Frisco notes 6/8

Brief notes from the Rangers’ AA affiliate

By Coylio Jun 9, 2021, 12:45am CDT

First off: the heat is here. Summer is indeed happening this year. Officially the first game in 2021 to feature backsweat. Prepare accordingly.

Cole Winn. Line looks bad, and he certainly wasn’t his best, but he wasn’t terrible either. The stuff was there, his Trackman data looked the same as it has, he just left a couple pitches over to the wrong dudes.
In the first inning Winn put a 94 mph fastball middle-middle and Bobby Witt Jr just frickin’ obliterated it. 442 feet to dead center. More on that dude in a bit.
Winn seemed unfazed; struck out three of the next six batters he faced before getting into trouble again in the third. Here’s a beautiful second-inning curveball that painted the corner for a called third strike:

And another third-inning curveball that was....crushed by Royals’ 2017 first-round pick Nick Pratto and taken out to deep right center.

Alas. Not a bad pitch, just left a smidge too high, but Bobby Witt Jr and Nick Pratto are two of the only batters that Frisco pitching has seen this year that are really capable of punishing mistakes. Witt Jr is now slashing .254/.333/.544 with 10 homers in 2021 while Pratto is sitting at a cool .320/.465/.711 with 10 bombs of his own.
Witt Jr hit two damn home runs tonight, okay? In his third AB (now facing Frisco reliever Hever Bueno) he stroked another one out to left field, almost out of the stadium, and did a fairly uneventful home run trot that (apparently) ended with him missing home plate. Twitter is saying this is a ridiculous call, but I would kinda like to give the umpire the benefit of the doubt here, because he was right on it, and there was indeed a stutter-step and hesitation from Witt Jr as though he’d missed the plate. You be the judge.
That being said, hey, great eye by the very heady catcher Matt Whatley to spot it and appeal. Had Bueno step off and throw home and hell if the ump didn’t call Witt Jr out at the plate. Enjoy your triple.
Witt finished 3 for 4 with a walk, a double shy of the cycle, technically. He’s a beast. And a babyface. If you plopped him back onto the Colleyville Heritage high school team no one would bat an eye. Five more games watching that dude in person this week. Fun fun.

Now that I’m done drooling over O.P.P. (Other Peoples’ Prospects), back to Winn. He allowed his third homer of the night in the fourth inning and then walked the nine-hole hitter, and at 75 pitches they went and got him. Final line on a rough night for Cole: 3.2 IP, 3 hits (all homers), 5 ER, 5 Ks and 4 walks. This was the best offensive team he’s seen all year, and if they schedule him to face the Naturals again on Sunday I’m going to be very interested to see how he deals with that.
Also he’s growing a mustache.

Offensively, Steele Walker continues to pick things up. Laced a couple of balls and almost injured a couple of people. First, a line drive homer out to right field (his team-leading 6th) that someone in the Lazy River got out of the way of at the last second. Splashball. Then Walker smashed a 105-mph liner back over the pitcher’s right shoulder for a single in the 8th. He’s coming along, and is *always* a fun watch.
Sherten Apostel got a hold of one too, sending it out to dead center as BWJ did. 3 for 3 on the night with 3 RBI for him. He’s had a slow/injured start to 2021, it’ll be good to see him get things going.

RoughRiders attempted to rally and come back but couldn’t get the big hit. 7-6 final. Sal Mendez vs Plano Prestonwood’s Jon Heasley tomorrow.

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