Minor League Review: Best of Weeks, Worst of Weeks

The Hops had a great week, the Rawhide had an awful week, and Billy Corcoran had both.

Quick Round Up

Reno earned a split in Salt Lake by winning the final two games. Hillsboro won their series but saw their seven game winning streak come to an end yesterday. Amarillo won a lone game and Visalia was swept. All in all, it was a 9-15 week. Not ideal. But there were some notable events.

Seven Numbers

15, which is the number of games it took Druw Jones to reach double-digit hits last year. In 2024, he collected his tenth and eleventh hits on April 26. To that point, he was hitting .212 with a .435 BABIP. He had 29 strikeouts against just nine walks. This year, he reached ten hits in thirty plate appearances and in six games, with eight strikeouts and four walks. Or, to look at it another way, he scored ten runs in the past week (and has 15 overall in nine games), while last year it took 24 games for him to score ten runs. Jones has 15 hits on the young season, for a .385/.455/.462 slash. His BABIP remains sky-high, so those numbers will drop some, but he also looks better at the plate overall.

11, which is the number of players with more walks than strikeouts across the system. Nowhere is this more noticeable than in Hillsboro, where the Hops have five players (Demetrio Crisantes, Cristofer Torin, Ben McLaughlin, Gavin Logan, and David Martin) with more walks than strikeouts, and two others (Ryan Waldschmidt and Anderdson Rojas) who have an equal number. The Hops have averaged over six walks per game, and only one player (Junior Franco) has taken a plate appearance for them without drawing a walk. Top prospects Tommy Troy and Slade Caldwell are also walking more than striking out, but they are the only players currently doing so at their respective levels.

.694, which is the highest OPS posted by the Hillsboro Hops in a full season. Currently, the team OPS sits at .828, a figure that would obliterate that mark. This time last year, the team as a whole had three home runs; this year, they have ten.

Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

10, because every starting pitcher on Sunday began the day with an ERA over 10. Grayson Hitt took his below 10, and while Billy Corcoran’s remains above 10, he cut it practically in half with his five scoreless innings. Roman Angelo saw his go the other direction, and Yordin Chalas saw his remain in about the same position.

8, which is the number of runs Billy Corcoran allowed in 1+ innings of work on Tuesday. But it’s also the difference between the runs he allowed on Tuesday and those he allowed on Sunday. In his first five innings across his first two starts, Corcoran allowed 13 runs on 15 hits and walked four while striking out just three. (Those three were all in a row after giving up a grand slam in the first inning of Tuesday’s start.) But yesterday, he worked five shutout innings while striking out six and walking just one. He got 12 whiffs, good for fifth across all of AAA. Most impressive: despite two terrible starts, when yesterday’s game started with Zach Neto reaching on an error and he went to a 3-0 count on the second batter, things didn’t snowball. In fact, he struck out the side and largely cruised thereafter.

2, which is the wins the Amarillo Sod Poodles have gotten with Spencer Giesting on the mound. It’s two more than the wins they have in games not started by Spencer Giesting. Giesting has a 2.61 ERA in 10.1 innings. The rest of the starting rotation has a 12.73 ERA in 23.1 innings. Avery Short pitched much better his second time out, but Roman Angelo has already allowed 18 earned runs in the short season. Add in the 17 unearned runs the Soddies have surrendered, and it’s easy to see why they are just 2-7. Despite their pythagorean record of 3-6, it’s hard to argue they’ve been unlucky.

4, which is the number of doubles Tommy Troy has so far this season. It’s also the most doubles of any player below AAA, where they’ve played six more games. His 1.212 OPS leads the Sod Poodles. He’s slashing .406/.587/.625. He’s drawn 12 walks against just eight strikeouts. Yes, his defense is still an adventure (five errors already this season) but he’s never had a run with the bat like this since joining the professional ranks. Four is also the number of players in the organization who have reached base more often than not thus far this season, among qualified players. In addition to Troy, Slade Caldwell, Ryan Waldschmidt, and Cristofer Torin boast OBPs of over .500. (Ben McLaughlin and Gavin Logan do as well, but they lack the plate appearances required to qualify.)

Player of the Week (Officially!)

Photo by John E. Moore III/Minor League Baseball via Getty Images

While the Sod Poodles had a rough week on the field and now find their record a putrid 2-7, Tommy Troy performed so well that he was named Texas League Player of the Week! Across six games, Troy collected 11 hits and was on base 22 times. That averages out to 3 2/3 times on base per game.

Unheralded Player of the Week

It’s probably safe to say that no kid grows up dreaming of becoming a statistical leader for a minor league team. At least not anymore, with so few local teams, none of which sign their own free agents. Perhaps a century ago things were different.

