Road To The Colorado Rockies: August 28 Minor League Updates

Asheville Tourists Logo/via Colorado Rockies/Asheville Tourists Twitter.

Asheville Tourists — A

Last week (5-2), Overall (66-61): The Tourists are still in the thick of a playoff race, and considering they are 34-23 in the second half of the season and five games over .500 overall, they can make the playoffs, since the first place team in their division (the Savannah Sand Gnats) already clinched a spot by winning the first half.

Trending up: Omar Carrizales. Carrizales is in the thick of a batting title chase, and is currently tied at .314 with Savannah’s Luis Guillorme for the batting lead in the South Atlantic League. Carrizales also has 23 stolen bases and a .365 on-base percentage.

It’s an incredibly close contest with a week-plus to go in the season; another Asheville hitter, Shane Hoelscher, is at .312, while Ozhaino Albies of the Rome Braves is hitting .310, and Jose Marmolejos-Diaz of the Hagerstown Suns is hitting .309.

[ Related: The Colorado Rockies may have something in Jesus Tinoco ]

Trending down: Josh Fuentes. The undrafted free agent from Missouri Baptist University is 7-for-34 (.206) with 12 strikeouts in his last ten games, and on the year is hitting just .256/.327/.388 with 57 strikeouts in 317 at-bats.

A middle infielder, Fuentes has shown a little bit of pop this year (22 doubles and six home runs in 86 games), but he’s clearly blocked in the middle infield by guys like Forrest Wall in Asheville, and Brendan Rodgers moving quickly below him in Grand Junction.

One to watch: Helmis Rodriguez. Rodriguez took a no-hitter into the ninth inning on August 20, and then followed it up with an August 25 start where he allowed one run in six innings. Unfortunately, in those two starts where he combined for just two runs allowed in 14.2 innings, he didn’t come away with a win in either game.

In 25 starts this year, Rodriguez is 8-7 with a 3.58 ERA and a .251 average against. On the downside, he has walked 61 hitters and hit 16 more in his 133.1 innings. Clearly, there’s some development to be done (and that’s why he’s in Asheville and not with the Colorado Rockies!).

Next: Boise Hawks (A-)