Rangers' top prospect Walcott leads way for speedy Double-A Frisco in Prospect Showcase

FRISCO, Texas -- Double-A RoughRiders manager Carlos Cardoza has some interesting decisions on his hands each week.

He has Sebastian Walcott (TEX No. 1/MLB No. 9), a 19-year-old with plus-plus raw power who plays primarily shortstop but has sprinkled in a start or two per week at third base in recent months. He also has Cameron Cauley (TEX No. 17), a 70-grade runner who also handles himself well at short but moves around to second and center field to take advantage of his athleticism. Placing the pair of Top 30 talents into the defensive alignment is just part of the equation at a level where versatility can be the difference between earning crucial at-bats and getting lost in the shuffle.

• Get tickets to a Minor League game

“Going into each day, we have an understanding of our starting pitchers’ ground-ball and flyball rates,” Cardoza said. “We have an understanding of the opposing lineup and most of their batted-ball information. It’s all strategic. But at the end of the day, the most important strategy for these guys is games played.”

In Tuesday’s MLB Pipeline Prospect Showcase, Cardoza got Walcott in at third and Cauley at short, enabling Keyber Rodriguez to start at second and Marcus Smith in center. All four contributed to Frisco’s 5-1 win over Tulsa at Riders Field.

Walcott went 2-for-4 and tied a career high with three steals in just his seventh start at the hot corner this season. Cauley doubled, walked and scored a run. Rodriguez added a two-bagger and scored twice on a 2-for-3 day, and Smith cracked a three-run homer -- the first of his career at Double-A -- to pad the RoughRiders’ lead in the sixth.

It was the speed overall that stood out most for Frisco in the matinee with the club swiping six bags on eight attempts.

“We want to take the game to the opponent,” Cardoza said. “We want to be prepared, to take advantage of mistakes and to apply pressure, and that is regardless of who we're playing. Credit to these guys. They came out on a Tuesday to open the second half [of the season] in a day game, ready to go and take the extra bases.”

Standing 6-foot-4, Walcott is often thought of as a large slugger first, but he can use his long legs to eat up distance on the diamond too. Neither of his Tuesday hits were rockets -- a bloop single in the first, a bouncer to second that could have been ruled an error -- but he used both to swipe the three bags, all of which came off Tulsa starting batterymates Patrick Copen (LAD No. 29) and Griffin Lockwood-Powell.

“The scouting report said he was pretty slow to the plate,” Walcott said. “Then when you’re on base, you see it and want to take advantage and give your teammates the best opportunity to score runs.”

On the defensive end, Texas' top prospect appeared composed and relaxed at the hot corner, often taking an extra beat on throws rather than rushing to chuck the ball across the diamond with his right-hand cannon.

“Knowing that I have the arm in the back pocket, I don't really have to use it as much,” Walcott said. “Just take my time, especially with slow runners who aren't really hustling. I just take my time and know when a fast guy is getting out the box, I can use that. You know, just being smart with it.”

• Is Walcott the Rangers' next big thing?

The player who needed Tuesday’s performance most was Smith, who entered the day 1-for-34 (.029) with 18 strikeouts through his first 12 games since joining the RoughRiders on June 4. While the K’s were high, he was still managing just a .063 average on balls in play despite generating some loud exit velocities. His drive to right-center over the Riders Field lazy river came as a relief to everyone in the Frisco dugout.

“We were talking about it the other week that he's led the team in hard-hit percentage since he got here,” Cardoza said. “He’s had multiple hits taken away from him and he's taken away multiple hits too. But glad for him to get that proverbial monkey off his back.”

• Subscribe to the MLB Pipeline Newsletter

Tuesday marked the beginning of the second half for Frisco, Tulsa and the rest of the Texas League. The RoughRiders fell just a half-game short of clinching the circuit’s South Division first-half title, an honor that went to A’s affiliate Midland, in part because the RoughRiders played one fewer game due to a cancellation. The club wouldn’t say their proximity to a postseason clinch served as motivation Tuesday, but it didn’t exactly hurt to find the right combination of players to start 1-0 either.

“We weren't really worried about it,” Walcott said. “We’re going to play RoughRiders baseball every day, and that's playing loose and having fun. That was an example today, and we're going to take that into the rest of the second half.”