MLB).
9th-rounder Griffin Cheney and 10th-rounder Josh Hatcher made their pro debuts last night. Cheney was 1-5 with a steal as a third baseman, while Hatcher singled twice and played first. Unlike the vast majority of Texas’s 2022 picks, they aren’t pitchers and signed for beer money, so they’re getting thrown into real games immediately.