Hickory Crawdads

So we go all the way back to July 19th.

The Hickory Crawdads are hosting the Wilson Warbirds, who scored six runs in the top of the first inning before a thunderstorm resulted in the game's postponement.

When the game was postponed, with the Warbirds up 6-0 in the top of the first, shortstop Brady Ebel, the 11th batter of the inning, was enjoying his second at-bat of the inning, and he was up to the bat with two outs and a 2-0 count.

That's where they called it.

Carolina League, North Division.

The Fredericksburg Nationals fell 4-2 against the Fayetteville Woodpeckers in Game 1, so Fayetteville wins 3-0. or had 1-0.

In the South Division, the Charleston Riverdogs are up 1-0 after defeating the Hickory Crawdads 9-8.

So Charleston, a Rays affiliate, Hickory, a Rangers affiliate.

76 Ks in 49 innings is an elite 14 strikeouts per nine innings.

That has been between nine start or nine games with Hub City in high A and 11 games with Hickory in low A.

He is about a year younger than the average pitcher in the South Athletic League with Hub City.

The ERA has been quite a bit worse with Hub City, a 564 ERA there with just a 304 ERA at the lower level.

He has got great bat to ball skills.

He plays a very good defensive shortstop, and he's also a really darn good base runner.

I mean, he's got 51 stolen bases this year between Hickory and one game at Hub City.

Last year, he had 29 stolen bases, even his first year in 2024 as a teenager at 17, still-- I guess technically still a teenager at all these levels, 10 stolen bases.

And the results so far, it's not been a whole lot of starts for him this year, but 11 games, 10 of those starts, thr- 32 and a third innings, 41 strikeouts to a pretty, pretty high five walks per nine innings.

But he spent time between the Complex League and Car-- uh, the Hickory Crawdads, where he is two years younger than the average pitcher there at just 20 years old.

He has pitched in three games.

All of them have been starts, but he has only gone seven innings.

He's tapping into that power more.

The on base is at 390 at this point, and he's also been playing left field and center field.

A little bit more left now than center field, just 26 games in center for the Hickory Crawdads this year and 77 games in left field, while eight at DH this year.

He has been putting together quality plate appearances in his first year of stateside ball.

He is a very Jekyll and Hyde pitcher because if you see Aidan Curry on the right day, you think, "Oh my God, this is the best pitching prospect in this Rangers farm system, bar none." But if you see him on an off day, you think, "Is this a prospect? Are we sure that's what's going on here?" Aidan Curry is a guy who has very high highs and very low lows.

His high highs, though, have included being the pitcher of the year for his league back in 2023 in the Carolina League back when that was still, uh, the Hickory Crawdads were in the, uh, South Atlantic Le- or the Carolina League at that point.

No.

Down East? Down East was who he was with that was in the Carolina League.

Had been off for a little bit because that league was done a couple weeks ago, maybe the end of July.

But they will be playing on this season with the Hickory Crawdads, the Rangers' low A affiliate.

Congratulations to both those guys who looked pretty darn good on both sides of the ball.

The strikeout rates for both a bit high, but they're already tapping into their power and looking pretty good on the mound.