Contemplating the Crawdads

(pictured, Carlos Pimentel)

I've been a bad Ranger's minor league fan lately. When the Rangers are 10 games over .500 and your job in public education is in jeopardy, it becomes too tempting to stay home and watch the big league game on TV.

How about some quick Crawdads thoughts!? That's what I thought...

-How much longer is Mike Bianucci going to be around? He's second in the league in hitting (.340/.402/.610). The RF has 7 HR's, 18 doubles, and a respectable 18% strikeout rate in 159 AB's. After starting slow, then going on a tear, Mike is becoming much more consistent at the plate. I don't know what else the organization wants him to prove.

-On the day Joe Wieland was promoted, his best friend Clark Murphy got sent back to Arizona. Murphy hit well in a small sample size during rookie league ball last year. Hopefully he'll be able to get the instruction he needs back in Surprise. Look for him in Spokane. I don't know that he'll ever be a legit first baseman defensively.

-Richard Bleier, the first Hickory pitcher to be promoted has been up and down. In 5 starts for Bakersfield he's had his doors blown off twice. To his credit, in Richard's last outing he threw a complete game shutout. Bleier has great secondary stuff but an average to slightly below average fastball. In my mind, you gotta have both. Bleier will have nice outings in the minors where he can get by on his slider and curveball, but I don't think that will translate to the big leagues.

-Christian Santana, a catcher/outfielder that Ranger fans are familiar with finally got assigned to a pro squad. Santana has 4 hits in 31 AB's with a 3/13 BB/K ratio.

-Martin Perez is sporting an ERA of 2.96 in 45.2 innings pitched. 54k's, 13 BB's. I have seen Perez 6 times now and I get the impression he can do anything he wants out there. It's just not fair to have a guy like this pitching in a league where batters can't touch a curveball.

-Carlos Pimentel, who gets much less ink than Perez, has an almost identical ERA (3.02) while pitching more innings (53.2). I said earlier in the season that Boscan was the horse of the staff, but since the injury to Boscan, Carlos has taken that mantle.

-Yoon-Hee Nam continues to maintain his magical line. Nam's ERA is .79 and he's sporting a WHIP of .67. It baffles me that I still haven't seen this guy pitch.

-The South Atlantic League has 19 pitchers (who have met the minimum requirement of .8 IP/team game) with an ERA under 3. There are only 11 hitters in the league with batting averages over .310. It's my observation that any pitcher with a plus offspeed pitch is going to cruise through this league.