Naturals v Travelers May 14, 2024
Dickey-Stephens Park / North Little Rock, AR
It was a night filled with a bit of everything. We had an unexpected rain shower, a ballpark rainbow, lots of strikeouts and defense, a very long home run, and finally a Travelers win in extra innings. This bringing the Travelers record to 19-14, just one game out in the Texas League North Division.
The visiting team this week is the NW Arkansas Naturals - the AA affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. I primarily had my eye on two players for the Naturals in OF Gavin Cross and 3B Cayden Wallace. It was my first live look at Cross and I had previously seen Wallace play in AA last year.
Gavin Cross was the Kansas City Royals 1st rd draft pick in 2022, going 9th overall and signing for $5.2m. He struggled to a .206 BA in 2023 at High A but that’s a misleading stat given a low BABIP at .262 and solid supporting numbers. Throughout his minor league career Cross has posted strong 10%+ walk rates and too high K rates at over 25%. He has been productive and is carrying a 123wRC+ at AA this season.
In this game I saw a player in Cross who moves well and has good hands at the plate. The swing is short, without a lot of wasted effort, and you can see in the video below that he can nicely turn on an inside pitch. Here he drives one down the RF line for a stand-up double. Cross went 2 for 4 on the night with a RS and he did strikeout once.
I’ve liked Cayden Wallace a good deal since following him during his Arkansas Razorback days. He’s back in AA this year after moving up about 2/3 of the way into 2023. I feel like we are looking at someone who will reach the major leagues in Wallace, I just think it’s unclear atm what that role might end up being. A platoon type or a mainstay in the lineup? Wallace controls the plate well, has pop primarily to the pull side, and is a question mark defensively. Complicating matters for Wallace is that the Royals infield is young and very good. Further putting a question mark on where his long term path will be if he stays in the organization.
On the night Wallace was 1 for 4 with a strikeout. Here’s a clip of his single, one that found the gap between SS and 3B.
I didn’t come into the game planning to focus on Naturals SP Mason Barnett but he quickly caught everyone’s attention as he struck out the first 5 Travelers he faced. A list that includes top Seattle Mariners prospects Cole Young, Harry Ford, and Tyler Locklear. Barnett was a 3rd rd pick for the Royals in 2022 going 87th overall. He’s out of Auburn, where he was a regular starter for two years in the SEC.
The Travelers eventually got to Barnett as he lasted 4 2/3 giving up 8 hits, a BB, and 4 earned. The Travs scored 3 on Barnett in the 5th when his pitch count was creeping up there. He did strike out 8 on the night.
Here’s video of Barnett sending both Cole Young and Harry Ford back to the bench in the first.
For the Travelers I had my eye on the usual trio of Cole Young, Harry Ford, and Tyler Locklear. I also enjoyed seeing Reid VanScoter on the mound again.
Cole Young has finally started heating up a bit and raised his average to .250 after going 3 for 5 on the night. He added a BB, RS, RBI, and a SB to the box score so he did a bit of everything. Including several really nice defensive plays at SS. Young is carrying a very low .083 ISO on the season and this lines up with the eye test. I’ve yet to see Young really impact the ball at the plate. He’s dropping hits in but not driving the ball. While power isn’t his calling card it showed much better in A and High A ball last year.
Harry Ford had a quiet night, going 1 for 4 with 2 K’s and a BB. That walk stands out to me because once again Ford just keeps getting on base. He’s carrying a .407 OBP supported strongly by an 18.6% BB rate. I’ve seen a significant number of his at bats this year and love his approach. My read continues to be this is a major league regular and it would not surprise me at all if he begins to play other positions. The athleticism is certainly there for this and it may be the better fit for the Mariners and also allow him to reach the bigs sooner.
Tyler Locklear has hit the loudest home runs I have seen at Dickey-Stephens Park this year. And he has turned me into a believer in his bat and approach in the process. Locklear turned on one and hit it a long, long way to LF. I think there is a power breakout waiting to happen with Locklear, who has 5 homers on the year now.
My last player note for the night is on Reid VanScoter. I mentioned I looked forward to seeing him on the mound again and he put up a very VanScoter outing. He went into the 6th, allowing 6 baserunners, 3 earned runs, and struck out 8. This is VanScoter, he quietly pitches very effectively and gives his team a chance to win pretty much every time he’s on the mound. In fact, in 7 games this year he has given up more than 3 earned just once. Signed for $20k out of Coastal Carolina in 2022 VanScoter may go down as one of the better value picks in that draft.
I plan to be back at the park tonight for game 2 of the series. It will be my last game until the next homestand as we have travel plans for the next week. More tomorrow.
If you enjoyed this article please consider signing up for FREE email updates from 3-1Count.com. We will send you links when new articles are published. No spam and emails kept confidential. Just baseball!
