A Look at the Oklahoma City RedHawks

Last week, I started taking a late season look at the full season Astros minor league affiliates, how their 2013 campaigns have played out and some individual accomplishments. Click on the links to see my take on the Quad Cities River Bandits, the Lancaster JetHawks, and the Corpus Christi Hooks. The final team I will be looking at is the Oklahoma City RedHawks. Coming in to today, the RedHawks are 66-50 with a 4.10 ERA, a 1.391 WHIP and a cumulative batting line of .275/.350/.409.

The RedHawks didn't get to 66 wins last season until August 17th. The team's pitching stats are considerably better than last season's when the RedHawks ended the year with a 4.89 ERA and a 1.508 WHIP. As to offense, this year's team has an almost identical on-base percentage, but lags slightly in batting average and slugging percentage.

The team ranks seventh in batting average in the league (out of 16 teams) and 10th in slugging, but their OBP is tied for fifth which is reflective of their fifth place ranking in walks (they are 14th in strikeouts). The team is toward the very bottom of the rankings in doubles and home runs while they are in the middle of the pack in triples. The only category in which they are in first place is stolen bases.

No RedHawks players are currently in the top 20 in average, on-base percentage or slugging percentage, but that is only because many of the players don't have enough at-bats to qualify as league leaders. OF George Springer (.336/.434/.656) and 1B Brett Wallace (.326/.398/.554) would both be in the top 10 in the league if they qualified. And OF Jimmy Paredes ranks at or near the top 10 with his .319/.375/.504 batting line.

Other top 20 worthy players include IF Ruben Sosa (BA), OF Trevor Crowe (BA and OBP), OF Austin Wates (BA), IF Jake Elmore (BA, OBP, SB), OF Marc Krauss (OBP, SLG), OF Robbie Grossman (OBP, BB), IF Brandon Laird (HR, RBI) and OF Che-Hsuan Lin (BB, SB). Brandon Laird is tied for third in the league in doubles, and SS Jonathan Villar is second in stolen bases and tied for sixth in the league in triples.

Now, let's look at the pitching. The team as a whole ranks sixth in ERA and fourth in WHIP. One of the things that has hurt the team are the walks issued. They have issued the third most walks in the league while ranking 14th in strikeouts.

On an individual level, two RedHawks pitchers stand out as leaders in the Pacific Coast League. RHP Asher Wojciechowski is ranked first in the league in WHIP with a 1.079 mark and his 2.81 ERA is second. RHP Jarred Cosart ranks fourth in ERA (3.29) and 12th in WHIP (1.333). Cosart is also 14th in strikeouts, but is tied for fifth in walks allowed, something he was working to improve prior to his callup.

Two other pitchers would be in the top five in the PCL if they had enough innngs to qualify. RHP Brad Peacock's 2.73 ERA would put him in second place in the league ahead of Asher Wojciechowski and RHP Jake Buchanan's 3.00 ERA would land him in the top five. Peacock's 1.101 WHIP and Buchanan's 1.156 WHIP would rank second and third in the league.

Also of particular note is RHP Jason Stoffel's 2.22 ERA and 1.130 WHIP in 34 appearances out of the bullpen. His stats are actually better than the recently promoted RHP Josh Zeid, although Zeid is tied for eighth in the league in saves, despite moving into the closer role later in the season.

Oklahoma City is making a strong, late push for a division title and playoff berth. A ten-game win streak has pushed them into first place in the division with a three-game lead over Albuquerque. How the RedHawks will do for the remainder of the season and into the playoffs will depend greatly on how the team fares after the recent callups of so many of their players and who else may be called up in September.

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