Athletics Minor League Recap: Soderstrom homers on opening weekend

Rain on Saturday made it a short series for the Aviators, but full action will kick up this coming week

The Oakland Athletics minor league season started up on Friday, with the only team in action being the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators. Vegas didn’t even have a full schedule with their Saturday game being postponed due to rain, getting in two disappointing losses where the offense fell flat.

Las Vegas Aviators

Opening weekend didn’t give Vegas the results they had hoped as the offense struggled in two losses against Reno. Max Schuemann was the only player to really put up a strong showing in the first few, kicking off the season by reaching base twice on Friday and then going 2-3 with a walk on Saturday. Tyler Soderstrom had only one hit last weekend, but it was a big one as he smoked a fat fastball over the center field wall to put a small positive note on a blowout loss. Max Muncy will be a key name to watch for the team this season given his aggressive promotion, and it was unfortunately not a good opening weekend for him. Muncy did only strike out once and notched a hit, but didn’t hit the ball particularly hard. Joey Estes struggled mightily in his season debut as the Aces hit three home runs off of him to pile up five runs over four innings.

The Aviators head all the way out to Texas to take on Sugar Land this week, where they will face three of Houston’s top 10 prospects. Elsewhere the rest of the full season affiliates will open play on Friday and we should start getting official rosters in the coming days (our post on Lansing will be up later today). Midland will be hanging out just down the road from the Aviators in Corpus Christi, and for both spots the weather looks good though they could face some rain in their Sunday games. Lansing will start their season on Wednesday in the Crosstwon Showdown against Michigan State’s baseball team, then head to Dayton to take on the Dragons for their official season opener. Stockton is the lone team to open at home, and will be taking on the Modesto Nuts.

Transactions:

3/31 - Adrian Martinez designated for assignment

4/1 - Esteury Ruiz optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas