Hoos in the Pros: All Star Break

Though MLB teams have all played roughly 90 games, the All-Star break is the “official” half-way point of the season. With that in mind, let’s take another look around the league at all the Hoos playing Major League Baseball. Tomorrow, we’ll look at the minor leaguers.

Ryan Zimmerman, 1B, Washington Nationals – Though Zim has been passed in HRs, RBIs and OPS, he has still been on the best hitters in the NL this year. He’s currently batting .330 (3^rd), with 19 HRs (15^th) and 63 RBI (9^th). His 969 OPS is 4^th and his .596 slugging is 3^rd. Most importantly, he has been healthy all year, which has been his biggest problem throughout his career. At 32 years old, and coming off 3 terrible, injury-plagued years, his performance has been nothing short of remarkable.

Mark Reynolds, 1B, Colorado Rockies – Like Zimmerman, Reynolds is doing his best to put some bad years behind him. In his case, it wasn’t injury related. He was just bad. He was a below-average hitter from 2013 to 2015 and was just barely above average last year. This year, he’s cut down his K-rate and upped his walk-rate, which has led to a career high .379 OBP. He’s tied for 15^th in the NL with 19 HRs and his 61 RBI are 10th. He’s been a big part of the Rockies 5^th ranked offense.

Brandon Guyer, OF, Cleveland Indians – After missing a month and a half with a wrist injury, Guyer returned at the end of June. Since his return, he’s 3/11 with 1 RBI. He’s started just one game during that time and been used mostly as pinch hitter and defensive replacement. He’s got his OPS up to 562 and his batting average up to .197. Those are improvements over where he was before he got hurt.

Sean Doolittle, RP, Oakland Athletics – Since missing the month of May with a shoulder strain, Doc is been back to being the same pitcher he has been for the past 3 years. He’s striking out almost 13 batters per 9 innings, which is outstanding. He’s got a 3.54 ERA and a 0.69 WHIP (also outstanding). He’s given up just 12 hits in 20.1 IP. He’s had some bad luck, as 3 of those hits have gone for HRs. He is 1-0 with 3 saves and 8 holds.

Phil Gosselin, IF/OF, Pittsburgh Pirates – Phil has simply not hit for the Pirates. Over 39 plate appearances in 25 games, he is batting just .135 with a 342 OPS. Those are horrible numbers. This is a guy who batted .277 last year over 240 PAs. Phil actually went down to the minors for about a month, and hit pretty well there (.287 BA and 708 OPS). Hopefully, he can turn it around.

Chris Taylor, SS, Los Angeles Dodgers – Taylor minor league career high in HRs was 8. His minor league career high in RBI was 60. Over 72 games this year, Taylor has 11 HRs and 38 RBI. He’s also batting .285 and has an 844 OPS. He’s also stolen 11 bases. Taylor has been a revelation for the Dodgers.

Tyler Wilson, RP, Baltimore Orioles – Wilson has not had a good season for the O’s this year. He was actually sent down to AAA for the month of June, and is back there now after a brief call up to open July. He actually wasn’t too bad to open the season, but he’s really struggled since April ended. Working mostly out of the pen, he hasn’t had a scoreless outing since April 18^th. That does include a 6 inning 3 run starting appearance against the Red Sox. That is the high point of his season. For the O’s, he’s sporting a 7.04 ERA and a 1.70 WHIP. He actually wasn’t a whole lot better in the minors, with a 4.91 ERA and 1.43 WHIP.

Jarrett Parker, OF, San Francisco Giants – Parker still hasn’t played since breaking his collarbone on a catch in LF on April 15^th. He is currently on a rehab assignment and could be back in San Francisco soon enough.

John Hicks, C, Detroit Tigers – Hicks is arguably having the best offensive season of his life.he has been back and forth between AAA and ML and is currently back in AAA. Overall with the Tigers, he’s batting .299 with the Tigers with 3 HRs and 12 RBI. That comes with an 841 OPS over 22 games and 69 PAs. For Toledo (AAA), he’s batting .308 with 6 HRs and 29 RBI along with an 811 OPS over 37 games and 148 PAs. The 9 total HRs is already the 2^nd best of his career (15 in High-A in 2012) and the 40 RBI is just 2 shy of his career high (last year in Toledo). He could stand to be more patient at the plate, as he has just 4 walks this year. Hard to sustain a quality batting line with so few walks.

Kyle Crockett, RP, Cleveland Indians – Kyle has been very good this year in AAA, but did not perform well during his brief Major League call-up. He was up between June 7^th and 15^th. In total, he saw action in 3 games, pitching 0.2 IP and giving up 2 ER. He walked 1 and struck out 1. For Columbus, he’s pitched 31.2 IP and has a 2.56 ERA and 1.17 WHIP. He’s got 30 Ks and 9 BBs. He also has 3 saves.

Derek Fisher, OF, Houston Astros – A new addition to this list, Fisher made his Major League debut on June 14^th in a big way. He saw action in 5 games and was 5/18 with 3 walks to go along with 2 HRs and 3 RBI. In Fresno (AAA) this year, he’s batting .306 with a 945 OPS. He has 19 HRs and 56 RBI. He’s been one of the best hitters in the Pacific Coast League.

The Hoos are up to 11 total guys who has spent time in the Majors this year. That is tied for the most since we’ve been tracking. And there are still a few more who are close. Tomorrow, we’ll look at them and all the other Hoos toiling away in the minors. That includes newly drafted Pavin Smith and Adam Haseley.