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Quad Cities: River Bandits Reach Double-Digit Loses (Astros)

By Eric Huysman

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It took the Quad City River Bandits 41 games to reach ten loses. You couldn’t expect this team to stay in the single digit loss column all year, but when they lose, they tend to lose again within the next 1-2 games. Sunday’s game was rained out, so the Bandits only played six games this week. However, they continued their winning ways by winning four games and losing two this past week. Now that they the Astros Low-A affiliate has reached ten wins, the River Bandits’ record is 33-10. That is one of the best records in all of baseball right now, minors or majors.

Winning is something that most of the teams in the Astros organization is doing this year. Every team has a winning record except for the Lancaster Jethawks who are sitting at .500 with a 22-22 record. Why do the Bandits win so much, one thing they don’t rely on too often is the long ball. This past week they hit three home runs, all in one game. What they did do was hit .315/ 14 doubles/ 1 triple/ 3 homers/ 34 RBI’s/ 5 stolen bases. They may not be a slugging team, but they do have surprise power with two catcher prospects in Jacob Nottingham and Jamie Ritchie. The best ‘prospect’ on the team is Derek Fisher, who profiles more as a Jake Marisnick type player versus a George Springer type.

In terms of River Bandit pitching this week, their results were a mixture of hot and cold performances. Overall their weekly pitching stats were 4-2/ 4.31 ERA/ 54 strikeouts in 52.2 innings. The Bandits pitchers are averaging a strikeout an inning, with the standout pitcher on the team being Daniel Mengden, a former Aggie pitcher. The ERA is a bit inflated with a game they won 14-10, but they gave up ten earned runs in that game. In another game, they gave up seven runs. Their best performance was a 2-0 pitchers duel on Saturday, where they only allowed four hits.

Hitters of the Week

Derek Fisher OF – Granted that he gets most of the attention due to his top prospect status, this past week he showed why he’s considered a top prospect. Also, why he was drafted in the first round with Baltimore’s competitive balance pick the Astros received in the Bud Norris trade. His stats were .286/ 6 R/ 0 HR/ 5 RBI/ 3 stolen bases. One game he hit three doubles, and he has five stolen bases in his past six games.

Jacob Nottingham C – The 2013 draft pick has done well in his short time in the minor leagues. This week he has hit .409/ 5 R/ 1 HR/ 4 RBI. The slugging catcher had quite a day on Friday going 4 for 5, with two runs scored, one homer and three runs batted in for the game.

Sean McMullen OF – While McMullen does not appear to be an everyday guy, he tend to play more often recently. Last week he hit .411/ 4 R/ 1 HR/ 10 RBI/ 1 SB. He drove in six runs in one game.

Pitchers of the Week

Daniel Mengden SP – This will be the last time that I will write about Daniel Mengden as a Quad City River Bandit because he was just assigned to the High-A Lancaster. He pitched 5 innings/ 3 hits/ 1 ER/ 1 BB/ 5 SO. With his promotion, I’ll leave the Mengden as the lone pitcher of the week in honor of his promotion.  On his season, he went 4-1/ 1.16 ERA/ 36 strikeouts in 38.2 innings pitched/ .98 WHIP. The stats are worthy of the promotion for the former Aggie pitcher with the old-school mustache.

ICYMI, RHP Daniel Mengden (@dmengden15) was promoted to Lancaster + another couple roster moves: http://t.co/ht6xozD81I

— Jayne Hansen (@JayneWTHB) May 24, 2015

I asked first base-catcher prospect, Jamie Ritchie what it is like to play on the Quad Cities River Bandits right now. Ritchie said, “It’s a lot of fun. To me, if you’re not winning then you’re not having fun but it also gives us a lot of confidence knowing we haven’t dropped a series all year long.” Keep the winning feeling going, because that’s the expectation of the suddenly great Astros organization.

Thanks Jamie Ritchie, you can follow him at @jamieritchie35.

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