MadFriars Week in Review: May 21 through May 26

It was a mixed week across the system as Fort Wayne stayed hot and the rookie league club stretched out their lead atop the division, but the Missions and Storm offenses scuffled badly.

We had live coverage from the ACL from Thursday through Saturday. Now that we’ve finished off our interviews from San Antonio with a piece with righty Victor Lizarraga and Missions manager Luke Montz, we’ll have content from the desert and Lake Elsinore this week. As always, you can get all of our premium content by subscribing now.

El Paso Chihuahuas (Lost series to Sacramento River Cats 2-4)

Top Performers: Rancho Bernardo High School star Calvin Mitchell, 25, had his best series of the year, blasting three home runs and a triple in four games for a .333 batting average and a 1.511 slugging percentage. The left-hander was a second-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2017 and spent the first six years of his career there, making 237 plate appearances in the big leagues with a .627 OPS. This season in El Paso, he has played both corner outfield positions and has a strikeout rate of 17.8% and a walk rate of 13.7% – both significant improvements on his numbers in Triple-A Indianapolis last year, where he posted a .748 OPS after having a .948 OPS in 2022. … Austin Davis, the 31-year-old with the colorful nickname “Big Fudge,” had the best week of the pitching staff, making three one-inning appearances without allowing a run or a hit. He struck out three against one walk. Davis has five years of big league experience and mainly relies on his sinker/sweeper combo to get outs. This season in El Paso, he had a 3.38 ERA in 18.2 innings with three saves. He has an excellent 27:10 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Top Prospects and Others of Note: Outfielders Óscar Mercado, 29, and Bryce Johnson, 28, had solid weeks. Mercado, a former top prospect in the St. Louis Cardinals organization, hit .375 with two doubles, a triple, and a home run, while Johnson hit .475, reaching base ten times in 18 plate appearances. … Longtime MadFriars favorite Chandler Seagle, 28, made the most of his one opportunity this week, going 2-for-4. … It wasn’t a great week for the top two position players in El Paso, as Graham Pauley hit .217, and Eguy Rosario went just 2-for-15. Pauley made the most of his limited hits, collecting three doubles and two home runs. He also had four walks against eight strikeouts. He has a slash line of .253/.402/.506 with 23 walks and 20 strikeouts in 26 games in the PCL. … Nick Hernandez, 29, had another solid week coming out of the bullpen with seven strikeouts against one walk in three innings. He gave up one earned run in two games. … Randy Vásquez, 25, had the best performance of any starter in a brutal week at Southwest University Park. The righty allowed two earned runs in 4.1 innings while striking out six on Sunday. (John Conniff)

San Antonio Missions (Won series at Wichita Wind Surge, 4-2)

Top Performers: Pitching carried the day for the Missions, particularly in the bullpen. Bobby Milacki led the way, appearing in two games without allowing a run in 5.1 innings. He struck out five and only allowed three hits and no walks. Milacki, 27, who signed as a minor league free agent in 2022, has a 2.70 ERA in 16.2 innings with a 16:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio. The big right-hander, the son of a former major league pitcher, relies more on movement than velocity. … San Antonio continued to struggle for offense this week, and Cole Cummings, 26, provided some support with a .736 OPS in 21 plate appearances that included a double and a home run. On the season, Cummings has the best offensive numbers of any Mission at .252/.333/.397.

Top Prospects and Others of Note: Jared Kollar continues to have a strong season. The 25-year-old righty started twice on the week, posting a 4.00 ERA across nine innings. He struck out eight against one walk. … Victor Lizarraga navigated through five scoreless innings in his start, striking out four against three walks. At 20, he is one of the youngest players in the Texas League and so far has a 2.81 ERA in 25.2 innings and seven starts with a breaking ball that is much more consistent than last season. … In addition to Milacki, Omar Cruz, Carter Loewen, and Ethan Routzahn were all impressive coming out of the bullpen. Cruz, 25, got into two games, threw four innings, and gave up the lone run of the trio with five strikeouts against two walks. Loewen, 25, also appeared in two games, and the Vancouver, Canada tossed three shutout innings with five strikeouts and no walks, but hit one batter. Rounding out the bullpen stars, Routzahn, 26,  appeared in a staff-high three games and didn’t allow a run in four innings while punching out four against one walk. … It wasn’t a great week for the bats. Marcos Castañon had the best numbers other than his former UC Santa Barbara teammate Cummings, posting a .273/.360/.318 slash line. (John Conniff)

