Moving into the final stretch run
As we move into the final three weeks of the minor league season all three sides are still in the post season race (it’s tenuous for some though).
Albuquerque Coyotes 70-56, 1st
Thanks to an outstanding 12-3 record in August the Coyotes have fought themselves to the top of the division, now two games ahead of the Victoria Canucks. With six 3-game series still left to go it is vitally important that Albuquerque continue their fine form. Taito Kimmonen & Jesus Zapata have already got double figure wins while Abel van Gastel & top prospect Ramon Guerrero are on nine wins, poised to reach that double-figure target.
The batters are driving forward too, DH Guillaume Martin leads the team in homers (28) & RBI (73) while highly rated CF Chris Jenkins, in only his second pro year and his first at Triple-A, has hit 22 homers and driven in 60 runs. He needs to work on his base-running, but has 25 successful steals from 43 attempts, he is on course for posting a WAR of over four.
July Pitcher of the month: 29-yr-old starter Jesus Zapata. He made five starts in July and won four of them, he has had a good record since moving from the pen to the rotation thanks to injuries/callups but his poor control and third pitch will stop him from ever seriously be considered for Wichita. He gave up one homer and 13 runs in 28 innings pitched in the month with a 9/11 BB/K ratio.
July Batter of the month: 23-yr-old Matt Chambers hit 10 homers & 22 RBI in July as well as scoring 17 times. His triple slash line was .318/.381/.705 in 25 appearances and he walked nine times. Made a solid BBA debut last year with 124 games, but there are many 1B/DH types in the organisation pushing for those spots, it’s often the case that Wichita have to look for more than just 1B/DH ability from their DH’s
Columbus Brown Sox 78-48, 2nd
After snapping a four-game losing streak the Brown Sox have gone 6-2 over the last week or so. That has all seen Columbus slide five games back of Beloit which may well be too far back at this stage unless Brown Sox can sweep Beloit in their upcoming series in Columbus. The fall-back position is the wild card slot, Columbus hold that spot at the moment, just one game ahead of the Frederick Travellers. Maintaining good form over the last five series of the season will mean Columbus could well have a better than average chance of their first ever post-season qualification. Francisco Perez’s current record of 15-3 is the most wins by a pitcher in the entire organisation and coupled with the 2042 & 2043 1st round picks plus the 2043 second rounder also in the rotation, you can see why the Brown Sox’s are having their best ever season. Many of the position players are close to being able to sit on the Aviators bench or to platoon now (not that that says a lot lol) and players like Brian Best, Elmer Lomond & Raul Lopez will all be very serious contenders for the 2045/46 Wichita side.
July Picher of the month 24-yr-old starter Francisco Perez. It was close with Josh Hayworth & Chris Sackett also turning in eye-catching months too, but Perez just had the edge all round. In six starts his record was 2-2 and in 37.2 IP he allowed 32 hits, just three of them homers, 12 earned runs and eight walks while striking out 35 batters. With a WHIP of 1.04 for the month with a BB/9 of 1.9 & a K/9 of 8.4 Perez put up 1.2 WAR in July.
July Batter of the month: 22-yr-old Brian Best. In 24 games Best hit four homers and drove in 20 runs, he walked eight times and scored 13 times. His triple slash line was .253/.313/.462
Topeka Thunderbears 69-57, 1st
Despite producing .500 baseball in June & July as well as one game below .500 in August the Thunderbears are still hanging onto a post-season berth by virtue of being two games in front of the Grand Junction Gold Sox. Wining the division is vital to these two sides who will miss out on the post-season otherwise as they are around a dozen games adrift of the wild card race. With no direct meetings with any of the contenders in the last four series, the only influence we have is to win as many as we can and cross our fingers that it’ll be enough. 2040 #1 draft pick Bartolo Deleon is having a great year, posting his first ever pro double digit wins total (12-3) while the top three in the rotation, all highly thought of, have decent totals and ERA’s of 4.31 or below. The 2-5 slots in the batting lineup have launched 84 homers while driving in 260 runs. A lot of the sluggers on the Topeka team are hitting for very poor averages, which has been holding the team back from really getting above .500. Mike Sears & Walton Gomez are probably the best of the hitting prospects in Topeka, but even they’ve got a lot of development to do if they want to progress much higher up the levels
July Picher of the month: 21-yr-old starter Bartolo Deleon went 2-0 in his six July starts. He gave up one home run and 12 earned runs in his 37 odd innings pitched, he also walked nine batters while striking out 24. He did hit four batters, but his WHIP was 1.12 and his K/BB was 2.7.
July Batter of the month: 23-yr-old DH Dalton Hensley in30 games hit 11 doubles, four homers and walked 24 times. He drove in 19 runs and scored 17 times; his triple slash line was .333/.459/.547.