Month: April 2026

Box Scores

AAA: Round Rock 7, Gwinnett (ATL) 8
Round Rock: 8 hits, 9 walks, 7 strikeouts
Opponent: 9 hits, 3 walks, 6 strikeouts
Record: 1-5, 3 GB

SP Cody Bradford: 2 IP, 3 H (2 HR), 2 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 27 P / 17 S
RP Luis Curvelo: 1 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 1 SO
RP Josh Sborz: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO
RP Ryan Brasier: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO
RF Alejandro Osuna: 1-5, HR (1)
2B Cameron Cauley: 1-3, HR (1), 2 BB
LF Trevor Hauver: 1-3, 2 BB

The cryptic “could be an interesting game” I appended to yesterday’s AAA report was actually only the front half of the sentence. If you’d printed the report and dipped it in a weak citric acid solution, the full sentence would read “could be an interesting game because Cody Bradford is going to make a rehab appearance.” 

Bradford threw about 50% fastballs averaging 90.5 in the 1st and 89.3 in the second. That’s quite a drop, but he’s rehabbing from elbow surgery. Next in line were nine change in the low 80s, a few sliders at the same speed and one 75 curve. He missed five bats. Bradford allowed two towering if not especially hard-hit homers to left and a harder fly from Rowdy Tellez that died a little short. 

A one out walk and hard double would both come around to score against Luis Curvelo. Josh Sborz had his standard 2026 outing, effective if not reminiscent of peak form. Ryan Brasier missed five bats on eight swings. 

I did not see Bradford’s performance in person, as I’d already committed to staying home with my daughter while my wife socialized with some friends, plus all my World’s Greatest Husband And Father trophies aren’t going to polish themselves.

AA: Frisco 5, at Corpus Christi (HOU) 1
Frisco: 14 hits, 3 walks, 7 strikeouts
Opponent: 3 hits, 6 walks, 10 strikeouts
Record: 1-0, tied for first

SP Leandro Lopez: 4.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 6 SO, 73 P / 40 S
RP Ryan Lobus: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SO
RP Eric Loomis: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO
RP Wilian Bormie: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO
CF Dylan Dreiling: 1-4, BB, SB (1)
2B John Taylor: 2-5, 2B
DH Keith Jones II: 2-4
1B Tucker Mitchell: 3-3

Last year, Leandro Lopez’s control was above average for the first time in his career. After Opening Night, he’s already matched least year’s number of four-walk starts. Other than that, he was as dominant as ever, fanning six of 17 batters and generating 12 swinging strikes. 

2024 2nd-rounder Dylan Dreiling had a successful AA debut. He laced a single in his first plate appearance and would later walk, steal second and advance to third and home on successive outs. 

Last year at this time, John Taylor was waiting for the Atlantic League’s Southern Maryland squad to start the season. Now, he’s hitting .400 in AA. 

Wilian Bormie reached 100 last night but emphasized the slider, starting his first opponent with one and freezing the second on a called strike three. 

Just a reminder: I’ll list ERAs and slash stats for players once a few more games have occurred. 

Hi-A: off

Hub City opens tonight.

Lo-A: Hickory 5, Columbia (KAN) 4
Hickory: 10 hits, 3 walks, 9 strikeouts
Opponent: 5 hits, 3 walks, 16 strikeouts
Record: 1-0, tied for first

SP Evan Siary: 4 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 8 SO, 60 P / 48 S, 0.00 ERA
RP Michael Trausch: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 0.00 ERA
RP Geury Rodriguez: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 SO, 0.00 ERA
RP J.D. McReynolds: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0.00 ERA
CF Marcos Torres: 1-3, BB
SS Yolfran Castillo: 2-3, 2B, HBP
LF Paulino Santana: 1-3, 2B, BB, SB (1)
C Josh Springer: 2-4

Siary is last year’s 8th-round pick out of Mississippi state. In last year’s draft report, I wrote that he used “an 89-91 fastball that touches 93 and is tough to pick up, an 83ish slider, a diving mid-80s change, and a 71-78 curve that he can move around and bend into a semi-sweeper.” 

