Colorado Rockies Pitchers Dominate in Texas League
Tyler Anderson has nearly three times the number of strikeouts as he has walks, he hasn’t allowed a run in over four games, has a season ERA of 2.10, and holds a record of 4-4 in 19 games this year. This might be the spot you expect Brian Kelly to scream “kill the win”, and regardless of how you feel about his stance, he would be right.
When evaluating a season for pitchers in the minor leagues, the last thing you should look at is the win-loss record, but it is easy to do, and so Tyler Anderson may get overlooked all too often, but he is pitching as well as anyone in the Texas League. He has six scoreless outings in his past ten games, and has two or fewer earned runs in nine of those games, and holds a record of 1-2 over that stretch.
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The Colorado Rockies Double-A affiliate has had as solid a pitching staff as any in Minor League Baseball this year, and Anderson is the fourth most impressive of the bunch. Daniel Winkler had an ERA of 1.41 and was striking out more than a batter an inning before he hit the shelf back in June. Eddie Butler rode his hot start in the Texas League to an shot in the big leagues, but has really struggled in two of his three starts back in Double-A after finding himself on the big league DL. Jon Gray is the biggest name, and biggest body, of the standout pitchers for Tulsa, and he carries a season ERA of 3.78, but is one of just six Texas Leaguers to have struck out 100 or more batters so far this season.
Anderson has climbed up to the 11th ranked Rockies prospect on MLB.com’s rankings, but still hasn’t earned a pitcher of the week this season. This week that distinction went to James Needy of San Antonio thanks to his seven innings of one-hit ball, until that was changed. Needy actually came out of the game after throwing seven innings and allowing one hit according to the scoreboard, but the official scorer later changed a sixth inning infield single from a hit to an error after the game. While most people were probably focusing on Mark Appel putting in five scoreless innings, the Missions managed to put together a three pitcher delayed no hitter.
The offensive player of the week was Kent Matthes of Midland. Matthes hit four home runs and drove in 11 runs in the week and slugged just 42 points off 1.000.