Dugout Tales

The last time that we met, the second half of the season was kicking off and everything everywhere was a clean slate. The River Cats started off well enough going 6-6 into the All-Star break as they split two series with Reno and Salt Lake. Little did we know that the last game of that Salt Lake series where the Cats took the loss by a score of 3-0 would be when the wheels would come off for the second half of the season.

The OKC Dodgers started came into town for a short three game series against the River Cats and easily swept them behind two great pitching performances by Ryan Pepiot, and “Thor” Noah Syndergaard who outside of a first inning home run to Tyler Fitzgerald looked very much like his old self facing the River Cats going five complete innings and striking out six in the second game of the series.

The River Cats woes would continue when Tacoma came to town and took the first four games which extended the River Cats losing streak to a season high seven games. It wasn’t until game five of the series that River Cats were able to pull out a victory behind a Heliot Ramos walk off home run.

The scoring started early for both teams as the Rainiers took a 1-0 lead in the first before Isan Diaz hit a two-run home run in the bottom half of the inning to put the Cats on top. The score would remain the same until Randy Rodriguez would blow a save that allowed to Rainier to tie the game in the eighth before Ramos sent a ball to left center to end the game.

The River Cats would take the final game of series behind the pitching of Tristan Beck, and the glove and bat of Marco Luciano who hit his first Triple-A home run.

The next 18 games would find the River Cats going 5-13 against Albuquerque, Reno, and Las Vegas. While 12 of those games were on the road, the River Cats would find themselves in another five game losing streak, and losing five of six to Reno at home.

The River Cats are now tied with Sugarland (Triple-A affiliate of the Houston Astros) for the worst record in the Pacific Coast League at 14-25 here in the second half. If there’s any consolation over in the International League, the Charlotte Knights (Triple-A of the Chicago White Sox) have a lowly 6-33 record going into this week.

I do want to point out one thing for this second half and that has been the resurgence of the Las Vegas Aviators who were cellar dwellers in the first half of the season along with the other Oakland Athletics Minor League teams, but they have really turned things around and now lead the Pacific Coast League tied for first with the Tacoma Rainiers with a record of 24-15 which as of today is the best record in Triple-A baseball.

There have also been some bright spots along the way for Sacramento. Marco Luciano, and Wade Meckler who joined the River Cats just two weeks ago during the Reno series have both made their Major League debuts; I should say that Meckler was just called up last night and went 0-3 with a walk in his debut batting second against Tyler Glasnow and the Rays. Meckler had a meteoric rise to the Majors as he was drafted in the 8^th round of the 2022 draft out of Oregon State. In 69 Minor League games in 2023 that have taken Wade from Eugune, OR (High-A), Richmond, VA (Double-A), and Sacramento, CA (Triple-A) Meckler has hit .379, and a .985 OPS with five home runs and 46 RBI.

Another bright spot has been Tyler Fitzgerald who now leads the River Cats in all offensive categories. Tyler is now batting .291, with 15 home runs, 51 RBI, and 20 stolen bases to boot. Will he be a 20/20 man this season? The River Cats have 36 games left, and off the top of my head I can’t remember if there has been a 20/20 player in team history. Tyler has always stood out to me from when I first saw him play for Salem-Keizer in the Northwest League. I went to watch the Volcanoes play Boise in 2019 so that I could interview Hunter Bishop and Alex Canario, but it was Tyler and Logan Wyatt who stood out that weekend. Logan is currently playing at Double-A Richmond.

_{Tyler Fitzgerald – 2019 Salem Keizer Volcanoes}

On the mound, Nick Avila is tied for the most wins in all of professional baseball with 13 at the time of this writing and has zero losses on the season. I know that wins don’t carry the same weight they once did, but it’s still cool as he has four wins more than the next pitcher closest to him in the PCL, and while he doesn’t qualify because of the minimum innings requirement he actually has a slightly better WHIP than the league leader in the PCL at 1.34 to Tacoma’s Darren McCaughan’s 1.35.

I had something happen to me a few weeks ago that I’ve never experienced and also was a first for the player involved. I was sitting in the first row of the Dugout Club seats at Sutter Health Park, and I was fiddling with my camera when a visiting player came up to me on his way to the on deck circle and asked how I was. I replied with a simple, I’m good, what about yourself to which he replied, “I need a knock” and we both laughed. He made some small talk with me while he was warming up on deck when we made a gentlemen’s bet over a pinky swear. The bet was to help motivate him to get that “knock” that he needed.

On the mound for the River Cats, Miguel Yajure.

First pitch was high and in, ball one. The next pitch was a changeup that missed high, ball two.

Yajure gets a curveball in for strike one. The count is now 2-1.

Slider, swing, drive, gone. 402 feet to dead center field.