But even if it is not a life goal, someone has to lead minor league teams in various statistical categories. And while it may not be anyone’s dream, it might be more of an accomplishment to lead a minor league team in hits, or innings pitched, or appearances. After all, this requires one to be good enough to be employed in baseball for quite some time. And it is not a sign of a bad career; Tim Tawa is the franchise leader for the Amarillo Sod Poodles in a number of categories, and is currently a major leaguer. Ildemaro Vargas leads the Reno Aces in several categories and has had a good career in baseball. Perhaps neither of them have been stars, but simply to play in the major leagues is a great athletic accomplishment (unless you’re Charles Faust, that is.)

Yesterday, Eli Saul extended his record for most pitching appearances in Hillsboro Hops history with his 77^th appearance for the franchise. It’s highly doubtful that he ever thought of doing so while playing in the Dunbar Little League in British Columbia.

Saul was originally a 29^th round pick by the Rangers out of Prince of Wales Secondary School in Vancouver. He didn’t sign and attended Sacramento State. His freshman year started off as a mixed bag; he made a couple of midweek starts and posted a decent WHIP, but also had an ERA of 8.59. His first ever appearance came against the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos, one of the better teams in California outside of a major conference. But any chance of building on those numbers in conference play was eliminated by the pandemic. He struggled in 2021 but pitched well in 2022 and was drafted in the 13^th round by the Diamondbacks, this time signing for $125,000.

This puts Saul squarely in the unlucky group of players who had their careers sidetracked by COVID but didn’t stay in college long enough to take full advantage of the transfer portal.

Saul isn’t like many pitchers chosen in the later rounds, in that he’s never been a high-strikeout guy. But that didn’t stop him from blazing through the lower levels of the system in 2023. After just four appearances in Visalia he moved up to Hillsboro, where he spent most of the year. He made 38 appearances for the Hops that season, and while he initially struggled, he was pitching well enough by the end of the season to get two games in Amarillo.

But then it was back to Hillsboro in 2024, this time for the entire season. And back there again for the start of 2025. So far this year he’s allowed just one earned run across three appearances (4.2 innings) with three strikeouts, two walks, and a hit batsman.

To say that Saul has toiled in anonymity might be an understatement. He’s seen multiple classes of players moving through the system; a teammate on the 2023 Hops team (Yilber Diaz) has already reached the majors, and most of the prospects currently in the upper minors were on that team. And he’s been largely working middle relief; in his 77 appearances, he has just eight decisions. He hasn’t started a game since 2023. The Hops seemingly haven’t tweeted about him since 2023. He’s a guy who shows up to work, does his job, and doesn’t receive much notice. Every baseball team needs a few guys like that. It’s unfortunate that when they play anywhere below the big leagues, they don’t get the appreciation they deserve.

But none of this means that Saul is a bad pitcher, or that he has no chance of eventually reaching the major leagues. If he didn’t have stuff that makes the organization think he could succeed, he’d be gone. The Diamondbacks have already moved on from multiple players taken in that 2023 draft, one of whom signed for an identical bonus.

Despite spending his third year in Hillsboro, Saul is just now the average age for the level. He signed young and won’t turn 24 until August. And while the Hops are a young team, there are multiple pitchers on the roster older than Saul. So he still has time on his side. And he still throws a mid-90s fastball and has the makings of a breaking pitch that should miss more bats than it does.

Breakouts are hard to predict. A couple of years ago, some people were writing off Tawa. And, to be fair, looking at his .765 OPS in Amarillo, it makes sense that some would. But he made some adjustments, started demolishing the baseball, and was the first call-up in 2025.

Whether or not Eli Saul winds up in the big leagues eventually, he’s etched himself into the record books in Hillsboro. And fans there will remember him. Some kid in the Portland area going to Hops’ games now will, years from now, remember watching Eli Saul toil away.

Injuries

First, the good news. Christian Montes De Oca and A.J. Vukovich are back, and Blaze Alexander is in Reno on a rehab assignment.

Bad things happened in Amarillo. Gavin Conticello suffered what appeared to be a lower-body injury while running the bases on Friday night; he initially stayed in the game but left after running into the right-center gap on a fly ball. While he did not play on Saturday or Sunday, he is apparently good to go. Things got worse on Sunday, as in his lone at-bat LuJames Groover struck out swinging, and after his swing-and-miss strike three dropped his bat and grabbed at his left hand near the wrist. While it is too early to know for sure, the organization is optimistic that Groover avoided serious injury (hamate appeared possible from his initial reaction). Hat-tip to Jack Sommers and Michael McDermott for those updates.

Brandon Bielak went on the IL. And, while it was not injury related, Listher Sosa (suspended this spring) has been released.

Next Up

Reno returns home to face Round Rock, who (much like Salt Lake) have a scuffling bullpen. That group has already thrown 79 innings (12 more than the Aces) and has a 5.81 ERA and a 1.66 WHIP. The Express have Tucker Barnhart on their roster. They are managed by a Doug Davis, but not the pitcher. Amarillo heads to Frisco, one of four teams in the Texas League with a 6-3 record. Hillsboro returns home to face Spokane, and Visalia hopes to get back to some winning as they are back home to face Stockton.

Finally, watch Doug Davis, Round Rock Express manager, talk about his major league debut: