The Texas Rangers announced the winners of their minor-league awards on Friday.
Rangers announce their 2019 Minor League Award winners: Tom Grieve Player of Year: 1B Curtis Terry; Nolan Ryan Pitcher of Year: RHP Jason Bahr; Reliever: RHP Demarcus Evans; Defender: C Matt Whatley; True Ranger Award: LHP James Jones. Players will be honored before Friday?s game
? John Blake (@RangerBlake) September 27, 2019
Rangers Minor League awards
Curtis Terry won the Tom Grieve Player of the year. He played in both Hickory and Down East this year. Between both levels, he hit for a .293 average, 25 home runs along with 80 RBI. In Down East his batting average was .322 and he had an on-base percentage of .395 with a slugging of .515 and a .909 OPS.
Terry was hit by 17 pitches this year.
Jason Bahr won the Nolan Ryan pitcher of the year award. Bahr was the main reason why the Rangers agreed to take on the contract of Austin Jackson from the Giants last year. Bahr was pretty dominant at each level he pitched in. He started the year with the Down East Wood Ducks and he left with a 6-1 record and a 1.71 earned run average in 58 innings.
In Frisco, he made his 1st start on June 22nd against the Northwest Arkansas Naturals and pitched 5 scoreless innings. He allowed 2 hits, 2 walks and struck out 9. His most rough outing came on July 4th against the Amarillo Sod Poodles when he allowed 6 runs on 9 hits in 5 innings pitched. In the next game he allowed 4 runs but never allowed more than 2 runs in his last 8 starts. He ended the year in Frisco with a 4-3 record and a 3.23 earned run average and a WHIP of 1.063.
Reliever of the year is an easy one in DeMarcus Evans. The only thing that stopped Evans from being a September call-up is his walk rate.
Between Down East and Frisco he compiled a 6-0 record with an earned run average of 0.90 in 60 innings pitched. Even though he walked 22 batters in 37.2 his WHIP rate in Frisco is an incredible 0.956.
Defender of the year: Matt Whatley
Whatley is a catcher and showed his speed with 29 stolen bases. He played the year in Hickory, where he hit 4 home runs and 49 RBI, worked 62 walks and struck out 84 times in 465 plates appearances.
James Jones, the former Outfielder turned pitcher actually had a really good year. I saw him a few times in Frisco before he promoted to Triple-A Nashville.
In Frisco, he pitched to a 1-1 record and a 2.56 earned run average in 56.1 innings. He struck out 64 batters but also walked 29. In Nashville he only pitched 7.2 innings and his ERA was almost a full run higher at 3.52 and only 1 walk.
Those are the winners of the Rangers Minor League awards.
Remember, the Futures are playing another game at Dr Pepper Ballpark at 11 AM today against West Texas A&M.