I can usually keep my emotions in check when I’m at games but an audible “No f*cking way” rang out as I watched the ball sail over the centerfield fence for a two-run home run. As he stepped on home plate, he pointed at me with the biggest grin on his face and I laughed and applauded him. We officially introduced ourselves to each other later and that’s when he told me that nothing like that has ever happened to him. It was an experience that we can both share for years to come. A week later he was traded to another organization, and I wish him the best there and hope that he gets the opportunity to play in the Majors.

The San Francisco Giants for the second year in a row selected a two-way player in the first round of the 2023 Major League Draft when they chose Bryce Eldridge with the 16^th overall pick. While we don’t know how long he will be a two-way player as a professional it is intriguing that the Giants followed up last year’s first round pick Reggie Crawford, also a two-way player, with another two-way player. Do the Giants hope to strike lightning and find their own Shohei Ohtani? Speaking of Ohtani, is this a sign that they have no real plans in pursuing him in free agency? Or is this Farhan Zaidi being smart and frugal by basically getting two players with one draft pick? Will this be the new trend? Many baseball players who get drafted are “two-way” players at the amateur level but are usually selected as one or the other once they turn pro. The first two-way threat that I can recall in recent history who played two-ways as a professional is Brendan McKay who the Tampa Bay Rays selected fourth overall in the 2017 Draft. Hunter Greene selected second overall by the Cincinnati Reds was also a considerable threat but was drafted as a pitcher and has been a dominant arm who quickly rose through the Minor Leagues and making the 2022 Opening Day roster for Cincinnati.

McKay has become an interesting career to follow. He won the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award all three years he played at the University of Louisville, and added the Golden Spikes and the Dick Howser Awards his junior year as well. Projected to go number one or two in the draft overall, McKay slipped to number four. McKay’s hitting has been less than stellar throughout his professional career, but his pitching has been great which led the Rays eventually to converting him to a full-time pitcher by 2022 with his 94mph fastball, a nice curve, and a sinking changeup.

McKay made his Major League debut in 2019 and split time between the big club and Triple-A Durham. He would get Covid early on in 2020 and then shut down shortly after his return due to shoulder tightness. McKay returned in 2021 starting only seven games before having surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome and then Tommy John in 2022. The Rays would release McKay after the 2022 season, only to resign him to a Minor League contract but he is out at least until some time in 2024 for his age 28 season, he still could have a lot to offer.

McKay is just one player, the first real project at the professional level from the amateur rankings here in the U.S. Ohtani and his greatness as both a hitter and pitcher is the obvious outlier, and Bryce could be the next success story. Bryce is a 6’7” 223-pound pitcher and first baseman from James Madison High School in Virginia. Bryce was considered the top two-way player of the 2023 draft class, and having been named Virginia’s Gatorade Player of the Year, after putting up some amazing numbers. On the mound he had a 1.06 ERA with 66 strikeouts in only 39.2 innings with his 96mph fastball and his above average grade slider. Bryce also had great numbers at the plate where he batted .422 with a .649 on base percentage, and eight home runs. Bryce’s size gives him considerable raw power from the left side, and with a short swing compared to most others his size he also makes solid contact at the plate. It will be interesting to see what the Giants decide to do with him and his performance on the mound and at the plate will ultimately be the deciding factor. This year’s Olerud Award winner Caden Grice of Clemson was selected 64^th overall by the Diamondbacks, and while no one can project what any of these players future holds, it sure is fun to watch a player exceed at the professional level as a two-way player. UPDATE: The Arizona Diamondbacks announced that Grice will focus only on pitching.

Following up on my previous post, the River Cats did pretty good against the Aces in their series leading up to the 4^th of July as they split the series 3-3. My biggest take away from that series about Reno isn’t that they aren’t an unbeatable team, it was just that they play very good fundamental baseball. No one on the team is really going to wow you, but they’re all just very good players who work hard and get the job done. Blaze Alexander, shortstop for the Aces, started the series going 2-14 before breaking out in the final game where he went 2-4 with a homerun. To say he was excited is an understatement. Kudos to Dominic Canzone as well who was called up to the Show for the Diamondbacks on July 7^th.

The River Cats travel to Salt Lake for the 4^th of July and would split the series 3-3 before going into the All Star break this week. They close out their first two second half series with a 6-6 record which puts them tied for fourth in the Pacific Coast League and only three games behind league leading Albuquerque who sit atop with a 9-3 record. The River Cats will take on Albuquerque for the first time this season July 25-30 in Albuquerque before they face off in Sacramento on August 29-September 3.

After the break, the Oklahoma City Dodgers will make a visit to Sutter Health Park in Sacramento for a three-game series starting on July 14th, followed up by six games against the Tacoma Rainiers before the River Cats go back on the road.

In other news, Heliot Ramos who is on a rehab assignment with the River Cats was named Pacific Coast League Player of the Week where he batted .483, with a 1.103 Slugging Percentage, 1.603 OPS, with 14 hits, nine of which were for extra bases, including four home runs, and 10 RBI.

Author: Dugout Tales

Pinky Swear

Expanding Horizons