Yolfran Castillo lined a double to the wall left of center and softly lined a single to right. The latter was common in 2025, as he actually hit more the opposite way than pulled. I’d love to see more of the former this year. Castillo turned 19 just two months ago.

Your batting hero was Angel Arredondo, also 19, who with two outs in the 7th took three balls after an 0-2 count and then lined to left to plate the tying and go-ahead runs. 

Assignments For Last Year’s Traded Prospects
LHP Kohl Drake — AAA Reno (ARI)
RHP Mitch Bratt — AAA Reno (ARO)
RHP David Hagaman — High-A Hillsboro (ARI)
RHP Skylar Hales — AAA Memphis (STL) 
RHP Garrett Horn — High-A Cedar Rapids (MIN), on IL
RHP Mason Molina — AA Springfield (STL), a promotion

Today’s Starters
AAA: Stephan
AA: MacLean
Hi-A: Pence
Lo-A: Stephan

Box Scores

AAA: Round Rock 3, Gwinnett (ATL) 6
Round Rock: 6 hits, 7 walks, 14 strikeouts
Opponent: 11 hits, 3 walks, 5 strikeouts
Record: 1-4, 3 GB

SP Austin Gomber: 4.2 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 1 BB, 1 SO, 85 P / 52 S
RP Marc Church: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SO
RP Patrick Murphy: 1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO
RP Michel Otañez: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO
CF Alejandro Osuna: 2-5
2B Justin Foscue: 1-3, 2B, BB
3B Tyler Wade: 2-3, 2B, BB

The Express trailed 6-0 nearly the entire game but managed to get the winning run to the plate in the 9th when Hayden Harris issued four walks and no one could field Justin Foscue’s wind-blown pop or Alejandro Osuna’s dribbler to second. With the bases loaded and two out, Cam Cauley swung through a couple of balls with the intent of ending the game, but he watched a very close strike three (confirmed via challenge) to end the game. 

Marc Church offered a 95-98 fastball, an 86-88 slider and three upper-80s changes. Much his his success is premised on deception. He deals from a newly lowered but still quite high slot, he tends to work vertically, and neither his fastball nor slider have much horizontal movement, so those pitches look the same out of his hand. The changeup could be a worthy addition, I suppose, but the fastball is his foundation. At times in the past, his slider has been nearly unhittable, but his overall results were still subpar because of a fastball either too wild or grooved. 

Austin Gomber allowed all the runs in the 2nd, partly on six balls in play at 100 MPH or higher, but he escaped and settled down the rest of the way. Gomber froze a few batters with a mid-70s curve but was mostly reliant on hit placement, as he missed only three bats, and over half of opposing swings resulted in a ball in play. 

Hopefully the badly needed rain lets up this evening. Could be an interesting game. 

AA: off

Frisco visits Houston-affiliated Corpus Christi tonight. Listed starters for the series are Leandro Lopez, Dylan MacLean and David Davalillo.

Hi-A: off

I’d previously said all the teams below AAA would start Thursday, but Hub City actually waits until Friday.

Lo-A: off

Hickory opens tonight at home against Columbia. The listed starters this week are Evan Siary, Jesus Lafalaise and AJ Russell.

