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 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 40^th 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.