Texas has recalled Justin Foscue to replace the injured Jake Burger. Foscue has continued to hit quite well in Round Rock, trading a few walks for a slight uptick in power. He’s essentially the Foscue you know, and certainly a better hitter than what he displayed in the Majors last year, but as to whether he’ll have much of a chance to prove it, who can say. Ezequiel Duran is starting at first today, and Josh Smith is the DH.
Let’s all watch David Davalillo warm up.
AAA: Round Rock 13, at Oklahoma City (LAD) 4
Round Rock: 11 hits, 7 walks, 9 strikeouts
Opponent: 12 hits, 1 walk, 9 strikeouts
Record: 34-39, eliminated
SP Ty Blach: 5 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 91 P / 64 S, 4.28 ERA
RP Joe Barlow: 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO, 4.96 ERA
RP Robby Ahlstrom: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 3.22 ERA
RP Codi Heuer: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 2.83 ERA
3B Cody Freeman: 2-5, .295/.343/.470
1B Blaine Crim: 1-3, 2 BB, .292/.370/.522
DH Billy McKinney: 3-4, 2 HR (2), BB, .276/.425/.431
C Cooper Johnson: 3-5, 2B, .218/.346/.299
Round Rock broke its losing streak with malice against Kyle Funkhouser (4 IP, 11 R), who was in the Texas system in 2023 but barely appeared because of injuries. Texas signed the 30-year-old McKinney last month after he’d been released by the Mets. He’s played in the Majors in parts of the past seven seasons, but an eighth, particularly as a Ranger, will take some doing.
AA: Frisco 1, at San Antonio (SDG) 2
Frisco: 6 hits, 1 walk, 16 strikeouts
Opponent: 5 hits, 3 walks, 8 strikeouts
Record: 37-29, 0.5 GB, magic number 3 (MID) and 4 (SAT)
SP David Davalillo: 4.2 IP, 4 H (1 HR), 2 R, 2 BB, 3 SO, 75 P / 46 S, 3.86 ERA
RP Ryan Lobus: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 3.97 ERA
RP Larson Kindreich: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO, 3.72 ERA
RP Geraldo Carillo: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SO, 5.50 ERA
LF Aaron Zavala: 2-4, .276/.411/.422
I traveled to San Antonio to see David Davalillo’s AA debut and the rest of the Riders. The 22-year-old has emerged as one of Texas’s better pitching prospects and joins an already impressive rotation. Davalillo had a good night, not awe-inspiring but solid, workmanlike. He exhibited confidence in his whole repertoire and didn’t let occasional misfortune like a 1st-inning solo homer affect him. Two years ago at this time, Davalillo’s stateside output consisted of 2.2 innings a the complex.
His fastball ranged from 91 to 94, tending toward the higher side early and nearly always 91 late. He threw it slightly less than 50% of the time and didn’t miss any bats with it. It served to set up other pitches. I’ve seen a more effective version, and it’s quite possible he wasn’t working with his best stuff last night. Next in usage was a sweepy low-80s slider, then a low-80s splitter and handful of upper-70s curves. The splitter impressed the most, generating five of his six swinging strikes and getting him out of a first-and-third, one-out situation unharmed. The sweeper and curve were capable, if not at the level of the splitter. I’ve have video later. Davalillo profiles as a back-end starter.
Unfortunately, Sebastian Walcott had an utterly forgettable day, striking out in three of four at-bats at the DH. I have video, which I will transfer to VHS and burn in my backyard.
Aaron Zavala’s two hits exited at 102 and 107 MPH. With the exception of last night, my data on him is essentially limited to anecdotes, but I can cautiously offer that he looks much more like the 2022 version than the hampered post-surgery 2023-24 Zavala. Left field can be a minefield on a windy early evening in San Antonio, but he caught some tricky, tailing flies with ease.
Down 2-0 in the 7th, Keyber Rodriguez doubled in Josh Hatcher to trim the lead. With two out, Frainyer Chavez lined a single to center, but OF Nerwilian Cedeno threw out Rodriguez at the plate to prevent the tying run. Purportedly. The Riders to a man and some relatively neutral observers near me behind the plate believed otherwise. A safe call wouldn’t have given Frisco the win, of course, but certainly changes the outlook. The Riders couldn’t muster a rally in the final two innings, and five of the six outs were strikeouts.
Frisco must win today and tomorrow in San Antonio, and Midland must lose at least once. Best as I can tell, Frisco has never been in third place in the division until now.