Box Scores

AAA: Round Rock 3, Gwinnett (ATL) 5 (10)
Round Rock: 11 hits, 1 walk, 7 strikeouts
Opponent: 7 hits, 7 walks, 14 strikeouts
Record: 1-3, 2 GB

SP Austin Bergner: 4 IP, 2 H (2 HR), 2 R, 2 BB, 4 SO, 58 P / 34 S
RP Robby Ahlstrom: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 SO
RP Peyton Gray: 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SO
RP Gavin Collyer: 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 2 SO
RP Emiliano Teodo: 0.1 IP, 0 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 1 HBP, 1 SO
RP Alexis Diaz: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SO
LF Alejandro Osuna: 2-5, 2B
DH Trevor Hauver: 3-4, HR (1), BB

In the 6th, I’d seen Emiliano Teodo loosening in the bullpen with the score knotted at two, not with serious intent yet but perhaps heading toward a 7th-inning entry. But when the first two runners reached against Robby Ahlstrom, it was Peyton Gray who immediately warmed in earnest. Ahlstrom escaped with a strikeout and two comebackers.

Gray replaced Ahlstrom and dealt a scoreless 7th and 8th. He missed six bats including four (on six swings) with the changeup. Gavin Collyer entered the 9th up a run. Jose Azocar lined an honest double with one out and reached third on a groundout. Then, on an 0-2 count, Collyer reared back and delivered a 100.5 MPH fastball to the upper-in edge of the zone, but Chadwick Tromp managed to punch it short the opposite way for a game-tying single. 

It may just be dumb luck that Gray and Collyer were scheduled to pitch on nights in which high-leverage situations occurred, but it’s also clear that both are trusted in these situations, seemingly more so than Teodo. 

Here’s the top speed of everyone who’s reached 100 in an Express uniform since 2022:
101.7 — Alex Speas, 2023
101.2 — Emiliano Teodo, 2024
100.5 — Gavin Collyer, last night
100.3 — Jonathan Hernandez, 2023
100.1 — Yerry Rodriguez, 2022
100.1 — Jack Leiter, 2024

Teodo would enter in the 10th, and unfortunately his outing was just as rough as last Friday’s. He again hit the first batter, and the gift-runner on second would advance to third and home on wild pitches. 

Alexis Diaz replaced Teodo with one out and the bases loaded. Given his tumultuous spring, that sounds like gas on a fire, but Diaz was surprisingly solid last Saturday and strongly hinted at the possibility of returning to MLB-level quality. Seven of Diaz’s ten fastballs were hotter than his maximum Arizona speed of 94.7, topped by two at 97 even. Most were either in the zone or near enough to create three misses and two calls. The slider missed another bat but was generally ineffective, and one skipped to the backstop to plate another run. Still, on the whole, some encouraging signs. 

Trevor Hauver was compensated for being robbed of a homer on Sunday. Then, his 107 MPH / 30-degree blast somehow traveled only 356 feet. Last night, his 103 / 29 shot bounced off the bullpen canopy well beyond the 407 sign in deepest left-center. 

The 28-year-old Bergner had 282 productive AA innings and 88 violent AAA innings (8.22 ERA, 18 homers) entering 2026. He barely escaped the 1st (an annoyingly cheap solo homer, a no-doubt homer, a walk) but needed only 31 pitches to breeze through the next three. Getting him into the MLB starting depth discussion will take some doing, but hopefully he can be a capable AAA starter or swingman. 

Your starting lineup:

Other News
OF Dairon Blanco passed through waivers and was outrighted to AAA Round Rock. We’ll see whether he accepts. 

OF Braylin Morel was placed on the 60-day Injured List. He’d been announced as part of low-A Hickory’s initial roster. 

Hickory IF Yolfran Castillo made Baseball America’s list of “50 MLB Prospects Who Impressed Scouts Entering 2026.” ($ link)

Gore-Tex Trade Assignments
Gavin Fien was assigned to low-A Fredericksburg and is notably listed as an IF/OF. Joining him is OF Yeremi Cabrera, who spent all of 2025 at the same level with solid results. I thought he’d be promoted, but not yet. Getting the assignment to high-A Wilmington is IF Devin Fitz-Gerald despite only 41 games of pro experience including just ten in low-A. 1B Abi Ortiz was already playing for AAA Rochester, and RHP Alejandro Rosario is out the season with elbow issues.