Wilson was part of a busy week of transactions at the upper levels
The Las Vegas Aviators made a number of roster moves, but settled in with Jacob Wilson in their starting lineup and he has had a few good games to start. Elsewhere in the Oakland Athletics system the Midland Rockhounds got great weeks from Colby Thomas and Brennan Milone, while the outfield duo of Henry Bolte and Brayan Buelvas continue to rake in Lansing.
Game Results
Record: 18-21, 4th in PCL West, 7 GB
2-4 last week
Season stats
Top Performers
It was a busy week for the Aviators, less so with the performance on the field and more with the slew of roster moves. The Athletics put Zack Gelof, Aledmys Diaz, Freddy Tarnok, and Scott Alexander on rehab assignments in Las Vegas, giving the roster a significant boost in interest. They also moved around quite a few pitchers, promoting and then demotion Royber Salinas and Brady Basso over the past couple of weeks, along with sending Tyler Baum back to Midland. The biggest move was Tyler Soderstrom returning to Oakland where he really deserved to be at this point. Soderstrom has hit well all spring, save for a bit more swing and miss than you would like, and as of now ranks second among Triple-A hitters in average exit velocity. He has been keyed in on everything and that has carried over to Oakland where he hit the ball hard last week.
It could of course be argued that the biggest move was Jacob Wilson’s promotion to Triple-A, a result of an incredible start to the season for Oakland’s top prospect. Wilson keeps advancing up the ladder and keeps proving that it doesn’t matter what level of pitching he faces because he can hit anything. He struck out only once in 20 plate appearances, and has only three strikeouts across he past 71 plate appearances dating back to his time in Midland. On the other hand his contact quality took a step back, with most everything coming on the ground and only three hard hit balls.
Also of significant note was the return of Max Muncy from the injured list, and Muncy picked right back up where he left off. Muncy reached base six times across the three games he played, and had a couple of hard hit balls which fell for his two hits. The player for the Aviator that has been particularly hot lately has been Logan Davidson, who started his season off on a dreadful streak but managed to work his way all the way up to a 105 wRC+. Last week was by far his best as he had a .462 OBP and struck out less than 20% of the time, but even with that his strikeout rate has remained astronomical for the season and he is heavily reliant on a .479 BABIP. Davidson has been hitting the ball harder lately and making contact, so if that continues we will hopefully see some regression in that strikeout rate and continued success from Davidson.
Pitching-wise the A’s decided to promote JT Ginn to Triple-A and it worked quite well. Ginn did a number on the Express lineup, forcing 20 total whiffs with 11 of them coming on his slider. This has been by far the best usage for Ginn with that slider, and really with all of his pitches. He kept his sinker down and worked the ball east to west, locating that slider on the outside corner for plenty of whiffs. The lack of mistakes was notable compared to other starts we’ve seen from him. Freddy Tarnok was significantly limited in his outings, going 26 total pitches across two appearances. Tarnok overall looked to have the shape and life on his pitches you would hope, but seems far away from where his command needs to be to get a chance back in Oakland. With no lower level rehab appearances under his belt prior to this it seems he may still be very early in the process, and just having his velocity and spin working is at worst something to carry into future starts.
Game Results
Record: 21-12, 2nd TL South, 0.5 GB
4-2 last week
Season stats
Top Performers
Overall this season has felt better than the numbers suggested for Brennan Milone, and I came away seeing a guy who hit the ball hard consistently though perhaps the contact rate wasn’t what I was hoping for. Last week though finally it seemed like everything fell in place for him as he posted a wRC+ north of 200 and finally pushed his season numbers up well above league average where it felt like he deserved to be. Milone hit his fourth home run of the week last week, taking a ball into the bullpen the opposite way and just sneaking it over the short porch there. Colby Thomas has been the second-best hitter of the lineup, with flashes of fantastic play interspersed with stretches where he’s pretty bad. Last week was a microcosm of that, where he had six hits and three extra base hits in his first three games then finished off the week going 1-13. Thomas makes more contact than you would expect given how his swing is geared — he swings hard and is always looking to make impact contact. Thomas’s .258 isolated power is the fourth best mark among qualified Texas League hitters, but his lack of patience on the edges has been the biggest cause of those stretches of poor play.
