MadFriars Week in Review: August 6 through August 11

El Paso Chihuahuas (Lost series at Sugar Land Space Cowboys, 4-2)

Top Performers: Mason McCoy, 29, continued a torrid August, posting a .944 OPS in six games. For the month, the glove-first shortstop has been anything but hitting .438/.471/.625. The seven-year minor league veteran got a six-game cup of coffee with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2023 but didn’t register a hit. In 3,199 career plate appearances, the former University of Iowa Hawkeye has a .717 OPS. …  Left-hander Omar Cruz, 25, continued his breakout season, allowing just one run over 11.2 innings in a pair of appearances. The Hermosillo, Mexico native, selected from the Pittsburgh Pirates in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft, struck out 10, allowed just three hits as he threw 5.2 innings in relief, and then made a start on Sunday, going six shutout innings. In 25 innings since joining Chihuahuas, he has a 2.06 ERA and 30 strikeouts in 25 innings against nine walks. For the year, between San Antonio and the Sun City, he has struck out more than a third of the batters he’s faced while walking only 7.6% of opponents. He could be in line the next time the big club needs an arm.

Top Prospects and Others of Note: With the club playing at sea level, Kevin Plawecki was the only other Chihuahua to record an OPS above .700 for the week. The 33-year-old collected one of the team’s two homers on the week among the two hits he logged in two games. With Brandon Valenzuela and Brett Sullivan behind the plate, expect him to see more time at first base and D.H. … Jared Kollar, 25, did what Jared Kollar does; he pitched well in his one start this week and got one of the team wins, going 5.2 shutout innings and only allowing two hits while striking out five and limiting his walks to one. By any metric, the right-hander has had a great year, posting a 3.09 ERA in 99 innings between Double and Triple-A in 21 starts. In three starts (16 innings) with El Paso, he has a 2.81 ERA. … Tom Cosgrove, Austin Davis, Logan Gillaspie, Alek Jacob, Francis Pena, and Jayvien Sandridge all made multiple appearances out of the bullpen this week, and none allowed an earned run. Cosgrove, Davis, Gillaspie, and Jacob have all pitched for the major league club this year and could be called back as the Padres need more arms during their long stretch of games coming up. (John Conniff)

San Antonio Missions (Split series at the Springfield Cardinals)

Top Performers:  The versatile switch-hitting Michael De La Cruz, 31, had six hits in 17 plate appearances for San Antonio with a pair of doubles and team-leading four RBI in Missouri. This season, he has battled some injuries and has struggled with a .218 batting average and a .582 OPS while splitting most of his time between second base and catching. … Henry Baez, 21, continued to impress on the mound, having not missed a beat since moving up to Double-A. The righty gave up just one run over six innings to get one of three Missions wins on the week, striking out four against only one walk. In his three starts since being promoted, the 6-foot-3, 203-pound Dominican native has a 2.08 ERA in 17.1 innings with a 14:3 strikeout to base-on-balls ratio. He has asserted himself as one of the top starting pitching prospects remaining in the San Diego Padres minor league system at this point.

Top Prospects and Others of Note: Another recently promoted Mission, Romeo Sanabria, 22, collected six hits, including a homer, in five games for a .881 OPS. Sanabria had a .926 OPS in 59 games with the Storm to open the year, then hit .262/.343/.393 in 34 contests with the TinCaps. … Marcos Castañon, 25, hit the other home run for the Missions and had six hits in six games for a .829 OPS. After posting a solid .813 OPS between Fort Wayne and San Antonio last year, he is at .681 this year. … Lefty Ryan Och, 25, was the star coming out of the Missions bullpen this week, recording six strikeouts in three scoreless innings across two appearances. and only allowed two hits and gave up one walk. Och, a Minnesota native who went to the University of Southern Mississippi, started the year with the TinCaps as he worked back from Tommy John surgery that cost him all of 2023, but has added a gear since being promoted to Double-A. He’s struck out 31 against only six walks in 19 innings while posting a 3.32 ERA in the Texas League. … Fellow reliever Raul Brito, 27, also pitched well in his two appearances, throwing 5.2 scoreless innings with five punchouts against two walks. … Ryan Bergert, 24, continued his rebound since missing a month to rework his delivery, working 4.1 scoreless innings. Since his reboot, the Padres’ sixth-round pick in 2021 has worked back slowly, only throwing 14 innings through his first five outings, but he has shaved almost a full run off his season ERA in the process. … Bradgley Rodriguez, 20, brought his big fastball to the Alamo City and recorded four strikeouts across 1.2 innings in three appearances without allowing a hit or a walk. Rodriguez came into the year having not thrown an official pitch in the U.S., but with a fastball that can touch 100 and a changeup and slider that both grade out exceptionally well, he has proved to be almost unhittable at three levels this season. (John Conniff)

Fort Wayne TinCaps (Won series at South Bend 4-2)

