Two Rangers Prospects Named Pitchers of Week in Minors

Both the Pacific Coast League and Texas League selected pitchers from Texas' system for weekly awards

Two Texas Rangers prospects — one of which is with the Rangers in Baltimore — were named the pitcher of the week in their respective leagues on Tuesday.

Spencer Howard, who started on Tuesday for the Rangers against the Baltimore Orioles, was named the pitcher of the week in the Pacific Coast League for his work with the Triple-A Round Rock Express.

Owen White, who just joined the Double-A Frisco RoughRiders, was named to the same award in the Texas League.

Howard pitched his longest game of the season against Las Vegas on Thursday, going seven innings and giving up just one hit and one walk, while striking out 11. He didn’t give up a run.

That led to the Rangers adding Howard to their practice squad while the team was in New York City last weekend. The Rangers named him Tuesday’s starter on Monday.

Howard made the Rangers’ starting rotation to begin this season, and he made one start and pitched in three games, going 0-1 with a 12.15 ERA. A blister put Howard on the injured list on April 14. He returned to the Rangers on April 24, and then on April 30 he was sent to Round Rock.

In 10 starts with Round Rock, Howard was now 3-2 with a 3.69 ERA with 60 strikeouts and 19 walks.

White, the Rangers’ No. 8 overall prospect, made his home debut with theRoughRiders on Friday night.

White threw 5 1/3 innings of no-hit baseball against the Corpus Christi Hooks, but his outing ended with one out in the sixth after he sprained his ankle and he was removed from the game. The injury is not believed to be serious.

White struck out seven and walked one, as he threw 68 pitches, 46 of which were strikes.

---

You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

Catch up with Inside the Rangers on Facebook and Twitter.