Texas Tech baseball alums: Josh Jung off to sizzling start in AA

After his baseball season’s start was delayed over two months because of a stress fracture in his foot, former Texas Tech baseball star Josh Jung is making up for lost time in a hurry. Playing at AA Frisco, the Texas Rangers’ top minor league prospect has had a fantastic two-game stretch to open his 2021 season, which sees him at the AA level for the first time in his career.

Tuesday, the third baseman served as the designated hitter in his first outing of the season. Going 1-4 on the night, he was one of the few Frisco Roughriders to accomplish anything at the plate. In fact, Jung and his teammates managed just four hits in a 3-0 loss to the Corpus Christi Hooks.

Interestingly, in that game, another former Red Raider, Parker Mushinski, played a starring role. Getting the start for the Hooks, Mushinski tossed six scoreless innings striking out eleven hitters and allowing just two hits. That performance dropped his season ERA to 5.92 but he did not factor into the decision.

But while it is great to see Mushinski, or any former Red Raider, have success, Jung is the focus of most Texas Tech baseball fans when it comes to tracking alumni in the professional ranks. That’s because he appears to be the alum with the best chance to become a star in the Major Leagues. And on Wednesday, he showed why he is the Rangers’ highest-rated prospect.

In Frisco’s 8-4 win over Corpus, the San Antonio native went 3-5 with four RBI and a run scored. The run that Jung scored came on his 3-run homer in the 9th inning, a shot that pushed Frisco’s lead to four runs.

.@josh6jung goes BOOM for his first career Double-A homer! A three-run shot gives him three hits and four RBIs on the night! #LetsRide pic.twitter.com/YDSorZ99vp
— Frisco RoughRiders (@RidersBaseball) June 17, 2021

Earlier in the game, Jung laced a single into center field to get his team on the board in the top of the third. And in his first at-bat, Jung singled to right field for his first hit of the day.

But it was the homer that had people buzzing. That’s because hitting for power has been the component of Jung’s game that has been most questioned.

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As a Red Raider, Jung’s homer total of 33 was solid but left many wondering if he could hit with enough power to be a starting third baseman in the big leagues. Many scouts were skeptical about Jung’s power because so many of his homers went to right field and homering to the opposite field is much easier with the metal bats used in the college game.

Wednesday’s homer though went to the left-center power alley, one of the deepest parts of the Corpus Christi ballpark. That’s the type of slugging acumen that Jung will have to continue to show before he gets the call to join the Rangers.

Many people think that Jung’s big-league debut could come as early as this September because the final month of the MLB season is when teams are allowed to have expanded big-league rosters and by then the Rangers will be so far out of playoff contention (as they already are in mid-June), that they will have plenty of at-bats to give to young players to get their feet wet. But for that to happen, Jung will have to do serious damage against AA pitching for the next two months.

It’s only been two games but he’s off to a great start in that regard as he is hitting .444 through two games. Of course, he will have struggles and will need to make adjustments with Frisco and two games are not a guarantee of future success. However, Jung could not ask for a better start to his 2021 season than he’s had so far this week.

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