AAA: Round Rock 7, Las Vegas (ATH) 6 (10)
Round Rock: 7 hits, 6 walks, 11 strikeouts
Opponent: 12 hits, 7 walks, 12 strikeouts
Record: 14-10, 3 GB
SP Dane Dunning: 5.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 6 SO, 84 P / 52 S, 5.40 ERA
CF Evan Carter: 1-5, HR (2), .180/.349/.340
SS Ezequiel Duran: 2-5, 2B, SB (2)
3B Jonathan Ornelas: 2-3, BB, .159/.269/.159
Evan Carter hit a no-doubter to right, 105.7 off the bat for 383 feet. He’s batting .237/.396/.447 against righties and still looking for his first hit against lefties. Through last Sunday, nearly 75% of the pitches in the league came from righties, so one issue (admittedly not the only one) for Carter against lefties is lack of opportunities. He’s played in 14 games and has only 15 trips to the plate against a lefty.
Zeke Duran has started three straight at short since being optioned. Sac flies from Blaine Crim and Sam Haggerty plated the tying and winning runs in the 10th.
AA: Frisco 4, at Corpus Christi (HOU) 0
Frisco: 4 hits, 3 walks, 8 strikeouts
Opponent: 5 hits, 2 walks, 16 strikeouts
Record: 13-5, 3 G up
SP Josh Stephan: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 8 SO, 77 P / 53 S, 5.40 ERA
RP Skylar Hales: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO, 9.00 ERA
CF Alejandro Osuna: 1-3, 2B, BB, .247/.329/.370
SS Sebastian Walcott: 2-3, HR (2), HBP, SB (4), .266/.392/.453
Watch Sebastian Walcott hit the ball hard.
Josh Stephan’s eight strikeouts were his most in 16 starts in Frisco. His first start at the level was in July 2023, but injuries ended his season in early July that season and in 2024.
Hi-A: Hub City 3, Greenville (BOS) 6
Hub City: 9 hits, 2 walks, 13 strikeouts
Opponent: 8 hits, 8 walks, 10 strikeouts
Record: 10-8, tied for 1st
SP Josh Trentadue: 4 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 2 SO, 60 P / 33 S, 0.82 ERA
RP Joey Danielson: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SO, 0.00 ERA
LF Dylan Dreiling: 3-5, 2B, SB (3), .273/.369/.382
3B Gleider Figuereo: 2-4, .184/.263/.204
C Cal Stark: 3-4, .364/.474/.409
Baseball America has a feature on Joey Danielson’s ascendance from dust-gathering backup catcher at North Dakota State to relief prospect ($ link). Opponents are hitting .206/.290/.294 against him. Gleider Figuereo collected hit first hit against a lefty. They’ve always troubled him, and in 2025 he’s hitting .091 with two walks and nine strikeouts in 13 plate appearances.
Lo-A: Hickory 8, Salem (BOS) 0
Hickory: 13 hits, 6 walks, 2 strikeouts
Opponent: 7 hits, 1 walk, 10 strikeouts
Record: 9-9, 2.5 GB
SP Caden Scarborough: 4 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 SO, 54 P / 38 S, 4.30 ERA
RP Thomas Ireland: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 SO, 2.35 ERA
RP William Privette: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 SO, 6.14 ERA
LF Maxton Martin: 3-5, 2B, SB (2), .324/.347/.479
RF Hector Osorio: 1-2, 3 BB, .174/.406/.217
2B Luis Marquez: 3-3, 2B, HBP, .294/.442/.412
Hickory has only two shutouts but has allowed seven or fewer hits in 15 of 18 games. Caden Scarborough leads the squad with 18 strikeouts, and his 10% BB/HBP rate is better than I expected.
Indy Ball
Following are recently signed former Rangers I found in transaction lists for independent leagues. This is almost certainly not fully accurate or comprehensive.
Atlantic League: P AJ Alexy, P Tim Brennan, P Scott Engler, P David Lebron, P Joe Palumbo, P Nick Snyder, C Isaias Quiroz, IF Ben Blackwell, IF Travis Demeritte, IF Curtis Terry, OF LeDarious Clark
Frontier League: P Ivan Oviedo, P Tyree Thompson
American Association: P Jake Diekman, P Demarcus Evans
Also, some ex-Rangers among the top 100 in plate appearances or batters faced or I just happened upon their names in the Mexican League:
Pitchers Reid Birlingmair, Robert Dugger, Paolo Espino, Neftali Feliz, Roman Mendez, Zach Phillips and Richard Rodriguez, IF Hanser Alberto, OF Willie Calhoun, IF Andretty Cordero, OF Delino DeShields, IF Edwin Garcia, OF Leonys Martin, OF Nomar Mazara, IF Luis Sardinas, IF Yangervis Solarte, OF Josh Stowers, IF Christian Villanueva, OF Nick Williams
Today’s Starters
AAA: TBD
AA: Anderson
Hi-A: Davalillo
Lo-A: Molina
Rangers Minor League History, 2007-2024
The fourth-worst team in a Rangers-affiliated league during 2007-2024 is the 2015 High-A Lake Elsinore Storm, associated with the San Diego Padres.
Record: 50-90
Run-Differential Record: 48-92
Component Record: 45-95
The Storm played in a pitcher’s park (relatively speaking) but allowed the most runs in the league by far, an incredibly dubious accomplishment given the presence of High Desert and Lancaster, who played in the most hitter-friendly locations in the the US. The pitching was poor, to be sure, but Lake Elsinore also might have sported the worst defense of any of the 794 teams in my rankings. Measuring defense at this level is tricky, but the Storm committed the league’s most errors and were terrible at converting balls in play into outs (and converting double-play opportunities). They allowed a .291 opposing average on grounders, 40 points higher than any other team. The offense was bad, too, scoring 11% fewer runs than average with an 87 OPS+.
Lake Elsinore’s losing wasn’t as dramatic as Fredericksburg from yesterday, more of a long, dreary slog. They actually were competitive through May with a 23-26 record but went 27-64 the rest of the way. In that stretch, they posted 11 losing streaks of at least three games but only two on the winning side.
SS Jose Rondon was the only hitting prospect to reach the Majors, working as a backup for a few years with several clubs. Several pitchers reached, some very briefly and led by 59 innings from Brad Wieck, who closed out 2021 with 17 scoreless innings but was then derailed by injuries.