Spokane Indians: A slow start for Zac Veen, down week for Drew Romo

In this week in Spokane Indians baseball, they faced the Eugene Emeralds (the High-A team for the San Francisco Giants) on the road and the offense did not do much to help good pitching efforts from the team.

The first game of the six-game series was rained out on Tuesday so it was made up as part of a doubleheader. The Indians won what ended up being the first game of the series on Wednesday by a score of 5-2 but they lost four straight after that by the scores of 7-3,  1-0, 3-1, and 4-2. They won the finale of the series 8-1 to make it a 2-4 series for them.

Rockies #1 prospect Zac Veen is among those that have struggled at the plate but Rockies #2 prospect Drew Romo has been one of the bright spots in the lineup.

Zac Veen and Drew Romo have had different starts to their stints with the Spokane Indians

Colorado Rockies top prospects Zac Veen and Drew Romo have had differing starts to their careers at the High-A level with the Spokane Indians.

For Veen (MLB.com’s #36 overall prospect), on the season overall thus far, he has only hit .138 (4-for-29) with no extra-base hits. He has an OPS of .444 too, which is not great. However, he already has seven stolen bases, despite only reaching base 11 times (four hits, seven walks).

In the series, Veen went 1-for-13 (.077 average) with an RBI, three walks, and four stolen bases.

Romo hasn’t hit for much power either but he is hitting for a much higher average on the season.  He is hitting .324 with an OPS of .730. However, in the series, Romo also didn’t hit particularly well as he went 5-for-23 (.217 average) with a double, a walk, and three RBI.

Despite going 3-6 to start the season, Spokane has a team ERA of 3.39. That’s still only fourth in the six-team Northwest League. That’s because offense has been weak to start out. Vancouver leads the league in both average (.238) and OPS (.737).

The Indians’ top pitching prospect, left-handed starter Joe Rock, has been the most impressive starter for the team thus far. After skipping Low-A Fresno, the Rockies 2021 2nd round draft pick has made two starts and he has an ERA of 1.64. In his only start in the Eugene series on Saturday, Rock went five innings allowing two hits and three runs (two earned) while walking two and striking out eight.

Overall, opponents are only hitting .132 against him and Rock is allowing fewer than a baserunner per inning (0.82 WHIP).

After Monday’s off day, the Indians will return home to face the Hillsboro Hops (the High-A team of the Arizona Diamondbacks) in a six-game series this week.