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2021 Texas Rangers

CowtownHorn

By CowtownHorn
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mdmost
mdmost

Holy shit. We're done with him.  

shadow_operative2.0
shadow_operative2.0

Fuck yeah!!!! 

mdmost
mdmost

Happy for Wash. 

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MC Fresh Breath

MC Fresh Breath 4075

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The Athletic had a good article on your minor league prospects.

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The Rangers’ minor-league system has jumped out to a composite 22-7 record, the second-best winning percentage in baseball. Texas is also one of only two organizations with a farm club that remains undefeated.

The value in this dominant run can be debated. When minor-league teams win, organizations insist that learning how to close games out and nail down wins together is a plus for any cluster of prospects. When the records aren’t so pristine, the usual party line is that wins and losses aren’t important as long as players are developing, which is the only real objective.

But unless an organization is stacking its affiliates with players too old or too advanced for their level, it typically takes production — and development — from key players to win at high rates. So when a system wins 20 games before it loses 10, both boxes are almost always checked.

Here’s a look at some of the chief Rangers prospects who have jumped out to hot minor-league starts and helped the organization explode out of the gate.

Round Rock Express (Triple A West/East Division)

One of the constants in the six-year pro careers of first baseman Curtis Terryand infielder Yonny Hernandez has been their hitting coach. Seventh-year instructor Chase Lambin, making his own march up the chain with the Rangers, has been with each infielder in parts of four different seasons. For Lambin, seeing the 24-year-old Terry and 23-year-old Hernandez put themselves on the verge of a big-league conversation — Terry with a .458/.500/1.083 start and a league-leading four home runs through six games and Hernandez with a .474/.600/.570 line, a league-leading five steals and twice as many walks as strikeouts — has been tremendously rewarding.

“When I had Yonny and Curt in extended (spring training early in their careers), we used to call it the ‘The Jungle,’” Lambin recalls. “And if you wanted to get out of the jungle, you better fight, scratch and claw. You better bring your machete and be ready to throw down.”

There’s been a lot of scratching and clawing for Terry and Hernandez. Each has spent multiple years at multiple levels. Terry has been left off the 40-man roster through two Rule 5 Drafts, Hernandez three times. Their paths to Triple A have not been linear, but they’ve been a big part of Round Rock’s 5-1 start and could find themselves in Arlington later this season.

Express manager Kenny Holmberg has had years of experience with both in his role as the organization’s infield coordinator since 2016. He’s seen progress in Terry’s game at first base, but he knows it’s the bat that will get him to the big leagues. “(He) has learned himself and what he is capable of,” says Holmberg of Terry, who is not only slugging .527 as a pro but also reaching base at a .361 clip. “He’s a hitter who can survey the field and do what the game asks him to do.”

“Curt was overlooked at times in his career,” Lambin adds. “He’s developed a resilience, grit and chip on his shoulder that not many players have.”

Terry struggled somewhat over a 12-game schedule at the alternate sites to keep advanced prospects game-ready before the start of the minor-league season. Hernandez did not. The 5-9 switch-hitter batted .308 with a .413 on-base percentage in the April ramp-up against Astros and Royals squads, piling up more walks than strikeouts as he’d done his whole career.

Hernandez’s nickname — “the mosquito” — strikes Lambin as a perfect fit. “He’s a pest in the batter’s box, in the field and on the bases. He’s relentless. His energy, attitude and competitiveness are contagious. He makes other people raise their game. That’s why his teams always win.” A quick check confirms this: The primary teams Hernandez has played for each season since 2015 have a collective .610 winning percentage — the equivalent of a 99-win big-league season.

“Yonny is a starter, a finisher and everything else in between,” says Holmberg, who, like Hernandez, played all over the infield and was an on-base threat during his own pro career. “He’s got some kind of awareness and instincts to play this game, knows himself, trusts himself and plays the game to win.”

Terry and Hernandez are helping their team win a lot right now.

It’s no surprise to Lambin. “To this day, Curt will look at me and say, ‘I got that machete today, Chase. They better watch out.’”

Frisco RoughRiders (Double-A Central/South Division)

The Rangers were eager to see the season get underway for former first-round picks Davis Wendzel and Bubba Thompson, who were both in need of at-bats. The infielder Wendzel came into 2021 with only 24 plate appearances as a pro, slowed by a thumb injury his draft summer (2019) and then shut out of a season due to COVID-19 in 2020. Thompson, an outfielder who will be Rule 5 draft-eligible this winter, missed two-thirds of his second full season in 2019 with wrist and foot injuries before losing the opportunity to reestablish himself in 2020. Both are asserting themselves at the plate and in the field in the early going of their Double-A debuts.

