A Look at the Corpus Christi Hooks

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. So far, I've looked at the Quad Cities River Bandits and the Lancaster JetHawks. Today, it's the Corpus Christi Hooks turn. Coming in to today, the Hooks are 65-45 with a 3.73 ERA, a 1.290 WHIP and a cumulative batting line of .254/.332/.414.

The Hooks currently lead the Astros minor league franchises with their 65 wins and are slightly ahead of last year's pace as they didn't hit that mark until August 4th in 2012. The team's pitching stats are somewhat better than last year's, while the hitting stats are slightly below the 2012 team (except for slugging percentage which is roughly equivalent).

Out of eight teams in the Texas League, the Hooks offense ranks first in slugging percentage, third in on-base percentage and fourth in batting average. Notably, they rank first in home runs with 122, 17 more than the second ranked team, and second in doubles. And, although they are respectably third in walks, they are first in strikeouts with Domingo Santana's 118 K's and George Springer's 96 leading the way. Much like Lancaster, the top 20 lists for the Texas League are littered with Hooks players.

OF George Springer, who has been in Oklahoma City for the last 32 games, is still in the top 20 in batting average (6th), OBP (4th), SLG (1st), Runs (10th), 2B (T15th), home runs (4th), RBI (5th), Walks (T12th), and stolen bases (T4th).

Current Hooks players in the top 20:

C Rene Garcia - BA (4th), OBP (14th), Hits (20th)
3B Jonathan Meyer - BA (15th), OBP (20th), SLG (20th), Runs (15th), Hits (10th), 2B (T12th), HR (T16th), RBI (8th), BB (T20th)
1B Erik Castro - BA (20th), OBP (10th), SLG (10th), Runs (14th), 2B (T15th), HR (T12th), RBI (T15th), BB (T15th)
OF Domingo Santana - OBP (17th), SLG (11th), Runs (12th), 2B (T19th), HR (T7th), RBI (T15th), BB (T17th)
SS Jio Mier - BB (T12th)

If Max Stassi had enough at-bats to qualify, he would rank in the top 10 in batting average, in the top 20 in on-base percentage and would be second only to George Springer in slugging percentage with a .573 mark.

Now, let's look at the pitching. The team as a whole ranks third in ERA and fourth in WHIP. The good news/bad news is that they have issued the fewest free passes, but they have also struck out the fewest batters.

On an individual level, two current Hooks stand out on the Top 10 list in the Texas League. RHP David Martinez leads the league in wins, ERA and WHIP. RHP Bobby Doran is tied for sixth in the league in wins, and is also sixth in ERA and WHIP.

RHP Mike Foltynewicz would be in the top five in ERA and in the top 10 in WHIP if he had enough innings to qualify. RHP Nick Tropeano is ninth in the league in strikeouts. RHP Asher Wojciechowski and RHP Jake Buchanan both had incredibly good numbers prior to their promotions to Oklahoma City.

Out of the 'pen, LHP Pat Urckfitz leads the way with 36 appearances and seven saves. RHP Andrew Robinson is coming on strong; in 11 appearances in July, he has a 1.46 ERA and a 0.909 WHIP. And Jonas Dufek, newly promoted from Lancaster, has only appeared twice, but has been perfect in three and two-thirds innings while striking out five.

Corpus Christi is guaranteed a playoff berth, having won the first half of the season. They have the best overall record in the Texas League and are 2.5 games ahead of San Antonio in the overall standings. In the second half, they are in second place with a 23-17 record and trail San Antonio by one game. The playoff picture will be highly dependent on all of the promotions and changes that occur during this final full month of play. The promotion today of LHP David Rollins should help the team greatly as they currently have no lefty starting pitchers. However, if David Martinez and Max Stassi get promoted, which I find to be highly likely, those will be some very large cleats to fill. The good news is that with the current depth in the Astros minor league system, the reinforcements shouldn't derail any playoff hopes.

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