They call him ... Stoneburner Previous: Spokane Indians and Hickory Crawdads.
This time, we consider the Hickory Crawdads.
The GoodJoe Wieland, 20, made the jump from Low-A to High-A and, honestly, struggled a bit. Then, he settled down quite a bit even hurling a 14-strikeout, no-walk performance. Despite the struggles in Bakersfield, Wieland still wound up striking out more than a batter per inning, something he wasn't doing in Hickory.
Should probably check what milkshakes Davis Stoneburner's drinking. He doubled his career high with 16 home runs and followed up his 33 doubles in 2009 with 28 more in 2010. He hit .290 before getting a brief look in Frisco. I suspect he'll start 2011 there.
Much like Wieland, Robert Ross spent half the season in Low-A Hickory until he got the call up. He, too, struggled with the promotion posting a 5.37 ERA. Still, he too averaged almost a strikeout per inning.
Mark Hamburger was so good he got the promotion to Frisco. He posted a 1.77 ERA in Bakersfield while striking out more than a batter per inning and allowing a .221 BAA.
Fabio Castillo and Hamburger turned into a salty 1-2 punch out of the bullpen. Castillo took a step striking out 65 in 51 innings before getting a late-season look in Frisco. Opponents hit .219 off of him.
The Bad
Carlos Pimental essentially pitched batting practice allowing a .292 BAA all season and still walking 56 and striking out just 97.
Despite an injury that kept him down for a little bit, Mike Bianucci still logged as many at-bats as he did in 2009. Yet, production went down in just about every category. His batting average dropped 30 points. His home runs went from 30 to 18. Doubles, OBP, slugging, runs and hits all went down. I would consider Bianucci as a guy the Rangers expected to make a jump this season. He failed.
Wilmer Font, once upon a time, was probably this franchise's brightest prospects. It's not he's totally bad. He posted a .217 BAA, a strikeout per inning and a 3.86 ERA. Still, he walks a ton. One day, he might start getting hit off of and with all those walks, he'll get killed. Despite being 20, you hope after several years in professional baseball, it would've clicked.
Hitting .248 with 126 strikeouts can be offset with a bunch of home runs and RBIs. Unfortunately, we're getting the poor average and strikeouts sans the home runs (a measly 10 after bashing nine last season) from Tommy Mendonca. This was his MO coming out of college, but there were expectations for that bat to get bigger.
Kennil Gomez ain't been right since an injury took away half his 2008 campaign. Since, he's posted two straight seasons with an ERA over 5.00. This year, he walked a ton, gave up 14 gopher balls and a silly .321 BAA.