Fort Wayne TinCaps (Won series vs. Lansing Lugnuts 4-2)

Top Performers: Righty Enmanuel Pinales tossed the system’s best game of the season, throwing seven shutout innings and allowing only one base runner while striking out a career-best nine hitters.  While the 23-year-old has been difficult to hit all year (.161 BAA), this was his first start of the year without issuing a walk. The 23-year-old has 42 strikeouts and 15 walks while posting a 2.60 ERA in 34.2 innings in his second season stateside. … After a miserable start to the season, Lucas Dunn had one of the best weeks of his career.  Entering the week the 25-year-old had a .357 OPS and had three hits – all singles – in the entire month of May.  He went 7-for-14 on the week with three doubles, a home run, 3 runs, and four RBI, good for a 1.517 OPS for the week and raised his season-long OPS by almost 200 points to .547. The versatile defender is still down significantly from his production in Fort Wayne last year.

Top Prospects and Others of Note: Nearly four years after he was drafted out of high school in North Carolina, Jagger Haynes pitched seven innings for the first time in his career and collected his first win. The 21-year-old lefty allowed one run on four hits, walked three and struck out five.  After pitching to a 21.21 ERA in his first three starts of the year, Haynes has a stellar 2.42 ERA this month and has gone six-plus innings in three of his four starts. …Righty Dylan Lesko seems to be finding his groove. He made his second straight five-inning, one-run appearance, allowing just two hits while striking out six. He still walked three and hit a batter, but Midwest League hitters are only batting .160 against him on the year. … Ethan Salas hit in all five games and collected his first home run of the season as he looks to get on a hot streak. For the week, the 17-year-old catcher hit .368/.455/.579 with 5 runs and 7 RBI.  Salas also stole his fourth base of the season. He has now stretched his hitting streak to eight games. Over that stretch, Salas has more walks and extra-base hits (five each) than strikeouts (four). … Homer Bush Jr. continued to do what he does best… steal bases.  The speedy centerfielder stole four more bases this week, giving him 14 for the month, and a league-leading 24 for the year. The Grand Canyon University standout hit .316/.350/.421 for the week with five runs and two doubles. … Outfielder Tyler Robertson had started to lose playing time due to poor play.  He had made one start in the five games when he came on as a replacement Wednesday, but he proceeded to double, homer, and knock in five.  He would homer again the next day and finish the week with 8 RBI, tying his total for the entire month of April.  Robertson hit .284/.359/.451 last year, and this week’s stellar performance helped him raise his OPS back to a palatable .669. … Nerwilian Cedeño hit .333 on the week with a double. The big-money IFA signing in 2018 is trying to find his footing after a slow start to the season. … Henry Baez had a tough outing on Friday that was mercifully cut short by the rain with the bases loaded and two outs in the second inning after he had already allowed two runs to score. Due to the short start, Baez came back on Sunday and pitched four shutout innings allowing only one hit.  The 21-year-old who broke out with the Storm last year, is currently sitting at a 4.46 ERA and a 9.7 K/9 rate. … Francis Pena continues to be one of the most dominant relievers in the MWL. The 21-year-old did allow an unearned run in two innings this week, but held on to collect his second save. In 21 innings this season, Pena has allowed just two earned runs while holding opponents to a .178 average. … Fellow righty reliever Bradgley Rodriguez is matching Pena pitch-for-pitch.  Since allowing five earned runs in his first two outings in Fort Wayne, Rodriguez has tossed 11.1 scoreless innings and allowed just five hits. The 20-year-old, who sits at 97-98 mph, pitched two more scoreless innings this week giving up two hits and striking out two.
Transactions: Albert Fabian who was the player of the week last week, homered again on Tuesday but had to leave Wednesday’s game after injuring his left leg while trying to make a leaping catch in left. He was placed on the 7-day-IL with no set timetable for his return.  He finishes May hitting .302/.400/.512 leading the team with 18 RBI. (Ben Davey)

Lake Elsinore Storm (Lost series to San Jose Giants, 5-1)

