For a baseball junkie like me, it is hard to find a better time of year than when our farm system, injected with the recent draft talent, gets in full swing.  Counting the DSL, we have 9 teams, over 250 players, almost all in action daily.  Last week there were 48 completed games across the Royals farm system.  Let’s see, that is an average of almost 7 per day.  At 2.5 hours each, that is 17 plus hours of baseball per day.  If MiLB would just broadcast them all, I could literally watch baseball every waking moment.  Nirvana indeed.  I think I averaged watching parts or all of 3 games per day last week.  If Wilmington and Burlington had better coverage, that would increase.

Reviewing all of this, we see that the teams had a combined 29-19 record, which is .604 baseball.  While all agree, win/loss records aren’t the best measure of a farm system, it is certainly a good start and a significant improvement over where we were this time last year.

Team of the Week:  If you have heard, this record was led by the those soaring Idaho Falls Chukars, who were 6-0 for the week and are undefeated at 9-0. While their offense certainly did shine, averaging 8 runs per game, the pitching staff’s ERA of 3.76 for the week led the way, being more than a full run better than the league average.  Alec Marsh had 2 very nice and tidy outings, Chih-Ting Wang and Marlin Wills also stood out.

Hitter of the Week:  How about this slash line:  .545/ .591 / .864 / 1.455 ??  That would be the best offensive week I have seen in our farm system in some time and it belonged to the Chukars Clay Dungan.  Our 9th round pick from this years draft, the 23-year old infielder for Indiana State lit up his first week in the Pioneer League with 12 hits, including a 6 for 6 game Sunday.  The 6’1″ 190 lb. lefty sprayed it around, only pulling 35% of those hits and ending up the league’s leading average hitter.

Pitcher of the Week:  While Jackson Kowar’s powerful start in AA has been noted and certainly stood out, I have to go with Delvin Capellan, 20-year old RHP who won both of his starts for Burlington, going 10 innings between the two, throwing 72% strikes, walking only one, striking out 13 for a WHIP of just 0.60.  As our #31 prospect, Capellan has put up numbers before. Including his 2017 season, where he went the entire DSL season without giving up an earned run. While he doesn’t blow up radar guns, his pitchability is worth noting.  More to come…