A Look at the Lancaster JetHawks

This week I'm taking a late season look at the full season Astros minor league affiliates, how their 2013 campaigns have played out and some individual accomplishments. Yesterday, I looked at the Quad Cities River Bandits. Today it is the Advanced A Lancaster JetHawks turn. Coming in to today, the JetHawks are 63-46 with a 5.07 ERA, a 1.440 WHIP and a cumulative batting line of .291/.385/.474.

Lancaster was the first Astros affiliate to 60 wins in 2013. They got there on July 23rd, a full two and a half weeks before they achieved that feat in 2012. This year's team is roughly equivalent to last year's in terms of pitching stats, but the 2013 offense is clearly ahead of the 2012 team's cumulative batting line of .283/.353/.448. And the difference is the depth of talent. The California League top 20 list for offensive categories is littered with JetHawks players.

OF Preston Tucker, who has been in Corpus Christi for the last 31 games, is still in the top 20 in batting average (3rd), OBP (14th), SLG (6th), home runs (17th), and RBI (5th), but once he falls off the list, there will be plenty of JetHawks to take his place:

3B Matt Duffy - BA (4th), OBP (9th), SLG (7th), Runs (5th), Hits (7th), HR (T10th), RBI (T2nd)
DH M.P. Cokinos - BA (8th), OBP (8th), SLG (16th), 2B (T7th), RBI (T7th)
OF Chris Epps - BA (10th), OBP (10th), SLG (4th), 2B (T4th), HR (T20th), RBI (20th), BB (T9th)
2B Delino DeShields - BA (11th), OBP (12th), Runs (9th), Hits (19th), 3B (T5th), BB (13th), SB (2nd)
OF Brandon Meredith - BA (20th), OBP (6th), SLG (9th), Runs (14th), HR (T18th), BB (T9th)
SS Nolan Fontana - OBP (3rd), Runs (6th), BB (1st)
OF Andrew Aplin - OBP (16th), Runs (1st), Hits (6th), 2B (T2nd), 3B (T20th), RBI (1st), BB (2nd), SB (T14th)
1B Telvin Nash - HR (T15th)
IF Joe Sclafani - BB (T15th)

In addition, if Joe Sclafani had enough at-bats to qualify, he would rank fourth in the league in batting average and second in on-base percentage. Ridiculous, huh? An embarrassment of riches. The team leads the league in every single offensive category except triples (fifth out of 10), home runs (second) and stolen bases (fifth). One of the best stats? The JetHawks have drawn a total of 519 walks, 116 more than the next highest team total.

Yes, some of the hitters don't fare as well away from the hitter-friendly confines of The Hangar, but Duffy and DeShields, in particular, have very good home/road splits and Nolan Fontana and M.P. Cokinos actually do better away from The 'Caster.

Now, let's look at the pitching. The staff as a whole ranks tenth out of ten teams in ERA, seventh in WHIP and sixth in strikeouts. On the good side, they have issued the fewest free passes of any team in the league. Overall, the staff hasn't been bad at all, but many of the pitchers have struggled for consistency. A good example of this would be LHP Luis Cruz who has been simply brilliant at times, including participating in a tandem no-hitter in May, but looking at his ERA by month from April through July (3.47, 9.28, 1.97, 8.14), you can see that he has lacked consistency. But his 1.365 WHIP ranks 14th in the very tough California League, and he is third in the league in strikeouts with 114 in just over 100 innings.

Other pitchers who rank in the top 20 in the league are LHP David Rollins, and RHP Brady Rodgers. Rollins has been the breakout star of the starting rotation this season. His 3.98 ERA ranks sixth in the league and his 1.161 WHIP ranks fourth. Rodgers is 15th in WHIP (1.431). RHP Aaron West lacks enough innings to qualify, but would be in the top 20 in both ERA and WHIP if he did have the innings.

Relievers LHP T.J. Geith and RHP Jonas Dufek both recently graduated to Corpus Christi. In his return to Lancaster, LHP Kenny Long (1.59 ERA/0.618WHIP in 10 games) is showing a return to his 2012 and early 2013 form. RHP Michael Dimock and Cameron Lamb have done solid work out of the 'pen as well. Travis Ballew is second in the league in saves, but has struggled during July.

Two others of note are LHP Tommy Shirley and LHP Blair Walters. Shirley has really come on strong in his last 10 outings with a 2.53 ERA and a 1.125 WHIP. He has been used as both a reliever and a starter and has thrived in the starting role. Unfortunately, he left the game last night after two innings with what was characterized as arm discomfort. I am hoping that he will bounce back quickly. Walters has a 2.53 ERA and a 0.938 WHIP in his last seven appearances out of the bullpen.

New to the staff is RHP Mike Hauschild who, after struggling in his first outing, was terrific in his next two. I look forward to seeing what the extreme ground ball pitcher can do in a ballpark for which he was made.

It's a little bit hard to get a handle on this pitching staff. There are a lot of moving parts and most of them are moving in different directions with one player doing well while another struggles. Most of the pitchers on the staff have performed extremely well at one point or another. The talent is there. The consistency of that talent remains the question mark.

Lancaster is guaranteed a playoff berth, having won the first half of the season. They have the best record in the South Division at 63-46 as compared to the North Division leader San Jose who has a 64-45 record. Lancaster also leads the South Division in the second half of the season, two games ahead of second place team Inland Empire. Both the offense and the pitching on this club have been streaky at times. If they can get into a groove during this last few weeks of the season, it will go a long way toward getting them back to the California League Finals and a chance at back-to-back rings. The talent is definitely there. As Morgan Ensberg would say, "They are really good players."

For my earlier take on the short season teams ~
DSL Astros
GCL Astros
Greeneville Astros
Tri-City ValleyCats