Rangers Farm Report: Games of Friday 12 August

Box Scores

AAA: Round Rock 7, at Oklahoma City (LAD) 3
Round Rock: 9 hits, 3 walks, 11 strikeouts
Opponent: 8 hits, 4 walks, 10 strikeouts
Record: 59-50, 3 GB

SP Cole Winn: 5.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 7 SO, 97 P / 58 S, 5.65 ERA
RP Nick Snyder: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 5.55 ERA
DH Andy Ibanez: 3-4, 2 2B, .266/.328/.432
3B Davis Wendzel: 2-4, 2 HR (9), .202/.290/.372

Cole Winn had a pretty good night, relatively speaking. He walked three, and his fastball control wavered per usual, but on the whole his arsenal held the Dodgers in check. Winn threw 53 fastballs and average 94.3 MPH, both highs for the season.

Davis Wendzel homered twice and is hitting .273/.360/.682 in six AAA games since returning from injury. He could use a strong month-plus to close the season. Texas’s second first-round pick after Josh Jung in 2019 has actually played fewer games than the oft-injured Jung. Wendzel’s combined rate of strikeouts and infield flies is 38%, third-highest of of 99 PCL batters with at least 200 trips to the plate. (If you’ve never seen strikeouts and infield flies mashed together and are bemused, consider that popups are nearly always caught and have no chance of being a “productive” out, so they’re equivalent to a strikeout.) Wendzel is yet another 40-man decision for the Rangers this winter, and at present I’d guess he’s on the outside, which leaves the question of whether another team thinks they can get better results from the bat to go along with his versatility.

Josh Jung did not play.

AA: Frisco 7, San Antonio (SDG) 0
Frisco: 10 hits, 5 walks, 7 strikeouts
Opponent: 3 hits, 2 walks, 12 strikeouts
Record: 22-15, 2 GB, 58-48 overall

SP Cody Bradford: 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 SO, 97 P / 71 S, 5.62 ERA
RP Joe Corbett: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO, 3.78 ERA
RP Triston Polley: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 SO, 3.60 ERA
2B Luisangel Acuna: 3-5, .235/.347/.402
DH David Garcia: 2-4, .227/.296/.372
LF Jax Biggers: 2-4, 2B, .283/.340/.380
RF Josh Stowers: 1-2, 2B, 2 BB, .213/.322/.347

Frisco’s fans didn’t get another look at Fernando Tatis Jr. (!) , but a nice consolation was Cody Bradford’s best start of the season. The outing matched the longest of his career and had the fewest baserunners of any appearance over four innings.

High-A: Hickory 7, at Greenville (BOS) 4
Hickory: 10 hits, 4 walks, 5 strikeouts
Opponent: 6 hits, 6 walks, 10 strikeouts
Record: 17-23, 10 GB, 55-51 overall

SP TK Roby: 4.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 4 SO, 78 P / 48 S, 5.08 ERA
RP Luis Tejada: 3.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 SO, 4.82 ERA
2B Frainyer Chavez: 2-4, BB, .283/.360/.354
CF Evan Carter: 2-4, 2B, BB, SB (23), .287/.378/.487

A reader asked whether Evan Carter was underrated. Possibly, but according to Baseball America’s freshly updated rankings, he’s Texas’s #1 prospect, ahead of Jung, Leiter, White, Rocker, you name it. I think he flies under some radars for many reasons: 1) he wasn’t touted out of high school and in fact received only bewildered stares from draft experts (both real and self-perceived) when selected by the Rangers, 2) he’s still in A ball, 3) he was drafted during the covid-lost 2020 and missed most of 2021 to a back injury, 3) he’s certainly athletic but not in an “oh my god, look at this guy” way, 4) his stats are fine, but he’s not sporting a 3/4/5 slash or 20+ homers or 40+ steals. He’s just very good all-around.

Low-A: Down East 8, at Fayetteville (HOU) 5
Down East: 14 hits, 6 walks, 8 strikeouts
Opponent: 6 hits, 3 walks, 7 strikeouts
Record: 20-20, 5.5 GB, 53-53 overall

SP Gavin Collyer: 5.1 IP, 5 H (1 HR), 5 R, 2 BB, 1 HBP, 5 SO, 90 P / 59 S, 4.38 ERA
RP Damian Mendoza: 3.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 2 SO, 1.26 ERA
SS Cam Cauley: 4-4, BB, SB (29), .209/.313/.289
RF Yosy Galan: 2-5, 2B, HR (14), .217/.304/.418
C Ian Moller: 2-4, 2B, BB, .210/.373/.326

Down East’s 14 hits were one shy of the season-high and included Cam Cauley’s first four-hit game. Yosy Galan’s 14 homers are good for fifth in the league, and everybody ahead of him has has between 57 and 125 additional plate appearances.

Today’s Starters
AAA: Keuchel
AA: TBD
Hi-A: Vanasco
Lo-A: TBD (Stephan’s turn but he’s in high-A now)

Five Years Ago Yesterday
Hickory IF Brendon Davis (part of the Darvish trade) hit his first homer for the organization. Reliever CD Pelham had an 0.87 ERA and 25 strikeouts in his last 20.2 innings.