The numbers for the hitters for the Hickory Crawdads in 2022
Continuing our review of the players with the Rangers minor league affiliates roughly two months into the 2022 season, we are looking at the high-A Hickory Crawdads.
Yesterday we looked at the pitchers for the Hickory Crawdads so far in 2022. Today, we are perusing the hitters:
Evan Carter got off to a hot start to the year which had us all understandably very excited, though he has cooled off of late, and has been sitting more regularly in the midst of this slump. He’s already had roughly 33% more games in 2022 than he had in 2021, when his season was cut short due to a stress fracture in his back, and of course didn’t play in 2020 due to the pandemic, so it wouldn’t be all that surprising if some of this is adjusting to playing a full season of full season ball. Carter doesn’t turn 20 until the end of August, and was the youngest player in all of high-A to start the season, so no reason to fret about him right now.
How about that Luisangel Acuna? After a full season debut in 2021 that earned praise, Acuna has been tearing it up so far in 2022. Like Carter, he’s young for the level — he was the sixth youngest player in the Sally League on Opening Day — but Acuna has shown a surprising amount of pop so far this season. Acuna missed the first month of the season with a hamstring strain after playing hurt much of last year, so the injury bug is something we’ll want to keep an eye on, as well as the K rate being higher than you’d like. But otherwise, its hard to find anything to complain about with Acuna’s performance this year.
Chris Seise’s season slash line isn’t sexy, but the most important column for him is probably games played — he’s appeared in 40 of Hickory’s 57 games this season, after appearing in just 31 games the previous four seasons due to injuries and COVID. The Rangers love his skill set and his presence, and I think just having him stay healthy and get reps this year would be a good season.