SPRINGDALE - Some of the top players in the Texas League visited Arvest Ballpark on Tuesday night, but the South All-Star lineup was particularly stacked.
Corpus Christi’s George Springer, the No. 3 prospect in the Houston Astros organization, leads the Texas League in slugging (.579), total bases (158), is tied for the lead in home runs (19) and tied for second in RBIs (55).
Midland’s Anthony Aliotti leads the league in batting average (.358) and doubles (25). Springer had two hits in Tuesday’s game, both solo homers. Aliotti also had a single.
Corpus Christi pitcher David Martinez leads the league in wins and is 10-1. He’s tied for the league lead in ERA (2.09) with teammate Jake Buchanan. Martinez and Buchanan each threw a scoreless inning.
NATURALS ALL-STARS
Two former Northwest Arkansas Texas League All-Stars were in Kansas City’s starting lineup Tuesday night against Atlanta.
Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas was named to the North Division starting lineup in 2010. Moustakas was the Texas League Player of the Year in 2010.
Salavador Perez was the Royals starting catcher Tuesday against the Braves and the Venezuela native was a reserve catcher in the 2011 Texas League All-Star Game.
Former Naturals All-Star Greg Holland (2009) is the Royals closer. Relief pitcher Kelvin Herrera was an All-Star in 2011 and was in the Royals bullpen but was sent to Triple-A Omaha on Tuesday.
Northwest Arkansas had six players on the North Division roster Tuesday, including starters Orlando Calixte (shortstop) and Roman Hernandez (right field). The Naturals did not have a starter in the 2012 Texas League All-Star Game.
The biggest contingent of Naturals that participated in the game came in 2010 when 12 Northwest players were on the North roster. Northwest Arkansas won the Texas League Championship that year.
OLDEST ALL-STAR
North Division starting third baseman Ruben Gotay (Springfield) was the oldest player (30) to participate in Tuesday’s Texas League All-Star Game. Gotay entered the All-Star break batting .305 and is second in the Texas League with 55 RBIs.
Gotay was originally drafted by Kansas City in the 31st round of the 2000 Major League Draft. He has played in 316 Major League games over the parts of four seasons with Kansas City, New York Mets and Atlanta Braves.
-PAUL NIELSEN
NEXT YEAR
The 2014 Texas League All-Star Game will be held at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock with the Arkansas Travelers as the host team.
UMPIRE SHUFFLE
Five of the six umpires in Tuesday’s All-Star Game didn’t get bored in one place all night.
Only home plate umpire Justin Sassaman stayed in the same place. The other five moved counter clockwise ever two innings to allow each one to work every other spot. The other five umpires were Travis Eggert, Michael Cascioppo, Ramon Hernandez, Brett Terry and Pat Holderg.
-PAUL BOYD
Sports, Pages 10 on 06/26/2013