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The Texas Rangers had three interesting pitching prospects starting this evening, with a mixed collection of results — John King had a strong outing, Reid Anderson had control issues, and Joe Palumbo had one bad inning.
Palumbo made his second start of the year for Frisco, and got into an early hole, allowing a home run to lead off the second, and then giving up three runs in the third, escaping without more damage because of an inning ending double play. Palumbo largely settled down after that, striking out six of the final nine batters he faced (though two of the other three were walked). He finished the night with 86 pitches in 5.2 IP, 8 hits allowed, 3 walks, and 7 strikeouts. Frisco managed to come back with two runs in the top of the ninth to get Palumbo off the hook and win the game.
Reid Anderson also made his second start of the year, and allowed just one run for Down East in 4.2 innings. He issued a career high 5 walks, however, against 3 strikeouts, after walking 4 in his previous start. Anderson is an interesting case, an older righthander (he turns 24 in August) who struggled in 2017 for Hickory, but had a nice year repeating low-A in 2018, with a 3.22 ERA in 117.1 IP. Tepid had him throwing 95-97 mph this spring, which, even in this era of crazy velocity, is noteworthy.
At 24, John King is even older than Anderson, and he’s a level behind him. However, the left handed Texas native, who had Tommy John surgery in the summer of 2017 after being drafted, was listed at #40 on Jamey Newberg’s preseason prospect list. King went 6 innings for Hickory, allowing 6 hits and 1 unearned run, striking out 4 and not walking anyone. Mark Parker had King throwing 93-94 tonight, and he’s another one of these seemingly random arms that run deep in the system and have a chance to blossom.
As far as the bats go, Hickory got home runs from Sherten Apostel, Pedro Gonzalez and Curtis Terry. Anderson Tejeda, meanwhile, continued to rip things up for Down East, going 3 for 3 with a walk. More importantly, all three hits came from the right side — Tejeda has started switch hitting this season, but has had limited opportunities so far this year to hit righty.