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Midland RockHounds

Chad Pinder Named Texas League Player of the Year

August 27, 2015 - Texas League (TL1)
Midland RockHounds News Release


Texas League Player of the Year Chad Pinder and Midland RockHounds All-Stars
Texas League Player of the Year Chad Pinder and Midland RockHounds All-Stars
(Midland RockHounds, Credit: Frank Longobardo / Midland RockHounds)

Chad Pinder has been named the 2015 Texas League Player of the Year, leading a contingent of four RockHounds selected for the Postseason All-Star Team.

Joining Pinder among the league's elite are pitcher Ryan Dull and infielders Ryon Healy and Colin Walsh. The annual postseason honors were announced today by league president Tom Kayser.

Pinder becomes the sixth player in the franchise's 45-year history (and the fourth during the RockHounds/Oakland Athletics era) to earn Player of the Year honors. He joins Karl Pagel (Cubs, 1977), Jeff Manto (Angels, 1988) and RockHounds Adam Piatt (1999), Andre Ethier (2005) and Chris Carter (2009).

- Chad Pinder has emerged as one of the top hitters in all of Double-A baseball, hitting .347 since June 1. The third-year pro (his second full season) enters Thursday night's game ranked second in the league with a .319 average and leads the Texas League with 146 hits and 86 runs batted in (fifteen more than any other hitter). He also ranks among the league leaders in slugging percentage (second, .492), doubles (fifth, 30), extra-base hits (fifth, 47) and home runs (tied for fifth, 15). Selected by Oakland in the Competitive Balance Round B of the 2013 draft out of Virginia Tech, the 23-year-old Virginia native (he now makes his home in Charleston, South Carolina) entered the season rated Oakland's # 12 prospect by Baseball America and is rated seventh on MLB.com's updated midseason rankings.

- Ryan Dull is a great example of a player who has excelled "against the odds." The 32nd round draft choice (2012, University of North Carolina, Asheville) initially reached Double-A with the RockHounds as part of a breakout season in 2013, and was a member of last season's Texas League championship club (a 2.88 earned run average in 40 games). In 2015, the 5-10, 175-pound right-hander was dominant, posting a 0.60 ERA in 35 games, allowing just 29 hits in 45 innings, walking 13 and striking out 52 (a 4-to-1 ratio), with 12 saves in as many opportunities. Ryan earned his first opportunity to pitch at the Triple-A level and was promoted to the (Pacific Coast League) Nashville Sounds on July 28.

- Like Pinder, Ryon Healy is a third-year pro and is in his second full season. One of the club's most consistent hitters since the start of the season, Ryon has elevated his game to another level. After hitting a solid .274 in the season's first half, the West Hills, California, native is hitting .351 in the second half and now ranks among the Texas League's top four hitters with a .306 season average. Entering Thursday's game, he has hit in 22-of-24 games (.393) and is hitting nearly .400 (.384) in his last 40 games. Selected by the A's in the third round of the 2013 draft out of the University of Oregon, Ryon is rated Oakland's # 23 prospect by Baseball America and # 22 on MLB.com's updated midseason prospects list.

- Colin Walsh his the most "veteran" of the RockHounds' All-Star selections, a player who certainly had every reason to expect a Triple-A assignment for the 2015 season. Originally selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 12th round of the 2012 draft (out of Stanford University), he was signed by Oakland as a free agent just prior to Opening Day a year ago. After short stints with (Advanced-A) Stockton and the RockHounds, he finished the season with Sacramento (then the Triple-A stop on Oakland's organizational ladder). A (very) crowded Triple-A roster this spring forced the second baseman back to the Double-A level, and his performance has been exceptional. He ranks, with Pinder and Healy, among the league's top five hitters (.310) and has been among the Texas League's top five in ten offensive categories virtually all season, including a .446 on-base percentage, tops in the TL by twenty-five points. Since May 4, and beginning with one of his (several) on-base streaks, Colin has played in exactly 100 games and has reached base in 93 of them.

The club's individual honors are part of what is on pace to becoming a record-setting season in franchise history.

The RockHounds are closing on one both a return to the Texas League playoffs (a "magic number" of one win or one Frisco loss) and a second half pennant. (if the 'Hounds win two of the remaining three games in the current series with Corpus Christi, they would clinch the second half title).

The club is also just four wins away (with 12 games remaining) from the franchise's best half-season record (in the 40 years of the half-season format).

A return to the postseason would mark the just the third time in the franchise's 45 seasons the club would make back-to-back playoff appearances. Each has come in the RockHounds / A's era (2005-06 and 2009-10) and, in each case, the 'Hounds would enter the postseason as defending Texas League champions.

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Images from this story

Texas League Player of the Year Chad Pinder and Midland RockHounds All-Stars
Texas League Player of the Year Chad Pinder and Midland RockHounds All-Stars
(Frank Longobardo / Midland RockHounds)		   

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