Pacific Coast League – Page 2

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.

I appreciate everyone’s understanding while I took some time off to take care of things in the real world, but its time to get back to baseball and so much has happened since I’ve been gone. Let’s start off with the fact that the first half of the season is over, and two teams have been crowned first half Division Winners. In the International League that honor goes to the Norfolk Tides, Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles who finished the first half with a record of 48-26 and leaving Durham 8.5 games behind at 40-35. The first half Division Winners in the Pacific Coast League goes to the Oklahoma City Dodgers who had the best record in Triple-A going 50-23 in the first half. The Round Rock Express came in second by 6.5 games and a record of 44-30. Each team has secured themselves home field advantage in the playoffs scheduled for September 28-30 at their respective ballparks.

The River Cats ended their first half with a record of 34-40 and tied for last in the Pacific Coast West with the Las Vegas Aviators. The good news is that they don’t have the worst record in the league as that goes to the Albuquerque Isotopes who are alone in the cellar with a lowly record of 27-48, which they can be consoled in the fact that the Oakland A’s in the Major Leagues have a record of 20-60 thus far.

Speaking of the Oakland A’s, it’s a sad state that the disaster that owner John Fisher has created has trickled down to the team’s Minor Leagues as all but one affiliate is in last place with the worst records in their leagues. The only team that isn’t in last are their Double-A Midland Rockhounds who with a record of 32-37 are only a half game ahead of cellar dwelling Frisco Rough Riders who are 31-37. Stockton is feeling it the worst with a 25-41 record which gives A’s fans not much hope as this is their future.

Kyle Harrison has for the most part figured it out at Triple-A and fans are a buzz around Twitter waiting for the call-up. The front office has not made a move, and that 7.07 walks per nine innings pitched isn’t helping him one bit. On the bright side it was announced on Monday that Harrison was named to the All-Star Futures game for the second consecutive year.

While Harrison has yet to get the call, many other River Cats have made their debuts since I last wrote. Keaton Winn, Ryan Walker, Casey Schmitt, Luis Matos, and Patrick Bailey have all made their Major League debuts and contributed for the Giants. Matos was so hot that he went from Double-A to Triple-A and on to the Majors in less than 30 days!

The second half of the season starts tonight, and every team gets a clean slate for the second playoff spots in each league but lets take a quick look at your Pacific Coast League leaders thus far and how the River Cats players stack up to those numbers. The league leader will be on the left and the River Cats player will be on the right.

HITTING

Average: Phillip Evans (Reno) .364 – Michael Gigliotti .256

OPS: Domenic Canzone (Reno) 1.071 – Michael Gigliotti .772

HR: Jo Addell & Trey Cabbage (Salt Lake) 21 – Will Wilson 11

RBI: Cody Thomas (LV) 73 – Will Wilson 40

Runs: Canzone, Evans, Kennedy (Reno) 58 – Clint Coulter 41

Stolen Bases: Matt Batten (EP) 23 – Tyler Fitzgerald 13

PITCHING:

Wins: Cody Bradford (RR) 8 – Nick Avila 8

ERA: Cody Bradford (RR) 1.82 – Jorge Guzman 3.00

WHIP: Cody Bradford (RR) 0.93 – Nick Avila 1.31

Strikeouts: Kenny Rosenberg (SL) 82 – Kyle Harrison 82

Saves: Matt Festa (Tacoma) 12 – Erik Miller 2

These numbers say a lot about where each team ended up in the standings during the first half of the season. Reno was atop the Pacific Coast League West, the Division which includes Sacramento, and Round Rock was second in the Pacific Coast League East behind only the OKC Dodgers.

The Dodgers really have such a solid team that no one is leading the league in any statistically category and none of the hitters are in the Top 10 of all but one offensive category where Devin Mann, Jahmai Jones, and Michael Busch are all Top 10 in OPS (On-Base Plus Slugging). The real magic appears to be coming from their pitching which has at least one player in the Top 10 of every category, and that’s all while pitching in the hitter friendly Pacific Coast League.

Well, it will be fun to see how the second half plays out; do cellar dwellers rise to the top or does it come down to the last game of the regular season where Reno and Round Rock battle for that second playoff spot? The second half starts tonight, June 28, as the Reno Aces roll into Sacramento for a six-game series.

Tag: Pacific Coast League

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