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Thursday, April 24, 2014

Astros Minor League Snapshot

Another week under the Astros minor leaguers belts ... let's see how they're doing at the end of Week Three of the season.

OKLAHOMA CITY REDHAWKS

1st   12-8   .600   0.0GB   W1

After yesterday's off day, the RedHawks remain in first place in their division, holding a one and a half game lead over the Iowa Cubs and the Omaha Storm Chasers. The 'Hawks will not face Iowa until July 3rd, but have a series coming up in Omaha the first weekend in May. In the interim, they will have an 8-game home stand against Nashville (9-10) and Round Rock (10-9). OKC hasn't faced Nashville yet this season, but they went 2-2 against Round Rock in the opening series of the season.

Jon Singleton ranks at or among the top of the league in several offensive categories, including most home runs (8) and most RBI (25). Austin Wates still leads in stolen bases (8) despite his current disabled list stint. Domingo Santana is tied for second in the league in doubles (8). Rudy Owens (0.931) and David Martinez (1.000) are in the top 10 in the league in terms of WHIP.

CORPUS CHRISTI HOOKS

3rd   11-8   .579   2.0GB   L1

The Hooks are currently in third place in their division, two games behind Frisco and a half a game in back of Midland. Corpus Christi is 2-1 in their current series with Midland and could take second place back from the RockHounds with a win tonight. That will be followed by a four-game home series against Frisco, against whom the Hooks are 1-3 this season. After that, it's off to Midland for a road series. The Hooks' fate over the next nine games in is their own hands. It will be interesting to see where they stand a week from now.

Preston Tucker is among the league leaders in slugging percentage, runs, hits, doubles, home runs and RBI, while Andrew Aplin ranks highly in on-base percentage and RBI, and leads the league in walks with 18. Matt Duffy and Nolan Fontana are tied atop the leader board with seven doubles each (and Duffy is also in the top 10 in RBI). Delino DeShields is tied for second with his six stolen bases.

On the pitching side, there are several standouts but no one stands out quite so much as lefty Tommy Shirley at this point. He is fourth in the league in ERA (1.56), third in WHIP (0.865) and tied for second in strikeouts with 22. Fellow lefty Luis Cruz is also in the top 10 in ERA (1.99) and WHIP (1.059). Brady Rodgers (1.61 ERA) and Aaron West (1.110 WHIP) also have top 10 numbers. Ross Seaton with his 12th place ERA of 2.65 was just promoted to Oklahoma City yesterday.

LANCASTER JETHAWKS

2nd   13-7   .650   1.0GB   L1

The JetHawks dropped a game behind High Desert with an extra-inning loss to Inland Empire last night. The 'Hawks have one more game against Inland Empire who they are leading 2-1 in the series before heading out to Rancho Cucamonga (5-15) for three over the weekend. They will then face High Desert (against whom they are 3-3 this season) at home starting Monday.

Tony Kemp is all over the leader board with top 10 rankings in average, on-base percentage, hits, doubles, walks, stolen bases and a league-leading 27 runs scored. Teoscar Hernandez' six triples lead the league, and he also ranks in the top 10 in slugging percentage, runs, hits, RBI and stolen bases. Others ranking in the top 10 offensively are Rio Ruiz (doubles), Carlos Correa (RBI) and Brandon Meredith (home runs).

Vincent Velasquez (1.29 ERA and 0.667 WHIP), Kyle Westwood (2.05 ERA and 0.864 WHIP) and Kyle Smith (2.37 ERA and 1.053 WHIP) are all in the top 10 of the league in those categories. Josh Hader has the second most strikeouts in the league (29); Vincent Velasquez and Mike Hauschild also rank in the top 10 in strikeouts.

QUAD CITIES RIVER BANDITS

T6th   9-10   .474   4.0GB  W2

The River Bandits are currently tied for sixth place in the division (out of eight teams), trailing the Kane County Cougars by four games. The Bandits are only a half game behind Clinton who they will be playing tonight for the final game of a series which they lead 2-1. That will be followed by three road games against third place Peoria before hosting Clinton at home starting Monday.

Bandits who are among the league leaders in offensive categories are Tyler White (OBP), Conrad Gregor (hits), Brett Phillips (hits) and James Ramsay (BB, SB). On the pitching side, only Andrew Thurman's strikeouts rank in the top 10, but that is because Gonzalo Sanudo (0.00 ERA and 0.846 WHIP) hasn't pitched enough innings to qualify as a league leader; similarly, Kent Emanuel's 0.933 WHIP would rank highly had he pitched a couple more innings. The terrific relief performances from Tyler Brunnemann (0.79 ERA & 0.529 WHIP) and Patrick Christensen (1.29 ERA & 1.000 WHIP) would also rank in the top 10 if they qualified.

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