Frisco is understandably mad at the world right now. Once in the catbird seat with the title in view, they’ve scored five runs in four games and struck out 62 times. Putative Sunday starter Trey Supak was ejected mid-game for arguing balls and strikes. Rodriguez was ejected before he could even stand up from his slide in the 7th, and manager Carlos Cardoza quickly followed. Opposing players were jawing at each other during the game, and the benches emptied after its completion. I recall a conversation with Express (and now Missions) CEO Reid Ryan, who was involved in the reconfiguration of the minor league system. While the six-games-on, one-game-off format is a huge net positive, one downside is elongated exposure to sources of negativity. Prior to 2021, Frisco would have hopped a bus out of town after last night’s game. Now, they’ll see the same opponent and umpiring crew today and tomorrow. Hold tight.
Hi-A: Hub City 5, @ Bowling Green (TAM) 12
Hub City: 11 hits, 3 walks, 7 strikeouts
Opponent: 12 hits, 6 walks, 8 strikeouts
Record: 0-1, 1GB
SP Kolton Curtis: 4 IP, 4 H (1 HR), 5 R, 3 BB, 5 SO, 69 P / 37 S, 6.37 ERA
LF Keith Jones II: 1-4, HR (9), BB, .262/.395/.452
CF Dylan Dreiling: 2-5, SB (9), .225/.333/.374
3B Gleider Figuereo: 2-4, HR (11), .217/.284/.382
DH Anthony Gutierrez: 1-4, BB, SB (19), .224/.297/.286
Kolton Curtis allowed all the runs in a 30-pitch 1st and allowed a single baserunner thereafter. Dylan Dreiling is working toward getting back on track after a thin May (.178/.288/.333) and time missed with wrist soreness.
Lo-A: Hickory 11, Delmarva (BAL) 3
Hickory: 13 hits, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts
Opponent: 5 hits, 4 walks, 13 strikeouts
Record: 1-0, tied for first
SP Garrett Horn: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 SO, 45 P / 27 S, 0.00 ERA
RP Brock Porter: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO, 3.26 ERA
1B Pablo Guerrero: 3-5, 2B, .216/.289/.333
CF Yeremi Cabrera: 3-5, 2 SB (21), .243/.364/.311
RF Marcos Torres: 2-4, 3B, .248/.336/.413
Delayed by injury, 2024 6th-rounder Garrett Horn is making up for list time, manhandling complex competition (13 K in 6.1 IP) and striking out five of ten batters in his full-season debut. Brock Porter’s walk/HBP rate of 16% is actually slightly better than 2023 (17%), when we acknowledged the problematic control but were awed at his ability to miss bats and squash meaningful contact. This year, the strikeout rate is good (27%) but lower, and he’s allowed more extra-base hits, although if you’d told me have have a .172/.304/.336 at the midway point, I’d be more than satisfied given what transpired in 2024. He was always a high-risk, high-variance project, and we’ll just have to see how things play out.
Today’s Starters
AAA: TBD
AA: Bratt
Hi-A: Molina
Lo-A: TBD
Rangers Minor League History, 2007-2024
Alas, it’s not all rainbows and puppy dogs here at The Lucas Report. My history lessons also include some of the worst performances and teams during 2007-2024, starting today. That said, I’m reducing my original plan of covering the five worst teams and three worst offenses and defenses because of excessive overlap. The three worst offenses are subsets of the four worst teams, so I’ll cover the offenses within the team writeups. The three worst pitching staffs are all in AAA during a relatively confined period, so I’ll skip the third, Round Rock in 2018. (Fourth-worst was Frisco in 2018. We’ll cover that squad later. Will we ever.)
The second-worst pitching performance was by the AAA Express in 2012.
Runs allowed: 5.2 per game, 11% worse than park-adjusted league average
ERA-: 111
FIP-: 115
Opposing OPS: 108
5.2 runs per game sounds respectable in the Pacific Coast League, but at the time, Round Rock was the Seattle or San Diego of parks, extremely pitcher-friendly. Much of the problem was the two gentlemen who by themselves supplied a quarter of the team’s innings. First was former Colorado second-overall pick Greg Reynolds, who provided 163 frames but allowed 5.96 runs per nine. Closely behind was Zack Jackson with 158.1 innings and 5.8 runs per nine allowed. Those aren’t strong performances, to be sure, but in a time of 12-man pitching staffs, inning-eaters were enormously valuable. Reynolds lasted at least five innings in 25 of 27 starts, Jackson in 24 of 27. Some prospects didn’t have much fun, including Neil Ramirez (74 IP, 7.66 ERA) and Mark Hamburger (45 IP, 6.55 IP).
Round Rock wasn’t terrible at suppressing homers or walks, but a league-worst 16% K rate left them at the whims of the BABIP gods. Reynolds in particular stopped striking out batters the day he was drafted from Stanford, and his rate in Round Rock was an impossibly low 9.5%. The top six in innings, responsible for more than half the team’s innings, had a combined 13% K rate. That’s a tough way to do business in the PCL.