Welcome to the 1st edition of the Texas Rangers Farm Report. We’ve had a series of minor league baseball for each team in the Rangers farm system to start 2022. Round Rock got the season started last Tuesday so they have played six games while the Frisco RoughRiders, Hickory Crawdads and Down East Wood Ducks have played three.
There have been some fantastic performances for each team and we’ll highlight those for the first few games of the 2022 season.
Round Rock (3-3)
For Round Rock, the Express started the season with a three-game skid but have since won three in a row. They will go for their 4th win in a row today in Sugar Land against the space Cowboys.
Leody Taveras is currently leading at the plate with his 1.262 OPS, which was helped with his 5-5 game. Leady along with Josh H. Smith, Nick Tanielu, Sam Huff and Bubba Thompson are tied with home runs at 1 each.
Josh H. Smith played center field for the first time in his career. It was also the same night that he hit his home run.
Cole Winn (2.25) pitched on Friday and it happened the be the first game of the season that the Express won. He pitched 4 innings, striking out two.
Jake Latz (3.00) has pitched 9 innings and has whiffed 9 batters while issuing 3 walks.
Frisco (2-1)
Frisco saw some dominant outings from the starting rotation, though they were limited by pitch counts. They have a staff ERA of 5.33 runs per game currently which is 5th in the Texas League.
Left-hander Cole Ragans pitched 3.1 scoreless innings, giving up 3 hits, issuing a walk and striking out 7.
Jack Leiter was dominant in his debut against the Travelers. He pitched 3 innings, giving up one run on one hit, two walks and 7 strikeouts.
At the plate, catcher David Garcia is leading the team with 4 RBI. as he recorded a multi-hit game going 2-4.
Ezequiel Duran has impressed at the plate, hitting the ball hard. He almost hit a ball out of the park at the center field and has a current line of .364/.417/.545/.962 with 2 RBI.
Dustin Harris hasn’t quite found his rhythm at the plate striking out 5 times out of his 12 at bats.
Surprisingly, the line-up has only produced one home run. It came off the bat of JP Martinez. Of course, I’m not reading into this as we are only three games into the season.
Hickory (2-1)
The Crawdads are arguably the best team in the Rangers farm. Their rotation is fantastic just like Frisco’s and they have a heck of a line-up as well.
Cristian Inio, Scott Kapers and Chris Seise each have one home run this season. Chrstian Inio is also leading the team with an 1.346 OPS, 7 RBI, and two doubles.
Aaron Zavala is still searching for his 1st hit of the season but has drawn 7 walks in his 15 plate appearances.
Left-hander Juan Mejia pitched 2.2 innings and struckout 5 batters. TK Roby (2.70) pitched 3.1 innings and struckout 4. He gave up a solo home run and threw 55 pitches.
Ricky Vanasco is getting his 1st start tonight.
Down East (0-3)
Outfielder Yosy Galan is one to watch. He is leading the team with an average of .375 and a 1.319 OPS. Right behind him in average is catcher Efrenyer Narvaez with a .333 average and 1.222 OPS. They each have a home run but Efrenyer leads the team with 4 RBI.
A walk is as good as a single and outfielder Marcus Smith leads the team with 3.
On the mound Joshua Stephan (4.50) leads the team with 4 innings pitched and 7 strikeouts.
