Texas League Report: Missions v Rockhounds
By Simon Gutierrez
Saturday night. It’s 98 degrees in San Antonio. For some reason, I find myself drawn to Nelson Wolff Municipal Stadium, to sit in the sweltering, record heat. Why? The Missions’ Will Inman is on the mound, opposite Henry Rodriguez and the Midland Rockhounds.
Rodriguez and Inman are two of the brighter pitching prospects in the Texas League. Baseball America ranks Inman as the 7th best prospect in the Padres’ system, and Rodriguez the 8th best prospect in the Oakland A’s system. To me, it looked like an intriguing matchup, and worth a trip to the park, even in the sticky, south Texas heat.
Inman didn’t disappoint. He pounded the strike zone, and kept Midland hitters off balance for five innings, yielding only two hits, and striking out seven. Inman used his fastball, coming in consistently at 90-91 mph, to get ahead of hitters, mixing in a decent curve, and the odd changeup. He showed good control of the strike zone, and worked both sides of the plate, ultimately walking away with his fourth win of the season, and lowering his ERA to 1.85. Scouts and prospect hounds aren’t real big on Inman, because none of his three primary pitches is exceptional, but if he keeps the ball down consistently and works on his changeup a little bit, I could easily see him working his way into a fourth or fifth starter role for the Padres in the next year or two.
Unlike Inman, scouts have been raving about Henry Rodriguez since spring training. He’s a fireballer, touching 98 on the stadium gun Saturday night, and he also has a sharp, tight slider he can throw for a strike. That said, Rodriguez looked nowhere near as sharp as Inman on Saturday. After a quick first, he gave up a home run to Jose Lobaton on a hanging slider in the 2nd, then fell apart in the third, walking the bases loaded, then giving up three straight singles to fall behind 4-0. Missions hitters seemed to be sitting on his fastball, which averaged around 94 mph, and they chased him from the game after 2 2/3 innings. Rodriguez’ ERA shot up to 7.00, and he’s now walked 22 batters in 18 innings at AA. Still, he’s only 21 years old, and if he stays healthy, there’s a pretty good chance a major league team will find a use for that sizzling fastball. I’d say you could conceivably look for him in the A’s bullpen in the next couple years or so.
As for the rest of the game, the Mission got off the schnide, avoiding the sweep at home, and going on to win 5-0. Kyle Blanks kept up his hot hitting, driving in his 22nd and 23rd runs of the year, and upping his average to .314. Next up for the Missions, a home series against the Astros’ AA team, the Corpus Christi Hooks, which will feature top Astros pitching prospects Bud Norris and Brad James, who are in line to pitch on the 13th and 15th, respectively.
Simon Gutierrez is a reporter for KSAT. Before coming to Texas, he spent two years at ESPN, working on sports documentaries and Sports Center.
