Week in Review: Texas League Wraps up First Half
The first half of the Texas League season is over, with the Tulsa Drillers and Frisco RoughRiders each winning their division first-half titles. Tulsa went 38-31 thanks in large part to the trio of Daniel Winkler, Jon Gray, and Eddie Butler, but Butler is on the Major League DL, Winkler is on the Minor League DL, and Gray is as deserving of a big league start as any pitcher in Double-A. While the second half of the season for Tulsa may not be as bright as the first half, the RoughRiders aim to keep the best record in the league going, having gone 40-29 in the first half and have recently called up the power hitting Joey Gallo who has five home runs in his first 11 Double-A games.
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In addition to having a new star on the field for the RoughRiders, they also enter a new era in ownership. Mandalay Baseball Properties LLC recently agreed to sell the team to Chuck Greenberg and Scott Sonju, per MiLB.com. They point out Greenberg is the former CEO and managing partner of the Texas Rangers and currently owns the Rangers High-A squad, the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, and the State College Spikes, a St. Louis Cardinals New York-Penn League affiliate.
With Preston Tucker now in Triple-A and James Ramsey on the DL, the Texas League’s home run leader is Rymer Liriano with 11, but has not hit a home run since June 5th. Meanwhile, as mentioned above, Joey Gallo already has five home runs in 11 games, which ties him for 29th in the league, which is almost 70 games into the season.
On the hill, nobody has been hotter than Michael Roth of the Los Angeles Angels affiliate, the Arkansas Travelers. Over his past two starts, he has allowed just a single run over 14 innings, and has allowed more than two runs in just one of his past ten outings.
The Texas League All-Star game will be this coming Tuesday, June 24th, at Northwest Arkansas’ Dickey-Stephens Park. The game will feature top prospects like Austin Hedges, Rymer Liriano, Cheslor Cuthbert, Orlando Calixte, Luke Jackson, and many more.