TWitM: Champlain earns the hardware, Cross continues to put egg on faces

The Royals 2022 first-round pick has a 131 wRC+ this season.

This Week in the Minors’ is our weekly look at notable performances from all over the system, from big-name prospects and less-heralded guys alike. The mission is to answer this simple question: “Who had a good week?”

This Week in the Minors: Tuesday, May 14 to Sunday, May 19

AAA Omaha Storm Chasers (28-14, 1st Place, International League West)

The Storm Chasers went 4-2 in St. Paul this week, reclaiming first place in the division. Fresh off the injured list this week, CJ Alexander didn’t miss a beat. He tied with Drew Waters and Nate Eaton for the team lead with seven hits. Alexander walked three times against just two strikeouts and finished the week with a 1.289 OPS. Waters was all over the headlines for the Storm Chasers this week. He led the team with seven RBI while slashing .318/.304/.591. His success has been nice to see, but he struck out five times without a walk.

On the mound, it seems as if Daniel Lynch IV is starting to turn a corner. The velocity remains 91-93 on average, but spin rates are trending upward and it helped him on the week. Sunday’s start saw Lynch reach more than 2300 RPM on both his fastball and slider. Throughout his big league career, Lynch has averaged 2000-2100 rpm on both offerings, making his stuff rather ineffective at times.

Beyond Lynch, Walter Pennington continued his dominance. It’s almost boring to keep mentioning him at this point, but he had another scoreless week with eight strikeouts over four innings. Rehabbing reliever Carlos Hernandez struck out five and walked just one batter in three innings of one-run work on the week.

AA Northwest Arkansas Naturals (19-18, 2.5 GB, Texas League North)

The Naturals are now 6-4 over their last ten games, thanks in part to a 3-3 week last week. Chandler Champlain was the Texas League pitcher of the week for last week, and likely won’t get that honor again anytime soon. That’s because the team promoted him to Triple-A Omaha on Monday after a dominant stretch in Springdale the last few weeks. Eric Cerantola also had a strong week. He went five scoreless over two outings with five strikeouts and three walks.

Mason Barnett struggled on the week with a 5.79 ERA, however, he led the Naturals with 13 strikeouts over 9.1 IP.

At the plate, the week belonged to outfielder Gavin Cross. Cross led the team with ten hits, slashing .400/.464/.560 with four doubles, three walks, and five strikeouts. Over the entire month of May thus far, Cross has been impressive at the plate. He’s showing that last year was truly a side effect of his Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. There’s a good chance he makes his way to Omaha sooner rather than later.

Also continuing to get hot, utilityman Javier Vaz had seven hits of his own, including two doubles. He slashed .333/.440/.429 on the week with three walks against three strikeouts.

A+ Quad Cities River Bandits (19-20, 7.0 GB, Midwest League West)

In High-A last week, Jack Pineda and Carson Roccaforte tied for the team lead with eight hits apiece. Pineda did so with three extra-base hits — two doubles and a home run — and a healthy 1.053 OPS on the week. Jared Dickey hit .313 on the week, but just needs the power to come through, much like Roccaforte before him. First baseman Brett Squires hit only .200 on the week but made the most of it with a team-leading six RBI.

After dominating all season thus far, River Bandits’ pitchers struggled last week. That, alongside relatively quiet offense, led to a 0-6 week for Quad Cities. The entire rotation struggled, with Steven Zobac as the exception. He allowed just one run over six innings in his lone start on the week. He navigated around four hits and a walk while striking out one. Natanael Garabitos pitched two scoreless innings of his own last week. Garabitos was acquired from the Mariners in exchange for Samad Taylor in spring training.

Also of note, Kale Emshoff moved into ninth place all-time on the River Bandits home run leaderboard.

A Columbia Fireflies (19-18, 1.5 GB, Carolina League South)

Starters in Low-A last week were solid, especially Hunter Patteson. Patteson made two starts, allowing two earned runs combined, between them. He struck out 11 hitters without a walk. Patteson seems more than ready for the challenge at High-A but needs a couple of arms ahead of him to get the bump to Northwest Arkansas to make that happen. Emmanuel Reyes only allowed two hits across five scoreless innings in his start. He struck out eight without allowing a walk.

Blake Wolters was back on the mound after an extended rest between starts. He wasn’t quite as sharp, striking out just two over three innings.

At the plate in Columbia, the top prospects led the way. Austin Charles led the team with a 1.129 OPS. He had four home runs, including his first career multi-home run game. Outfielder/first baseman Derlin Figueroa slashed .333/.391/.619 on the week with five RBI. Catcher Blake Mitchell continues to work on his strikeout rate, but the results are happening once again at the plate regardless. He slashed .318/.375/.545 on the week with two doubles and a home run. Daniel Vazquez returned from a brief injury and didn’t miss a step in his lone game back on the week.