2018 Rancho Cucamonga Season
By now everyone knows that the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes defeated the Visalia Rawhide 9-1 to claim the 2018 California League Advanced A League Championship. This was Drew Saylor’s first in his third year. RC last won a California League Championship in 2015 when Alex Verdugo and Cody Bellinger were on the roster. The Quakes won the first half with a 35-35 record but turned it on the second half with
By now everyone knows that the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes defeated the Visalia Rawhide 9-1 to claim the 2018 California League Advanced A League Championship. This was Drew Saylor’s first in his third year. RC last won a California League Championship in 2015 when Alex Verdugo and Cody Bellinger were on the roster.
The Quakes won the first half with a 35-35 record but turned it on the second half with a 52-18 record, to give them an overall record of 87-53. The Quakes faced the Lancaster JetHawks (Rockies) in the California League South Championship. The beat the JetHawks 3 games to 1 and moved on to the California League Championship. The opponent was the Visalia Rawhide who had a 6-5 record against the Quakes in their 11 games played in the regular season. In this best 3 of 5 series, the games were not really close, and the Quakes swept the Rawhide for the Championship.
What makes the second half so remarkable is that they did it with the promotion of such standout players like Gavin Lux, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Logan Landon, Zach McKinstry, Zach Reks, Karch Kowalczyk, and Andre Scrubb. In addition, they lost Rylan Bannon, Dean Kremer, and Zach Pop in the Manny Machado trade. At the time of his promotion, Gavin Lux was leading the league in batting average, and at the time of the trade, Bannon was leading the league in HR’s.
As a team, the Quakes led the California League in runs, doubles, HR’s, total bases, OBP, slugging, and OPS. They were #2 in hits, walks, and batting average. But something that FAZ might want to see is that while the team led the league in HR’s by a wide margin (202 to 150), they also led the league in strikeouts (by 58).
Individually, several Quakes were top ten in multiple offensive categories.
Home Runs:
Cristian Santana – Tied for #1 (24)
Rylan Bannon – #3 (20)
Cody Thomas – Tied #5 (19)
Connor Wong – Tied #5 (19)
Jared Walker – Tied #9 (17)
Omar Estevez – Tied #13 (15)
Carlos Rincon – Tied #13 (15) in only 110 AB
RBI’s:
Cristian Santana – #1 (109)
Cody Thomas – #2 (87)
Omar Estevez – #3 (84)
Hits:
Cristian Santana – #2 (150)
Omar Estevez – Tied #6 (143)
Cody Thomas – #8 (142)
Doubles:
Omar Estevez – #1 (43)
Cody Thomas – Tied #4 (35)
Triples:
Gavin Lux – Tied #7 (7)
Stolen Bases:
Jeren Kendall – #2 (37)
Logan Landon – #7 (22)
Batting Average:
Gavin Lux – #3 (.324)
Rylan Bannon – #7 (.296)
Cody Thomas – #12 (.285)
OBP:
Rylan Bannon – #2 (.402)
Gavin Lux – #3 (.396)
Cody Thomas – #12 (.355)
SLG:
Rylan Bannon – #1 (.559)
Gavin Lux – #3 (.396)
Cody Thomas – #13 (.355)
OPS:
Rylan Bannon – #1 (.961)
Gavin Lux – #2 (.916)
Cody Thomas – #7 (.852)
Connor Wong – #10 (.831)
Strikeouts:
Cody Thomas – #3 (163)
Jeren Kendall – #4 (158)
Cristian Santana – #7 (143)
Omar Estevez – Tied #9 (138)
Connor Wong – Tied #9 (138)
It was great to see Isaac Anderson pitch the game of his career in the final. The 2015 40th round draft pick out of Wichita St. threw 6.0 scoreless innings allowing 1 hit and 1 walk, with 6 strikeouts. Anderson tied for the league lead in wins with 10, #4 in ERA (3.67), and #4 in strikeouts (120).
There were a lot of impressive performances from several players at Advanced A Ball. But the next step to AA is a big one and may be the toughest step. You need to show success in Advanced A Ball, but it’s the next step that drives many out of the game. Top players like Gavin Lux, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin made it look easy. Next year Cristian Santana, Cody Thomas, Omar Estevez, Connor Wong, with recent promotions, Logan Landon, Andre Scrubb, and Marshall Kasowski will be highlighted to see how they play at the increased level of competition. Isaac Anderson will get another opportunity to show that he belongs at AA after struggling in Tulsa early in the year.
One other player I will be watching next year will be Jordan Sheffield. He is now a power reliever who is being groomed to become late inning high leverage reliever.
One question that will need to be answered is what will happen to Jeren Kendall. His defense and speed can play at the ML level, but his hitting is not very good at this point. Do they keep him down at Rancho or promote him to AA. I think the instructors will continue to work with Kendall to concentrate on making contact and using his speed to get on base rather than trying to hit the HR. And I think he will be doing it at the AA level.
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Discussion (51)
Disagree, not disagreeable
PeterJ requested it, so here it is:
BTW, the scenery just changed for the Dodgers:
It seems to me that the Dodgers should have many more prospects in the MLB top 100 soon. Any MLB prospects ranked above Lux have to be special.
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I will eat some crow and say that Puig is a keeper. My main complaint about him was his need to make every play he could make regardless of whether the center fielder was clearly in the best position to make an easier play. I thought he was dangerous to other defensive players. He seems to have calmed down defensively and his bat is smooth and under control.
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Steve Sax jumped from AA to the Dodgers and Lux might make the same jump mid season next year. If the DH comes to the NL next year, Muncy will probably get most of those at bats and with Dozier gone it, only Hernandez’ or Taylor’s bats and Seager’s arm will block Lux next year. Machado is only needed if Seager has to play first base.
Great stuff. Rincon is still only 20 (for another month). Let’s hope his massive breakout is for real. Takes the sting of heredia’s regression away.
I thought Gavin Lux was a bad pick after his first full season, but as he matured physically from a scrawny little kid into a man, he elevated his game and is now one of the Dodgers Top 2 Prospects (to me Verdugo is no longer a prospect). That said, Jeren Kendall is going to have to change his game if he’s going to be successful. He’s an “all-or-nothing” player who mostly delivers “NOTHING!” I’m pretty good at projecting what a player might be (like Santana , Thomas, Wong, Sheffield, et al), who may have warts, but you can see their upside. Right now, I don’t see an upside on Kendall and he has been unwilling to change his approach (“That’s how I play.”) Like AC says, his speed and arm are weapons, but his bat is a toy. Yes, I am down on him and hope to be proved wrong.
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I really like Sheffield as a reliever. I still think Wong should move to 2B or LF. Santana has a big swing and great power… I can see a potential All-Star here – his ceiling is Matt Chapman, but his bottom is Kyle Russell (maybe not that low).
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I also like Cody Thomas and Marshall Kasowski a lot . Estevez is an overachiever. He may surprise, with just “average ” tools. However, the guy I may like the most is Drew Saylor. I can see him as the Dodgers’ Manager… sooner than later… or in another capacity. Scott Hennessy won his League Championship in AA , but Bill Haselman could be on some teams managerial prospects list, so we will see. I do like Drew Saylor a lot.
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Great Write-Up, AC!