Players of the Week: It’s been a tough season for Ethan Salas, but for what feels like the first time all year, he had a fantastic week at the plate. The 18-year-old recorded a hit in five of the six games and had an extra-base hit in four straight to hit .261/.320/.652 with three doubles and two home runs. While this is the first time the results have come close to matching the quality, the prized prospect has only struck out in 15.7% of his plate appearances over the last six weeks. That is a marked improvement from the 25% rate he posted earlier in the season. … Jagger Haynes had the rare opportunity to make two starts in the series and continued to impress as he allowed two earned runs in 10 innings, walking two and striking out 14. The 14 strikeouts were more than he had in the entire month of May when he had a 2.28 ERA but walked more hitters than he struck out. After throwing a total of 25.1 innings in his first three years in the organization, the 21-year-old has thrown 90 innings.  After a rough start, Haynes has posted a 2.95 ERA since May 1.

Top Prospects and Others of Note: In his second start for the TInCaps, Isaiah Lowe went five innings without allowing an earned run, though he labored through four hits and as many walks while striking out just one. The 21-year-old, who threw only 12.1 innings last year, is up to 81 this year with a stellar 94 strikeouts. Lowe has a 2.89 ERA with a .209 BAA between the two levels. … Hard-throwing right-hander Braden Nett allowed one earned run on two hits over five innings.  He walked four while striking out three. It was a great rebound for Nett, who matched his season-high in hits allowed in his previous start. …  Joshua Mears was held homerless for only the second time in the last month.  However, he did have seven hits and a walk.  After going three games without striking out in the last series, Mears struck out in every game and nine times in total at South Bend.  … It was a good week for the Wyatt Hoffman fan club as the utility player went 5-for-12 with a double, three walks, and two stolen bases. His .467 OBP on the week led the team. … Rosman Verdugo might have started off his first week in High-A slow but capped it with a nice 2-for-5 game with a double and two RBI. It was a deserved promotion after the 19-year-old had a .981 OPS in July for the Storm. (Ben Davey)

Lake Elsinore Storm (Won series at Stockton Ports, 5-1)

Top Performers: The Storm greatly enjoyed their time in the city, giving us Alex Spanos and Chris Isaak, as the club played a Wicked Game with the Ports, winning five of six while scoring 46 runs. Lake Elsinore hit .333/.414/.533 with nine homers as a team against Stockton. … Outfielder Braedon Karpathios delivered a fantastic week, pacing the club with a .542/.571/.875 line that included two doubles, two homers, and nine RBI while striking out just three times. The 21-year-old has been one of the best hitters in the system over the last month. In his last 31 games, the former Harford Community College outfielder is hitting .313/.463/.486 with a 22% walk rate and a K-rate south of 20%. He has also connected on three homers in that span and has a career-high six homers this season. Karpathios has had a more aggressive approach this year, but his keen eye for the plate is starting to come with more power. … The best pitching outing of the week came from Friday’s starter, Ian Koenig, who turned in the most impressive outing of his young career. The former undrafted free agent pitched six innings, allowing just one run on two hits. While he has struggled overall as he returns from Tommy John surgery, the 23-year-old has sometimes looked sharp. He will hope last week’s outing is a sign of things to come as he looks to finish the season strong. 

Top Prospects and Others of Note: Shortstop Leo De Vries bounced back from a slow week against Fresno to torch Stockton’s pitching staff. The 17-year-old shortstop went 9-for-25 with two homers, three RBI, six walks, and five strikeouts while playing all six games. De Vries has 338 plate appearances with the Storm this year and has delivered a fantastic wRC+ of 118. The Padres were aggressive with Ethan Salas last season after he broke out with the Storm, but perhaps his struggles in Fort Wayne have led to a more conservative approach with De Vries. The Storm are likely to be the only affiliate to see playoff action, so the Padres may want him to try to win a championship in his first full season. … Newcomer Jack Costello made quite an impression in his first week as a professional. The 23-year-old hit a ridiculous .391/.423/.826 with a double, three homers and 11 RBI. The Simi Valley native went hitless in his professional debut before having four straight multi-hit games. The former USD standout was drafted in the 10th round last month by the Padres, signing an underslot deal to start his professional career. … In addition to Costello’s prowess at the plate, the 2024 draft class made loud and frequent contact all week in Stockton. Brandon Butterworth had eight hits, including a four-hit night. The former N.C. State star had a .982 OPS in five games while making his pro debut. … Kai Roberts, the Padres’ seventh-rounder out of Utah, hit .391/.481/.435 with a double and eight singles. … Catcher Brendan Durfee, the Padres’ 14th-rounder out of U.C. Santa Barbara, had four hits in the series, including his first pro homer. … Bernard Jose made two appearances on the mound and worked five scoreless innings in his first taste of full-season ball. The 21-year-old opened the season with the ACL Padres but made his way west as part of a major wave of moves last week. Jose allowed four hits and two walks, striking out five in the process. Between the two stops, he has a 4.65 ERA this season. (Kevin Charity)