The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Catching up with Longhorns in professional baseball: June 12
06.12.2008 | Baseball
AUSTIN, Texas -- Headlined by four current major leaguers, the Texas Longhorns have 27 players who ended their collegiate careers wearing burnt orange on active rosters in professional baseball. Here is an update of how the Texas Exes are doing in 2008.
The Longhorns have four players playing Major League Baseball, including Huston Street with the Oakland Athletics, J.P. Howell with the Tampa Bay Rays, Omar Quintanilla with the Colorado Rockies and Curtis Thigpen with the Toronto Blue Jays.
In his fourth season with the Oakland Athletics, Street remains one of the top closers in the majors. He owns a 1-1 record with 12 saves, 3.49 ERA and 33 strikeouts in 28.1 innings for Oakland.
Howell has been a standout in the bullpen for the Rays in 2008. After going 2-9 in two years as a starter, the lefty has switched to a relief role with outstanding results. The port-side hurler is 5-0 with one save, a 3.54 ERA and 35 strikeouts in 40.2 innings.
Quintanilla has appeared in 31 games for the Rockies. He is batting .248 with 15 runs, nine doubles, one home run and eight RBI.
Thigpen was called up to the Blue Jays in May after starting the season with Triple-A Syracuse. Toronto's back-up catcher, Thigpen has played in four games on the season.
The Longhorns have four players on the Triple-A level, including J. Brent Cox with the Scranton-Wilkes Bare Yankees (New York Yankees), Brandon Fahey with Norfolk Tides (Baltimore Orioles), Stephen Randolph with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (Philadelphia Phillies) and Taylor Teagarden with the Oklahoma RedHawks (Texas Rangers).
Cox has pitched on three levels this season, logging a 1-1 record and 1.44 ERA. He has pitched his last 10 games with the Triple-A Yankees, going 1-1 with a 0.73 ERA and .175 opponents batting average in 12.1 innings.
After spending 15 games with the Baltimore Orioles to start the season, Fahey was demoted to Norfolk. He has been stellar since returning, batting .295 with five doubles and 18 RBI in 34 games.
Randolph is 1-1 with a 1.52 ERA, three saves, and 43 strikeouts in 29.2 innings with two separate Triple-A teams. He is 1-0 with a 1.80 ERA, one save and 22 strikeouts in 15 innings with Lehigh Valley, the Phillies' Triple-A affiliate.
Teagarden was promoted to Oklahoma in April and is hitting .237 with 12 runs, two doubles, two triples, three home runs and nine RBI in 28 games.
The Double-A Eastern League boasts two Texas Exes, including Matt Goodson with the Portland Sea Dogs (Boston Red Sox) and David Maroul with the Connecticut Defenders (San Francisco Giants).
Goodson is 3-4 with 35 strikeouts in 11 starts for the Sea Dogs.
Maroul ranks seventh in the Eastern League with 17 doubles. He also has five home runs and 16 RBI in 53 games.
There are five former Longhorns playing in the Double-A Southern League, including Robby Hudson and Kyle McCulloch with the Birmingham Barons (Chicago White Sox), Sam LeCure with the Chattanooga Lookouts (Cincinnati Reds), Danny Muegge with the Jacksonville Suns (Los Angeles Dodgers) and James Russell with the Tennessee Smokies (Chicago Cubs).
Hudson is batting .251 with nine doubles, one home run and 14 RBI in 49 games and McCulloch is 4-5 with a 4.07 ERA in 14 starts for the Barons.
LeCure is 4-3 with a 4.57 ERA and 59 strikeouts in 65 innings over 12 starts for Chattanooga.
Making a quick climb up the later, Russell, who pitched for the Longhorns in 2007, is 2-1 with a 4.58 ERA and 30 strikeouts in 39.1 innings over eight starts. Overall, he is 3-2 with a 3.65 ERA on the year, including five starts at Single-A Daytona.
Seth Johnston and Dustin Majewski are representing the Longhorns in the Double-A Texas League. Johnston has 35 runs, 16 doubles, seven home runs and 30 RBI in 61 games for the San Antonio Missions (San Diego Padres). Majewski is batting .281 with 15 doubles, two triples, two home runs, 28 RBI and 30 runs in 52 games for the South Division leading Frisco RoughRiders (Texas Rangers).
Adrian Alaniz has been one of the top pitchers in the Single-A Advanced Carolina League. He is 9-0 with a 2.62 ERA and 56 strikeouts in 65.1 innings over 12 starts for the Potomac Nationals (Washington Nationals). He leads the league with nine wins and ranks eighth in strikeouts.
Carson Kainer and Drew Stubbs are regulars in the lineup for the Sarasota Reds (Cincinnati Reds) of the Single-A Advanced Florida State League. Kainer has five doubles, one triple, 20 runs and 15 RBI in 39 games. Stubbs ranks second in the league with 20 stolen bases, as well as fourth in runs (40) and fifth in triples (4). Stubbs is hitting .258 with 14 doubles, three home runs and 21 RBI.
There are four Texas Exes playing in the Single-A Midwest League, including Randy Boone with the Lansing Lugnuts (Toronto Blue Jays), Joseph Krebs with the Dayton Dragons (Cincinnati Reds), Nick Peoples with the Quad Cities River Bandits (St. Louis Cardinals) and Chance Wheeless with the South Bend Silver Hawks (Arizona Diamondbacks).
Boone is 6-2 with a 2.97 ERA in 13 games, including eight starts. He has logged 49 strikeouts in 63.2 innings and on May 16 pitched a three-hit shutout against the Western Michigan Whitecaps.
Krebs is 5-2 with a 2.20 ERA, four saves and 27 strikeouts in 32.2 innings for the Dragons.
Peoples, who had his 2007 minor league campaign whipped out with an injury sustained during the NCAA Regional, has played in 11 games for Quad Cities. He is hitting .238 with six runs and three RBI.
Wheeless has three doubles, four home runs and 11 RBI in 28 games for South Bend.
Bradley Suttle is hitting .270 with 14 runs, three doubles, two triples, two home runs and eight RBI in 23 games for the Charleston Riverdogs in the Single-A South Atlantic League.
J.D. Reininger and Kyle Yates are active in the independent American Association of Independent Professional Baseball. Reininger is hitting .288 with 10 doubles, four home runs and 19 RBI with the El Paso Diablos. Yates started the season pitching for the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats. He is now on the staff of the Fort Worth Cats where he is 0-2 with one save and a 3.14 ERA in 10 relief appearances.
