AAA: Round Rock 6, El Paso (SDG) 3
Round Rock: 9 hits, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts
Opponent: 7 hits, 3 walks, 8 strikeouts
Record: 31-34, 9.5 GB
SP Cory Abbott: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 2 SO, 94 P / 66 S, 6.56 ERA
RP Robby Ahlstrom: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 SO, 2.84 ERA
RP Codi Heuer: 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 3 SO, 3.20 ERA
DH Justin Foscue: 1-4, HR (9), .288/.385/.524
RF Dustin Harris: 2-4, HR (2), .219/.329/.297
Mother Nature or whoever’s in charge atoned for robbing Dustin Harris of two homers Tuesday. His harder shot down the line cleared the wall easily.
Justin Foscue is slightly less walk and more contact/power-oriented than 2024, but in general the result are very strong as always. I haven’t written about him much, partly because he’s been out some, partly because there’s little more to say. The Rangers said their piece when they acquired Jake Burger and Joc Pederson. Probably Foscue’s best future involved a trade to a bad team during 2023 followed by at least half a season’s worth of MLB action to learn whether his bat would play at that level. Maybe it wouldn’t, but he’s certainly better than what he showed in Texas last year. Even a trade then would have been tricky to pull off, as it depended on the trade partner’s belief in that bat and tolerance of his defense.
AA: Frisco 3, at Midland (ATH) 1
Frisco: 7 hits, 2 walks, 9 strikeouts
Opponent: 7 hits, 3 walks, 13 strikeouts
Record: 33-25, 0.5 GB
SP Kohl Drake: 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 6 SO, 82 P / 54 S, 3.19 ERA
RP Skylar Hales: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 6.10 ERA
RP Gavin Collyer: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 SO, 3.07 ERA
LF Aaron Zavala: 1-3, BB, .269/.415/.431
SS Sebastian Walcott: 1-3, BB, SB (12), .254/.353/.441
RF Josh Hatcher: 2-4, 2B, .284/.302/.436
Frisco took and maintained a 1st-inning lead. Josh Hatcher doubled in Aaron Zavala (walk) and Sebastian Walcott (single).
Among the 60 Texas League pitchers with at least 40 innings, Kohl Drake’s 35% strikeout rate ranks first. His control isn’t bad but leans toward the low end at 10%, ranked 41st. Drake is one of Texas’s better pitching prospects, certainly near or at the top among the healthy ones.
Hi-A: Hub City 5, Wilmington (WAS) 6 (10)
Hub City: 8 hits, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts
Opponent: 6 hits, 9 walks, 8 strikeouts
Record: 31-28, 1.5 GB
SP Aidan Curry: 3.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 3 SO, 82 P / 50 S, 4.72 ERA
RP Dylan MacLean: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 SO, 3.94 ERA
3B Gleider Figuereo: 2-5, HR (10), .217/.294/.392
Ouch. Should Hub City fall just shy of the first-half title, this game will stand out. The Burgers led 3-0 after the 1st and 5-1 entering the 9th. On came 2024 18th-rounder Eric Loomis, whose control in college and brief pro action last year was dismal, but in 2025 he’d been fine and above-above of late. Loomis walked four batters on 18 pitches, nearly always dragging everything outside to righties. Normally reliable Josh Mollerus, who had warmed in haste, walked his first batter on five pitches. Two sac flies would tie the game. In the 10th, Wilmington scored on yet another sac fly, and Hub City couldn’t respond.
Lo-A: Hickory 3, at Myrtle Beach (CHC) 4
Hickory: 9 hits, 2 walks, 12 strikeouts
Opponent: 6 hits, 7 walks, 12 strikeouts
Record: 30-28, 1.5 GB
SP Enrique Segura: 4 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 2 HBP, 6 SO, 73 P / 43 S, 4.60 ERA
RP Michael Trausch: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 SO, 1.96 ERA
SS Chandler Pollard: 2-5, SB (26), .273/.356/.335
1B Pablo Guerrero: 2-4, 2B, .223/.298/.342
Ouch again, although this loss didn’t involve a late collapse. Hickory led 3-2 but surrendered two in the 5th, and the Dads had little to say until the 9th, when Erick Alvarez singled and Marcos Torres walked to begin the frame. The comeback stalled there, though.
The partial answer to “how does Enrique Segura throw strikes with that funky delivery” is “sometimes he doesn’t.” He did miss a career-high 16 bats.
Today’s Starters
AAA: TBD
AA: Stephan
Hi-A: Curtis
Lo-A: Pence
Rangers Minor League History, 2007-2024
The second-best pitching performance at the rookie and short-A levels by a Ranger during 2007-2024 was by Yerry Rodriguez in 2018.
Rodriguez signed with the Rangers in September 2016 for $60,000, more than a flyer but far from top dollar. Nine months later, he was suspended 75 games for a test revealing use of a diuretic. So, not an ideal start to a career. Nevertheless, he hopped from his six innings of Dominican Summer ball to Arizona in 2018. At the complex, he tallied 55 strikeouts in 38 innings, and his K rate ranked third in the league.Moving to short-season Spokane in mid-August, he wasn’t quite as K-prolific but pitched better overall, posting a 1.82 ERA and allowing 28 runners in 24.2 innings. Rodriguez also started two postseason games, albeit with lesser success.
In 2019, he performed similarly at low-A Hickory, although an elbow sprain (which fortunately did not require surgery) ended his season early. Covid kept him off the mound in 2020, of course, but he was added to the 40 that fall on the promise of his stuff despite limited experience. Rodriguez always carried reliever risk, but not the usual kind, as his change was functional (in my opinion) but efforts to develop a worthy curve and/or slider were always lagging. What I wrote in September 2021: “In his relief role, Yerry Rodriguez reminds me of Wilmer Font. Font’s slider needed work, but he tended to dismiss it in favor of his MLB-ready fastball. Rodriguez is doing the same. Last night, he threw two opening sliders followed by 21 fastballs on 22 pitches.”
Rodriguez would make in MLB debut in 2022, but sad to say, from 2022 on, he was mostly ineffective, serving an up-and-down role until being designated for assignment and then traded in July 2024. At present, he appears to be unemployed at the age of 27.