Wendzel, the 2019 Co-Big 12 Player of the Year (along with fellow Rangers prospect Josh Jung) when the Rangers selected him with a draft pick they’d acquired for reliever Alex Claudio, flashed some of Terry’s game and some of Hernandez’s over Frisco’s first week of play. Wendzel not only sat among the Double A Central’s top five in slugging (.733) and OPS (1.310) — he was also fourth with a .577 on-base percentage, drawing seven walks while striking out only three times in 26 plate appearances.

A college third baseman, Wendzel started the RoughRiders’ first four games at shortstop, followed by a game at third base and another as manager Jared Goedert’s designated hitter. Hitting third or fourth every night, the 23-year-old has scored in every game and driven in runs in half of them. Despite only seven games of pro experience coming into the season, he’s been a steady presence nightly.

“Davis is taking his good spring training directly into the start of the season,” says Goedert. “He’s as reliable as they get defensively and with the consistent quality of his at-bats.”

Down East Wood Ducks (Low-A East/Central Division)

I’ve focused on everyday players here because most pitchers have made no more than one start or a pair of relief appearances. Not one Rangers pitcher has reached double digits in innings. It would be a little silly to feature one of them after just one start.

How about after just one start as a pro?

Five of Down East’s seven season-opening wins were started by pitchers making their professional debuts. Owen White broke a bone in his hand and will miss at least a month, but the other four head toward their second starts on a roll.

As a group, Dane Acker, Tekoah Roby, Nick Krauth and Mason Englert allowed two runs in 13 2/3 innings for the Wood Ducks, striking 17 batters out while walking three.

Acker, Oakland’s fourth-round pick in 2020, has moved around a lot. He pitched for Brenham High School in 2017; Rice University in 2018; San Jacinto Junior College in 2019; the University of Oklahoma in 2020 (after declining to sign with the Diamondbacks as their 23rd-round pick in 2019); and, following a February trade that brought him to Texas with Jonah Heim and Khris Davis, the Rangers’ Low-A affiliate in 2021.

Roby was the Rangers’ third-round pick last summer out of a Florida high school, and, like Acker, was kept off the field with no minor-league ball to play in 2020.

Krauth slid through the five-round 2020 draft altogether after his own baseball odyssey — a California high school in 2017; the University of New Mexico in 2018; Diablo Valley Junior College in 2019; the University of Connecticut in 2020 — and chose the Rangers’ max free-agent offer of $20,000 to turn pro rather than return for his senior year with the Huskies.

Englert was the Rangers’ selection in 2018’s fourth round but missed 2019 after Tommy John surgery.

They’ve been as important to the Wood Ducks’ 7-0 start as anyone.

Rangers minor-league pitching co-coordinator Jono Armold worked with all four on the back fields in spring training and is among the least surprised to see them deal in their debuts.

Armold on Acker: “We’re just getting to know him but very happy with what we’ve seen so far. Fiery competitor and flashed some power stuff with recent upticks in velocity, so we’ve been mindful and disciplined in his progressive build as a starter.”

On Roby: “He’s everything you (look for in) a projectable, young starting pitcher. Fastball combined with a power curveball give him some legitimate weapons.”

On Krauth: “Has shown strikes, feel and ability to utilize secondaries to go along with some poise and creativity. While more ‘under the radar’ without elite velocity, the sum of the parts makes for some distinct pitchability and unpredictability.”

On Englert: “It’s great to see him out there competing again. All of the things we really liked about him prior to his injury are still there, along with some improved secondary pitches and strikeability within them.”

There’s been buzz on Englert and Roby since they arrived as 18-year-olds. With another couple starts like his first one, the undrafted Krauth could start to generate some himself. But Acker is the helium guy for now, three months after he was the least recognizable name in the five-player swap that sent Elvis Andrus and Aramis Garcia to the A’s for Heim, Davis and a 2020 draftee out of OU who’d made all of four starts as a Sooner. Acker threw 91-92 mph in college but knew how to pitch. A year later, he’s ramped his fastball up to the mid-90s — touching 97 in his Down East debut, striking out five and walking none in his 3 1/3-inning debut.

“Dane’s the real deal,” says first-year Wood Ducks manager Carlos Cardoza. “His stuff can overmatch hitters. Add to that he’s a fearless competitor and you have the makings of something special. And he’s only going to get better.”

It would be wrong to recommend taking the early results on the Rangers farm for what they’re worth because it’s not clear what that worth is. But whether minor-league wins matter or not, what isn’t open to question is that the organization’s strong start has been fueled by players being counted on by the Rangers to front their next several waves of prospects — players they hope will eventually help the big-league club enjoy a similar run of sustained scoreboard success.

(Top photo of Hernandez: Eddie Kelly / ProLook Photos)

 

 

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dcar00

dcar00 14909

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6 hours ago, Elmer_Fudd said:

Last Sunday was probably the peak of the season.  .500 and 3 games back.  As good as it'll get this year.

agreed.  here is the 2-18 run coming up.  20 games back at the all star break.  the good ole Rangers I know from the 70's/80's.  gonna need to bring back 50 cent beer night.

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