AAA: Round Rock 10, Toledo (DET) 7
Round Rock: 10 hits, 7 walks, 3 strikeouts
Opponent: 11 hits, 5 walks, 7 strikeouts
Record: 5-4, 1 GB
SP Dane Dunning: 3.1 IP, 5 H (1 HR), 4 R, 3 BB, 2 SO, 71 P / 43 S, 11.81 ERA
RP Dane Acker: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0.00 ERA
RP Joe Barlow: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO, 10.13 ERA
CF Evan Carter: 1-2, 3 BB, SB (1), .105/.320/.105
1B Blaine Crim: 2-3, 2 2B, 2 BB, .459/.524/.730
Evan Carter stared at 15 of 20 pitches yesterday. 13 were balls, so we can’t accuse him of passivity. On another unusually cold day, Toledo’s pitchers just weren’t aiming well. Potential negative tells about his performance would include expansion of his strike zone and poor ball rates on taken pitches, but so far, he’s fared well in both respects. His problems in the early going are 1) a high whiff rate (against both lefties and righties) when he does swing, and 2) poor exit velocity against lefties. Predictably, 40% of the pitches he’s seen from lefties have been sliders.
Opponents are hitting .417/.516/.750 off Dane Dunning in the early going.
AA: Frisco 2, Corpus Christi (HOU) 0
Frisco: 7 hits, 5 walks, 5 strikeouts
Opponent: 4 hits, 4 walks, 8 strikeouts
Record: 2-1, tied for 1st
SP Trey Supak: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 SO, 57 P / 38 S, 0.00 ERA
RP Gavin Collyer: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 0.00 ERA
RP Avery Weems: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 SO, 0.00 ERA
RP Daniel Missaki: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0.00 ERA
2B Cam Cauley: 2-4, SB (2)
C Cooper Johnson: 1-2, 2 BB
According to Voice of the Riders Zac Bigley, Sebastian Walcott (1-4 yesterday) already has four balls in play at 107 MPH or better. And, as reiterated by Zac, he’s 19. Cam Cauley has started all three games at second. He’s spent about two-thirds of his career at short and is obviously capable there, but Walcott gets first dibs. Frisco doesn’t have a clear-cut 3B now that Cody Freeman has moved up, so Frisco at least has the opportunity to spot Walcott at third and Cauley at short on occasion.
Frisco received five stellar innings from 28-year-old Trey Supak, an offseason sign who’s been in pro ball since 2014 and spent part of last year with indy Charleston.
Hi-A: Hub City 7, at Aberdeen (BAL) 5
Hub City: 11 hits, 7 walks, 13 strikeouts
Opponent: 7 hits, 2 walks, 7 strikeouts
Record: 2-1, tied for 1st
SP DJ McCarty: 3 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 2 SO, 53 P / 29 S, 9.00 ERA
RP Mailon Felix: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 SO, 0.00 ERA
RP Dylan MacLean: 4 IP, 2 H (1 HR), 2 R, 0 BB, 3 SO, 4.50 ERA
RP Larson Kindreich: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 0.00 ERA
2B Casey Cook: 1-4, BB, SB (1)
C Malcolm Moore: 1-3, 2B, 2 BB
1B Cal Stark: 3-5
Moore’s double was a grounder that caromed off the second baseman’s leg into no-man’s land, but it counts the same.
The Rangers have again placed DJ McCarty and Dylan MacLean on the same team just to spite me. They signed within days of each other in 2020. MacLean is Texas’s fourth-round pick from that draft and a lefty, while the right-handed McCarty signed as a free agent out of high school. MacLean made his first appearance since elbow surgery in 2023.
Mailon Felix made his first US appearance at the tender age of 25. The Dominican had spent the last three seasons on a Japanese farm club.
Lo-A: Hickory 5, at Kannapolis (CHW) 7
Hickory: 8 hits, 4 walks, 10 strikeouts
Opponent: 9 hits, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts
Record: 2-1, 1 GB
SP Ismael Agreda: 3 IP, 2 H (1 HR), 1 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 31 P / 19 S, 3.00 ERA
RP Michael Valverde: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 SO, 0.00 ERA
3B Rafe Perich: 1-5, HR (2)
DH Pablo Guerrero: 3-4, HR (1)
Rafe Perich homered for the second time in the series. Kannapolis’s Carlton Perkins had Pablo Guerrero down 0-2 in the 7th, wasted a couple of pitches and then hung a slider that Guerrero sent out to put Hickory back ahead for a little while. Ismael Agreda allowed a homer as well but didn’t walk anyone, a welcome occurrence for him.
Rangers Minor League History, 2007-2024
Texas’s 19th-best starting pitching season belongs to Zach Phillips.
Drafted in 2004’s 23rd round, Phillips spent most of the next summer in rookie ball and then was given a low-A rotation spot in 2006. He posted a 5.96 ERA in 142 innings on a 45-94 club that thankfully preceded my work for the Newberg Report. Repeating the level, he issued 23 fewer walks and 31 more strikeouts while continuing to keep the ball in the park. He fanned 157 in 151 innings at a time when a K-per-inning starters were rare. In one-third of his starts, he didn’t allow a run.
2007 would prove an outlier in Phillips’ career as a starter. His walk and strikeout rates would trend poorly in the tougher Cal League, and in 2009 he would switch to relief. The Rangers traded him to Baltimore in July 2011 for 32-year-old IF Nick Green. This was a deadline deal in name only, as Green by then was merely depth for AAA Round Rock. Phillips compiled 22 decent MLB innings across four seasons. A mid-season 2017 release from St. Louis’s AAA squad didn’t end his career. Phillips is still active at the age of 38, having spent the last eight years with Monclova in Mexico.