AAA: Round Rock 8, at Oklahoma City (LAD) 10
Round Rock: 10 hits, 7 walks, 8 strikeouts
Opponent: 16 hits, 6 walks, 7 strikeouts
Record: 34-41, 15 GB, 8th place of 10, first half over
SP Cory Abbott: 2.1 IP, 6 H (1 HR), 4 R, 2 BB, 2 SO, 48 P / 30 S, 8.89 ERA
RP Peyton Gray: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO, 2.84 ERA
3B Cody Freeman: 2-5, 2B, .300/.348/.473
CF Dustin Harris: 1-5, HR (3), .235/.335/.331
RF Kellen Strahm: 1-2, 2B, 3 BB, SB (26), .274/.375/.396
Round Rock lost five of six at OKC to fall to a season-worst seven games under .500. This is where I’m duty-bound to say that a Texas AAA team has not finished ten or more games below .500 since 1997, a truly remarkable run.
Las Vegas won the first-half title handily (49-26).
AA: Frisco 8, at San Antonio (SDG) 1
Frisco: 11 hits, 6 walks, 9 strikeouts
Opponent: 8 hits, 3 walks, 14 strikeouts
Record: 38-30, 0.5 GB, 3rd place of 5, first half over
SP Trey Supak: 5 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 8 SO, 81 P / 60 S, 4.30 ERA
RP Daniel Missaki: 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 SO, 6.75 ERA
RP Aidan Anderson: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0.00 ERA
CF Cam Cauley: 1-3, 3B, 2 BB, 2 SB (19), .241/.325/.401
1B Abi Ortiz: 2-5, 2B, .224/.318/.388
C Tucker Mitchell: 3-4, 2 SB (3), .211/.246/.257
An important lesson in baseball and life: If you fail, bring others down with you.* Having eliminated Frisco the night before, San Antonio could have claimed the first-half title with either a win or Midland loss.** Midland won earlier in the day, so San Antonio needed another victory.
Instead, Frisco quickly pinned a season-high five runs on Luis Patino, who’d allowed a total of two runs in three previous AA starts. That would be plenty, as Trey Supak and friends continued to dominate Missions hitters. Frisco allowed only 12 runs in the six-game series, a total that would seemingly assure at least three wins and a division title, but alas.
Cam Cauley has improved on an 8.1% walk rate that left him with a sub-.300 OBP last year. This year, it’s, 10.9%, good for an extra 14 times on base if spread over 500 plate appearances. He’s also striking out quite a bit less, but that hasn’t budged his average or power. Regardless, he’s having a pretty good season split almost precisely between second, short and center.
* Please don’t actually live your life this way.
** I’d mistakenly reported on Sunday that Midland’s magic number was one; in fact, San Antonio held that advantage.
Hi-A: Hub City 8, @ Bowling Green (TAM) 2
Hub City: 13 hits, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts
Opponent: 5 hits, 3 walks, 8 strikeouts
Record: 1-2, 2 GB, 32-36 overall
SP Jose Gonzalez: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 SO, 76 P / 51 S, 2.92 ERA
RP Joey Danielson: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO, 2.73 ERA
CF Dylan Dreiling: 1-4, HR (7), .225/.329/.382
3B Gleider Figuereo: 2-5, BB, .222/.290/.382
DH Anthony Gutierrez: 2-5, 2 2B, .228/.300/.299
Jose Gonzalez’s K rate has dipped from 33% last year in low-A to a still-impressive 28% at a higher level. Dreiling hit a grand slam in the 9th to quell any thoughts of a Bowling Green comeback.
Lo-A: Hickory 8, Delmarva (BAL) 5
Hickory: 8 hits, 8 walks, 4 strikeouts
Opponent: 9 hits, 9 walks, 12 strikeouts
Record: 3-0, tied for 1st, 36-32 overall
SP William Privette: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 16 P / 9 S, 3.42 ERA
2B Antonis Macias: 2-4, BB, .258/.421/.320
DH Maxton Martin: 1-4, BB, SB (8), .277/.340/.469
3B Rafe Perich: 1-2, 2 BB, .249/.361/.364
Hickory couldn’t quite claim the division but made a meal of Delmarva, taking five of six and outscoring the Birds by 15 runs. The Crawdads now have a better overall record than Columbia, which won the first-half title but has opened the second half 0-3.
Rangers Minor League History, 2007-2024
The worst Texas-affiliated pitching staff during 2007-2024 is the 2017 Round Rock Express.
Runs allowed: 5.2 per game, 11% worse than park-adjusted league average
ERA-: 115
FIP-: 118
Opposing OPS: 114
This bunch rates 11th-worst of 794 teams, They actually weren’t that bad at run prevention (56th-worst, easily best among the worst-overall 15 staffs) but were lucky to have allowed as “few” runs as they did, ranking 4th-worst in FIP and 14% worse than average in homers and walks.
Round Rock’s road ERA of 6.31 and opposing line of .307/.387/.490 were the worst in the league. True, the Express played in a pitcher’s park, meaning a tougher road schedule than most teams, but the extremely unbalanced schedule prevented an excess of games in the mountains. They didn’t visit Albuquerque, El Paso, Reno or Salt Lake in 2017, so the performance wasn’t as heavily skewed by park factors as you might think (and in any case, my analysis accounts for parks).
The four busiest pitchers were Tyler Wagner, Clayton Blackburn, James Dykstra and Eddie Gamboa. As you doubtlessly remember. On Saturday, I mentioned a tolerance of inflated ERAs in exchange for innings in AAA, but this group extended that to the breaking point, as all but Blackburn posted an ERA of 6.25 or higher. Wagner, Blackburn, Dykstra, Dillon Gee, Tanner Scheppers, Frank Lopez and four others wouldn’t pitch in affiliated ball beyond that season.
Still, an acceptable offense and some luck resulted in a mundane 66-72 record. Since their badness relied more on peripherals and park factors than actual runs allowed, they’re honestly pretty boring compared to their peers. Oh, well.
Since the worst three staffs were all in AAA, here’s the worst at the other levels:
AA: Frisco 2018, 4th-worst of 68 in system
Hi-A: Bakersfield 2007, 8th
Lo-A: Hickory 2017, 7th