Per local reports, infielder Sebastian Walcott will head to AA Frisco to finish the year. Even in an organization with a history of hyper-aggressive assignments (less so lately), Walcott stands out. I don’t know if he’ll play Tuesday, but let’s assume he does for the following:
Youngest AA Debuts by a Texas hitter, 2003-present:
Sebastian Walcott, 2024, 18 years / 180 days
Jurickson Profar, 2012, 19 / 45
Nomar Mazara, 2014, 19 / 101
Rougned Odor, 2013, 19 / 179
Elvis Andrus, 2009, 19 / 221
Evan Carter, 2022, 20 / 15
Engel Beltre debuted at 19 years and 304 days at the end of 2009 but would spend the first half of the following season in high-A before returning. I’m also ignoring any brief, just-in-case assignments like 19-year-old Esteban Mejia last month.
How young is Walcott? Even if the Rangers delayed his arrival until next April, he’d still be the youngest Texas hitter in AA in at least 21 years.
Box Scores
AAA: Round Rock 9, @ Las Vegas (OAK) 6
Round Rock: 18 hits, 7 walks, 9 strikeouts
Opponent: 9 hits, 7 walks, 8 strikeouts
Record: 29-33, 7 GB, 66-70 overall
SP Robby Ahlstrom: 1.2 IP, 3 H (1 HR), 2 R, 2 BB, 1 HBP, 1 SO, 42 P / 22 S, 4.30 ERA
RP Marc Church: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 SO, 2.76 ERA
RP Grant Wolfram: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 3.42 ERA
CF Dustin Harris: 2-5, BB, .278/.365/.403
SS Jax Biggers: 3-5, 2B, BB, .273/.395/.385
1B Blaine Crim: 2-6, 2B, .280/.375/.474
LF Trevor Hauver: 3-5, 2B, BB, .226/.337/.371
C Matt Whatley: 2-5, BB, .208/.295/.338
Round Rock finally opened up a can on Las Vegas after scoring 12 runs in the previous five games. The Express didn’t go deep but collected at least 18 hits for the fourth time this season.
On a bullpen day, Robbie Ahlstrom drew the short straw and had to start in one of baseball’s least forgiving climates. Out of 12 pitchers on the two sides, only Marc Church and Grant Wolfram avoided allowing an inherited runner or one of their own to score.
The Express will head home to face Sacramento, followed by a season-ending to Tacoma.
AA: Frisco 2, Wichita (MIN) 4 (10)
Frisco: 5 hits, 1 walk, 14 strikeouts
Opponent: 4 hits, 7 walks, 13 strikeouts
Record: 36-27, first-half champ, 80-52 overall
SP Kohl Drake: 5 IP, 1 H (1 HR), 1 R, 2 BB, 6 SO, 81 P / 50 S, 3.63 ERA
RP Skylar Hales: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 SO, 2.33 ERA
RP Dane Acker: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 3.12 ERA
CF Alejandro Osuna: 2-5, 2B, .302/.377/.509
Kohl Drake leads the organization with 146 strikeouts and will likely finish best even if he doesn’t throw again.
Frisco’s home schedule is done until the playoffs. The Riders head to Amarillo this week. Midland has tied Frisco for the league’s best overall record, but Frisco will have home field advantage for their upcoming semifinal tilt regardless.
Hi-A: Hickory 3, Rome (ATL) 4
Hickory: 8 hits, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts
Opponent: 15 hits, 5 walks, 8 strikeouts
First-Half Record: 28-38, 5th place, 9 GB
Second-Half Record: 34-32, 3rd place, 6.5 GB
Overall Record: 62-70
Offense: 4.1 R/G, 11% worse than average, .222/.309/.346, 90 OPS+
Pitching: 4.6 R/G, 1% better than average, .231/.324/.384, 105 OPS+
SP David Davalillo: 6 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 5 BB, 3 SO, 79 P / 49 S, 2.10 ERA
RP DJ Peters: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 5.52 ERA
2B Cam Cauley: 1-3, 2B, BB, .235/.297/.411
SS Sebastian Walcott: 1-4, 3B, .261/.342/.443
RF Yeison Morrobel: 2-4, 2B, .211/.287/.323
David Davalillo walked a career-high five and allowed 15 runners in six innings. Somehow, only one scored, and he averaged a tight 13.2 pitches per inning.
Walcott led the South Atlantic League and leads the Texas organization with 40 combined doubles and triples. Among league qualifiers, he was tenth in average (.261) and slugging (.443).
