Know Your Enemy: Oklahoma City
Highlighting minor-league players visiting the Dell
By Will Eidam, 12:21PM, Wed. Jul. 7, 2010
The Round Rock Express began this week playing one of last week's foes, the Memphis Redbirds, so this week we highlight only players for the Express' weekend "enemy," the Texas Rangers' AAA affiliate, Oklahoma City Redhawks.
Michael Kirkman, SP: Oklahoma City will send three players to represent the Pacific Coast League in the AAA All-Star Game on July 14, and Kirkman is one of them.
While Central Texans get a chance to see him pitch Friday, there's not much of a chance we'll see him in the majors soon (but I wanted to give him some love seeing as he's a 2010 All-Star).
Chris Davis, 1B/3B: It's been an up-and-down career so far for Davis, but of all the players in the Texas Rangers' AAA system he still has a lot more upside than down.
He's already played more than a season's worth of games in the Majors, but most of his good work was achieved back in 2008 when he hit 17 homers, picked up 55 RBI, and sported a healthy .285 average in just 80 games during the second half of the season.
In 2009 he had a lot of promise but didn't quite duplicate 2008's success. He hit 21 homers with 59 RBIs while batting .238 over 120 games. It still looked like the power was there, but his plate discipline was getting worse. (6:1 K/BB ratio vs. 2008's 4:1.)
In 2010 the wheels came off and Davis was replaced after just 15 games by another highly touted Rangers prospect, Justin Smoak, who had been playing at Oklahoma City,
But since his demotion to the AAA, Davis has regained his swagger: 9 HR, 55 RBI, a .349 average and an improved 3:1 K/BB ratio.
Enjoy watching Davis while you can, because he's not likely to be on the Redhawks roster for long. Not because he's headed to the majors, which seems likely for 2011, but because he could be traded to another team that needs a first or third baseman. The Rangers' Justin Smoak and Michael Young are performing just fine in the majors so there's no room for the new and improved Chris Davis.
Vs. Oklahoma City: Thu.-Sun., July 8-11, 7:05pm. Dell Diamond, 3400 E. Palm Valley Blvd., Round Rock. $6-30.
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