Overall I feel like things are slowly rounding into shape for Denzel Clarke. He has bad games where he looks really bad, and the approach he had last year has regressed somewhat, but he has felt more and more like the player he was last year with each passing week on the field. He has some 3 strikeout games like on Friday, and the bad plate appearances are still too often, but he seems to be finding the better feel for spin and hitting the ball hard with more consistency. It may be the second half of the season before he really gets going, but I’m ready to write off the first couple of months as a layoff-induced fluke if Clarke can continue to progress. I feel less confidence in Gunnar Hoglund. He hasn’t been terrible — he has hit enough spots to be effective and has kept the ball away from hitters enough to get whiffs — but his stuff is just not good enough to survive the amount of mistake he has make. He gets hit too hard too often, and the seven home runs against him this year are the biggest sign of that. He could have enough stuff to be a back end starter but it’s hard to feel confident unless his slider can get back to dominant form.
Game Results
Record: 16-17, 3rd in MWL East, 4 GB
4-2 last week
Season stats
Top Performers
Henry Bolte is a ton of fun when he is going good, and right now he is hitting the cover off of the ball. The strikeouts remain high, but they’ve been in a reasonable range at 31.6% over the past two weeks, and that has come with a 19.3% walk rate. Bolte is also hitting the ball hard when he does make contact, and he ended out the last week with home runs in the final two games. Bolte’s ultimate ceiling is going to be very approach dependent. His swing — both its effort and mechanics — is going to lead to high strikeouts. It’s about making good swing decisions and maximizing the contact he does make in order to be a consistent performer, and he has done very well with that over the past few weeks in turning in a solid season.
The question I have is how long it is before Brayan Buelvas ends up at Double-A. He’s over 130 games at the High-A level now across three seasons, and with each passing week seems more and more like he is too advanced for the competition. He walked in 25% of his plate appearances last week while striking out only three times. Buelvas is making more contact, drawing more walks, and hitting for more power than ever before and is probably in need of a more serious challenge.
Luis Morales had a game that really reflected where he has been overall so far this season. Morales walked four batters across three innings of work, and right now his command is just not at a place where he is able to utilize any of his pitches to consistent success. There are certainly markers in place for Morales, as his velocity has been good and he has been able to miss bats, so once he gets back in a rhythm the feeling is that he should be able to hit a good gear. It just seems it will take some time for him to get his feel for location back as it’s never been his natural strength.
Game Results
Record: 13-18, 4th in CAL North, 10 GB
3-3 last week
Season stats
Top Performers
Myles Naylor ended his week with a bang, going yard in the final at bat of his week on Sunday. Naylor has really struggled and hasn’t had multiple hits in a game since April 24th, and his swing is just not consistently allowing him to catch pitches in the zone. When he does he can drive pitches well, with four home runs out of his 16 total hits, and he hasn’t been chasing out of the zone too often especially given his age and experience level.
Nate Nankil has been the best and most consistent performer on the roster, and seems to get better each week he plays. Last week he struck out only one time, but unfortunately he left after only one at bat on Friday and didn’t return to the game. Much of Nankil’s success can be attributed to an older bat facing Single-A hitters, but it’s been notable to watch the bump in raw power as he has already reached five home runs this season to match his college career high. If Nankil can continue to hit for power like that it would be a huge boost to a profile that seems to have enough hit and defense to be a corner outfielder.
It has not been a great start to the season for Steven Echavarria, who walked and struck out three in each of his first two starts this year. Echavarria’s command isn’t there right now, and the expectation is that it won’t be for awhile, but similar to Morales’s situation right now he just can’t land competitive pitches at a rate high enough to really excel. There is still no need to panic, as it’s only two starts right off of the injured list and Echavarria had 8 whiffs in three innings even without command of the edges.
ACL Athletics
Game Results
Record: 4-3, 2nd in ACL East, 0.5 GB
Season Stats
Top Performers
In his fourth season in the Athletics system infielder German Ortiz is having a good one in the complex league, with twice as many walks as strikeouts through seven games so far. His 1.246 OPS leads the team. There have been no crazy standouts from the pitching staff, though coming off of a solid 2023 season in the DSL 18 year old pitcher Manuel Perez has had a couple of solid starts. On Friday Perez went three scoreless innings with three strikeouts and no walks.