Top picks Malcolm Moore and Dylan Dreiling were both 0-4. Moore finished with a tepid line of .209/.298/.374 in 25 games but was solid after a chilly pro introduction. He swatted three homers and six doubles. Dreiling was .198/.340/.279 with a homer, four doubles, and 19 walks in 24 games.
Cam Cauley hit eight of his 12 homers during a 16-game stretch in July and early August. The rest of the season, he batted .225 and slugged .349.
Hickory was 50-46 after a 12-24 start during which the offense scored one or zero runs 16 times. Next year, the Crawdads will drop to low-A, their home from 1993 through 2020.
Lo-A: Down East 1, Augusta (ATL) 4
Down East: 5 hits, 3 walks, 16 strikeouts
Opponent: 8 hits, 6 walks, 15 strikeouts
First-Half Record: 35-30, 3rd place, 6 GB
Second-Half Record: 30-33, 4th place, 8 GB
Overall Record: 65-63
Offense: 4.0 R/G, 8% worse than average, .227/.306/.337, 98 OPS+
Pitching: 3.6 R/G, 16% better than average, .212/.307/.305, 89 OPS+
SP Wilian Bormie: 4 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 5 SO, 81 P / 49 S, 3.47 ERA
RP Josh Trentadue: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 4 SO, 4.46 ERA
RP Adonis Villavicencio: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 SO, 4.56 ERA
3B Beycker Barroso: 1-3, BB, .229/.342/.374
Yesterday afternoon in front of an announced crowd of 1,878, 2B Antonis Macias grounded out to conclude the existence of the Down East Wood Ducks as an affiliated club of Minor League Baseball. Down East was 476-448 in seven seasons with the Rangers, winning a co-championship in their inaugural season, posting one of the best records in Texas’s minor league history two years later (as chronicled in this year’s Five Years Ago segments), and reaching the postseason twice more after dropping to low-A.
The marriage between Texas and Kinston was admittedly of convenience. The Rangers were desperate to escape the California League’s High Desert Mavericks (who would mercifully fold after 2016). Kinston was desperate to replace a 34-year affiliation with Cleveland lost after 2011 and had an older if suitable facility. I never expected the Rangers to stay any longer than necessary, and I was surprised the Rangers signed a twelve-year lease until discovering how easily they could terminate it with, at best, a nominal penalty. I feel bad for the people of Kinston losing their team, but even ignoring MiLB clubs descending to vassal status in the new agreement with MLB, the expensive facility upgrades required of most parks, and Diamond Baseball Holdings acquiring the Wood Ducks and 34 (!) other teams, I anticipated a new park in a new city by the time the lease expired. As I’ve mentioned, Kinston is about the size of Corsicana and isn’t growing. Expecting the city to renovate Grainger Stadium to modern standards was absurd. Had not the Rangers owned the team at the time, Down East almost certainly would have been one of the casualties of the 2021 reorganization.
All that said, it wasn’t a loveless marriage. Kinston offered a far better situation than Adelanto, CA, or Bakersfeld in the previous decade. It was never a place to dread or mock, and the Rangers never had to fret about sending their prospects there like those other two cities. Players and personnel could shift between the low-A and high-A locations in around four hours. Rain is a problem, but on the whole the climate is generous to baseball.
WITN covered the finale and what the future holds for baseball in Kinston. Benjamin Hill of Ben’s Biz Beat visited Grainger Stadium a month ago.
As for the game, 21-year-old Wilian Bormie reeled off a fifth consecutive start with two or fewer runs allowed. 2024 8th-rounder Anthony Susac recorded Down East’s final out on defense and can say he made eight appearances covering 9.1 innings without allowing a run and stranding six runners bequeathed. IF Echedry Vargas had the day off but among qualifiers finished sixth in average at .276 and second in slugging at .454. He also ranked second in hits (118), eighth in doubles (24), fifth in homers (14), and 19th in steals (29).
Five Years Ago Yesterday
Down East lost the deciding Game 5 of the Carolina League semifinals 6-3 to Fayetteville. Seven straight Woodpeckers reached in the 7th, and four would score. The 2017 edition of the Wood Ducks won a co-championship with a phenomenal bullpen featuring Jeffrey Springs, CD Pelham, Scott Williams, and Adam Choplick. The 2019 version wasn’t so formidable, allowing 37 runners in 17 innings. The Woodies were 87-52 during the regular season, the fourth-best record of any Texas affiliate in franchise history.