Road to Arlington: Rangers Minor League Report (4/10)

The other opening day arrived, but for the most heralded farm system in baseball, it was a disappointment in almost every way.

Three losses, one washout. Lots of errors and not a lot of hitting. Pitching was pretty spotty.

But there were a couple of bright spots and perhaps chief among them was the performance of the guy you are looking at right now. To make the pain from a messy minor league opening day go away, I’m thinking you could probably use some Marcus Lemon.

Triple-A: @ Memphis 4, Oklahoma City 3 (10 Innings)

The Redhawks got a quality start out of RHP Doug Mathis, who surrendered two runs on six hits — all singles — and a walk, fanning four in six innings of work. The 6’5″ University of Missouri alum was very efficient, getting through six frames with 79 pitches (a Roy Halladayesque 13.16 pitches per inning), 51 of which (65%) were strikes.

DH Ben Harrison led the Redhawks offense with a 2-for-4 outing to drive in a pair and OF Greg Golson went 2-for-4 with an RBI, but committed a ninth-inning error that allowed Memphis to tie the score, sending the game into extra innings. A Derek Turnbow walkfest (four in a row, two of which were intentional) and a wild pitch gave Memphis the victory.

Finally, we’re keeping an eye on IF Joaquin Arias for you. He played short last night and participated in a pair of double plays while going 1-for-4 with a sacrifice hitting in the two hole.

Double-A: @ Springfield 16, Frisco 4

Frisco starter RHP Omar Poveda received a rude welcome to the Texas League, allowing six runs, three earned, on five hits and a walk, while needing 57 pitches to get through two innings. Fifty-seven. Two. Not good.

RHP Tommy Hunter, coming back from a spring training groin injury, wasn’t any better yielding five runs on five hits and a pair of walks in 2.2 frames, needing 46 pitches to do so.

1B Justin Smoak and 2B Jose Vallejo each went 2-for-5, though a Smoak error in the first conributed to Poveda’s struggles. OF Dustin Majewski went 2-for-4 and 3B Johnny Whittleman singled and walked in four trips.

Frisco’s only extra-base hit came from SS Marcus Lemon, who finished 2-for-3 with a double and a walk to drive in a pair.

The 2006 fourth rounder was inked to a college scholarship with Texas but the Rangers paid more than double his draft slot in bonus money to bring him into the system and he’s risen steadily ever since. The 20 year old Lemon, son of former MLB great Chet Lemon, was billed as an intelligent, smart, mature ballplayer coming into the draft and he’s lived up to all of that as a professional. He has an advanced approach at the plate, with a tremendous eye that allows him to work pitch counts and draw walks.

Less than a year after being drafted out of a Florida high school, the Rangers assigned the mature Lemon to the pitcher-friendly Midwest League to open the 2007 season and struggled terribly early in the year (.203 / .288 / .254 in April) as one of the youngest players in the league (he didn’t turn 19 until June). But he showed the ability to make adjustments and he caught up to the league (.309 / .391 / .402 in June and .296 / .383 / .388 in July) before tailing off just a tad through the dog days of August (.243 / .345 / .379).

Lemon spent the entire 2008 season with Advanced-A Bakersfield and proved to be remarkably consistent until — once again — experiencing an August meltdown (.239 / .289 / .363) that caused his overall numbers to fall from a peak of .318 / .405 / .462 in late July to a final .295 / .374 / .434 line for the season.

I had attributed Lemon’s huge jump in slugging percentage (.364 with Clinton in 2007 to .434 with Bakersfield in 2008) strictly to the fact that he went from a notoriously pitcher-friendly league to a notoriously hitter-friendly league. But then I saw Lemon in action this spring and saw the way the kid was driving the ball. I didn’t see one player on the back fields in Surprise last month who made more consistent hard contact than Lemon did.

Still, Lemon isn’t going to be a big power threat. I don’t see 20-homer seasons in his future, but he can smack hard line drives to any part of the ballpark. Though Lemon has tremendous on-base skills and a knack for driving up pitch counts — both coveted leadoff skills — he lacks the speed to be a classic leadoff hitter.

In a system full of middle infielders with eye-popping tools — guys like Andrus and Vallejo — Lemon has become a bit of a forgotten man, but he’s what Ron Washington would call “a baseball man” and I am expecting big things from him as a 20 year old in Frisco this year.

Advanced-A: Bakersfield @ Modesto (Rained Out)

The Blaze will look to roast the Nuts in a twinbill today. LHP Tim Murphy — one of the most underreated pitchers in the system — will start one of the games.

Class-A: Bowling Green 8 @ Hickory 3

Though the scoreboard says otherwise, RHP Wilfredo Boscan, a 19 year old Venezuela native, served notice to the Sally League that the circuit’s youngest pitching rotation is going to be a handful. First inning, perfect. Second inning, perfect. Third, perfect. Fourth frame, Boscan got the first hitter, surrendered a solo shot to the second (the only hit he allowed) and then got the next two.

Then in the fifth, Boscan faced six batters, recording two outs. The other four reached base on errors committed by the Crawdads infield. Ultimately, Boscan saw five runs go on his ledger through 4.2 innnings, though only one was earned. He allowed one hit, did not walk anyone and fanned three.

Flamethrowing 18 year old RHP Wilmer Font — whose fastball routinely sits in the 96-99 mph range — fanned two while allowing one base hit in 1.1 innings of relief. Catcher Doug Hogan — the hero of Spokane’s NWL championship series last year — blasted a three-run bomb in a 1-for-4 outing to account for all of Hickory’s scoring in a three-hit effort by the lineup.