Top Performers: The Storm struggled mightily, losing five of six to the San Jose Giants to finish their season series just 3-9 against the Giants. Collectively, the Storm hit a paltry .165/.281/.245 in the six-game set. … A .245 team slugging percentage won’t lead to many wins, but it would have been even worse without Romeo Sanabria. The power-hitting first baseman hit .318/.423/.545 with two doubles and a homer. He also drew four walks. With Jay Beshears now in Fort Wayne, the offensive load has mostly fallen on Sanabria’s shoulders. To his credit, he’s been one of the best players in the Cal League this season. He ranks in the top five in the Cal League in batting average (.323), slugging percentage (.519), homers (6), and walks (31). … The Storm got another solid pitching effort from lefty Fernando Sanchez, who allowed one run on two hits over five solid innings. He walked one and struck out seven despite not picking up the victory. The 23-year-old from Sonora, Mexico, is in the midst of his finest professional season after being a bit of an organizational arm the past few years. In 22.2 innings, he has a 2.78 ERA with 31 strikeouts and just six walks. 

Top Prospects and Others of Note: The only Storm hitter other than Sanabria to post an OPS north of .800 was utilityman Wyatt Hoffman, who had one of the best weeks of his professional career. The 25-year-old hit .214/.368/.429 with his second career homer – his first since the 2022 season. Hoffman started the season as a backup but has been pressed into duty due to injuries and the trade of Dillon Head. Hoffman has played five different positions defensively and pitched in two games as a mop-up man. Hoffman has a .360 on-base percentage this year but a 33.5% K-rate is a major concern. … It was a tough week for Leodalis De Vries who finally made his home debut during the series. The 17-year-old went 3-for-18 with two runs and a double in four games. The prized shortstop struck out seven times in the series and is hitting .194/.275/.290 overall with a 37.7% strikeout percentage in 15 games since joining the Storm. … Infielder Rosman Verdugo also struggled against the Giants, going 3-for-20 with a double, a walk, and 10 strikeouts. The 19-year-old infielder has already doubled his home run total from 2023 while bouncing around the infield this year. He has also increased his walk rate to a solid 13.4% this year but strikeouts have been an issue. He’s punched out in 32% of his plate appearances – a total he will look to reduce as the season marches on. … Isaiah Lowe struggled on Saturday. He lasted just 2.2 innings, and allowed five runs on seven hits, walking two and striking out five. The outing, his worst of the season, inflated Lowe’s ERA from 2.78 to 4.26. (Kevin Charity)

ACL Padres 6, ACL Royals 5 (10 Innings)
(4-1 on the week)

Key Stats: SS B.Y. Choi 1-for-3, 2B, BB, LF/CF Spence Coffman 1-for-4, 2 RBI; RF Colton Vincent 2-for-5; LHP Braian Salazar 2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 4 K, 1 BB; LHP Adler Cecil 2 IP, 1 H, 3 K, 1 BB; RHP Bernard Jose 2.1 IP, 1 H,1 R (0 ER), 3 K 1 BB

Prospect Watch and Top Performers of the Week: The Padres needed 10 innings and three-and-a-half hours to defeat the Royals Monday night, but Colton Vincent came through with a two-out RBI single to cap off a strong week for the club with a walk-off victory. … Lefty Braian Salazar lead things off on the mound, tossing two innings as he works to get out of the rehab group and get fully turned loose for the year. The 18-year-old lefty has worked 10.2 innings across five outings this year, striking out 15 against nine walks. … Righty Bernard Jose, stretched out to 2.1 innings of work as the game went to extra-innings and turned in a gem. The 21-year-old, who signed last spring, gave up just one hit and an unearned run in his outing while striking out three. He lowered his ERA on the year to 1.42.

The week’s top pitching performance came from the club’s youngest player, righty Jesus Lopez, who tossed four one-run innings and struck out eight in his start Thursday. Lopez, who joined the organization exactly one year earlier, got hit hard in his first start of the year, but has turned in two quality outings in a row. Righty Maikel Miralles made a pair of scoreless appearances on the week, striking out five over 2.1 innings. The 19-year-old has showed some good life on his fastball on his way to 14 strikeouts in 9.1 innings of work this year. Opponents are hitting just .121 against him. … Spence Coffman had a strong week at the plate, hitting .368/.429/.421 in 21 plate appearances. He also converted all four of his stolen base attempts. The 20-year-old from Mississippi has been at the complex since the Padres drafted him in the 19th round in 2022. … Yendry Rojas, who is seeing most of his action at third base went 4-for-14 and drew five walks. The left-handed hitter is making louder contact in his second pass at the ACL this year. (David Jay)