Texas draft picks so far
1. OF Wyatt Langford, Florida
4. RHP Skylar Hales, U of Santa Clara
5. RHP Alejandro Rosario, U of Miami
6. RHP Caden Scarborough, high school, Florida. The draft runs through the 10th round today, followed by the final ten picks tomorrow. Apologies for no draft writeups today, but I’m dealing with a deadline. More tomorrow.
Box Scores
AAA: Round Rock 7, Sugar Land (HOU) 1
Round Rock: 10 hits, 5 walks, 7 strikeouts
Opponent: 2 hits, 1 walk, 14 strikeouts
Record: 8-4, 1 GB, 52-34 overall
SP Robert Dugger: 6 IP, 1 H (1 HR), 1 R, 0 BB, 9 SO, 79 P / 55 S, 4.52 ERA
RP Alex Speas: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 3.18 ERA
RP Marc Church: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SO, 4.02 ERA
1B Blaine Crim: 2-3, 2B, HR (11), BB, .268/.386/.479
LF JP Martinez: 2-3, HR (9), BB, .356/.472/.621
The Round Rock Express have thrown nine pitches at 100 MPH or greater during 2022-2023. Alex Speas has seven of them, including one yesterday at a top speed of 101.5 with nine inches of horizontal run. It was a ball. Speas has mostly thrown what Statcast characterizes as a cutter.
Marc Church has a better swinging strike rate than Speas, but a lower strikeout rate.
I can’t remember when I said I wanted Blaine Crim’s impressive batted ball data to show up in the box score, but lately, it is.
AA: Frisco 8, Midland (OAK) 1
Frisco: 11 hits, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts
Opponent: 6 hits, 6 walks, 10 strikeouts
Record: 6-6, 2 GB, 37-43 overall
SP Dane Acker: 3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO, 52 P / 29 S, 3.86 ERA
RP Justin Slaten: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SO, 1.42 ERA
RP Antoine Kelly: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 SO, 3.00 ERA
3B Thomas Saggese: 1-4, HR (13), .316/.384/.524
I haven’t had to wish for better results from Thomas Saggese’s bat for a while now.
Justin Slaten has a 36% strikeout rate and opposing line of .196/.245/.337 in 2023, his first full season strictly in relief. He’s recovered the control that backslide badly in 2022 and then some. Slaten was understandably ignored in last year’s 40-man/Rule 5 transactions, but he’d have to at least be under mild consideration this time around. Its hard to say. I haven’t had a good look at him lately, and there’s no shortage of hard-throwing relievers with potential in the upper minors. It’s easy to fall in love with these types, and next thing you know you’re trying to figure out how to stash half a dozen relief prospects on the 40. There isn’t room.
Hi-A: wet
MiLB says postponed, Winston-Salem says cancelled. The teams do meet again in Hickory during the season’s final week.
Lo-A: Down East 2, at Kannapolis (CHW) 1
Down East: 7 hits, 4 walks, 9 strikeouts
Opponent: 5 hits, 2 walks, 10 strikeouts
Record: 9-6, 0.5 G up, 46-30 overall
SP DJ McCarty: 4 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 47 P / 34 S, 2.66 ERA
RP Dylan MacLean: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 2.60 ERA
RP Jacob Maton: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO, 1.69 ERA
CF Anthony Gutierrez: 2-2, 2 BB, 3 SB (15), .256/.322/.313
The DMs combined for a solid six innings, and Jacob Maton worked a clean 8th and 9th. Anthony Gutierrez might find some pick-up games around Kinston during the half-week off just to maintain whatever’s working lately. He batted .539/.625/.846 in the series.
Today’s Starters
The full-season leagues are off until Friday.
Five Years Ago Yesterday
Hickory’s Tyler Phillips fanned 11 in seven innings.