Jacob Nottingham played in 83 games for the San Antonio Missions in 2019, mostly at catcher. He batted .231 with five home runs in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League.
Nottingham played in nine games for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2019. He played in 20 games for the Brewers last season and hit four home runs.
Nottingham had thumb surgery in the offseason. He has had some at-bats in spring training but hasn’t caught any games yet. He is expected to open the season on the injured list, according to reports from Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Adam McCalvy of MLB.com.
The San Antonio Missions’ 2021 pitching staff is starting to take shape.
The San Diego Padres assigned pitcher Anderson Espinoza to the Missions on March 24.
The Padres assigned pitchers Reggie Lawson and Jordan Humphreys to the Missions on March 16.
– Espinoza pitched in one game for the Padres last summer, going one inning for his only major league experience. The 6-foot right-hander from Venezuela pitched in the minors at the rookie league and Single-A level in 2015 and 2016. He had Tommy John surgery in the summer of 2017.
– Lawson pitched in two games in relief for the Padres last season. The 6-4 right-hander pitched in six games, all starts, for Amarillo in the Texas League in 2019. He had a 3-1 record with a 5.20 ERA
– Humpreys was picked up by the Padres earlier this month after the San Francisco Giants designated him for assignment. The 6-2 right-hander pitched in 33 games in the minors in 2015-17 and missed the 2018 season due to injury. He pitched in two games in 2019.
The Missions will play this season in the Double-A Central League – basically the old Texas League, where the Missions have played throughout much of franchise history.
Tyrone Taylor looked like he would be a mainstay in the outfield for the San Antonio Missions when the 2019 season opened.
Instead, injuries limited Taylor to 92 games. He still hit 14 home runs and batted .269 during the Missions’ only season in Triple A.
Taylor showed enough for the Milwaukee Brewers to call him up to the majors on Sept. 7, 2019. He played in 15 games for the Brewers late in the season.
In the covid-shortened 2020 season, Taylor played in 22 game for the Brewers and hit his first two major league home runs and batted .237.
A second-round draft pick by the Brewers in 2012, Taylor has played in 19 games so far in 2021 spring training in Arizona and hit .293 with two home runs.
During Saturday’s spring training game, Taylor was playing right field and was involved in a collision with first baseman Dustin Peterson while chasing a fly ball. Early indications were that Taylor was not seriously injured.
Projections are that Taylor could start the season in Triple A and join the Brewers later in the season. He is on the Brewers’ 40-man roster and still is a possibility to make the Brewers’ opening day roster.
Adrian Houser pitched in four games for the 2019 San Antonio Missions – all starts. He had a 2-0 record with a 1.27 ERA in the Missions’ only season in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League.
The 6-foot-3 right-hander is expected to be a part of the Milwaukee Brewers’ starting rotation when this season starts.
Houser was a second-round draft pick by the Houston Astros in 2011 and was sent to the Brewers in July 2015 as part of a six-player trade. He made his major league debut in 2015, making two relief appearances for the Brewers.
After starting 2019 with the Missions, he was called up to Milwaukee on May 3 and appeared in 35 games for the Brewers that summer including 18 starts. He finished the season with a 6-7 record with a 3.72 ERA in 111 1/3 innings.
In the covid-shortened 2020 season, Houser started 11 games and made one relief appearance. He recorded a 1-6 record with a 5.30 ERA in 56 innings.
The San Antonio Missions were the Triple-A farm club of the Milwaukee Brewers during the 2019 season. These players were in uniform for the Missions two summers ago and went to the Brewers’ big league camp for 2021 spring training:
PITCHERS
No. Player
50 Ray Black
66 Zack Brown
39 Corbin Burnes
37 Adrian Houser
64 Thomas Jankins
47 Angel Perdomo
70 Miguel Sanchez
35 Brent Suter
38 Devin Williams
CATCHERS
No. Player
26 Jacob Nottingham
INFIELDERS
No. Player
18 Keston Hiura
21 Travis Shaw
OUTFIELDERS
No. Player
78 Corey Ray
15 Tyrone Taylor
* 2019 Missions manager Rick Sweet is listed as an instructor
The following players are on the list of the top 30 San Diego Padres prospects for 2021 as ranked by MLB.com and are on listed on the Padres’ big league spring training roster:
PITCHERS
No. player position rank
1 Mackenzie Gore LHP 1
40 Ryan Weathers LHP 5
97 Justin Lange RHP 7
79 Reggie Lawson RHP 8
71 Mason Thompson RHP 11
70 Anderson Espinoza RHP 12
73 Reiss Knehr RHP 13
98 Jagger Haynes LHP 14
67 Steven Wilson RHP 17
93 Mason Fox RHP 22
39 Jordan Humphreys RHP 24
99 Dauris Valdez RHP 25
INFIELDERS
No. player position rank
87 CJ Abrams SS 2
88 Tucupita Marcano INF 6
94 Eguy Rosario INF 18
CATCHERS
No. player position rank
21 Luis Campusano C 3
OUTFIELDERS
No. player position rank
90 Robert Hassell OF 4
63 Jorge Ona OF 9
95 Joshua Mears OF 10
Conner Shepperd spent parts of 2020 playing in relatively brief seasons for TCU and the Flying Chanclas de San Antonio.
The 6-foot-1 infielder from California started in all 15 games for the Horned Frogs in the covid-shortened 2020 college season.
He headed to San Antonio for the summer 2020 Texas Collegiate League season. Shepherd had four hits and five RBIs in the Flying Chanclas’ first six games of the season. He was later sidelined by an injury after taking a pitch off his hand.
Shepherd earned honorable mention All-Big 12 honors at TCU in 2019 – the last full college season.
This season the left-handed hitter is third among the Horned Frogs in batting at .316 with one home run, one triple and three doubles with seven RBIs in 14 games. His home run came in San Antonio at Roadrunner Field against UTSA.
TCU freshman Luke Boyers got to play close to home last week.
The outfielder from Champion High School in Boerne was in right field when TCU played on the road on Wednesday against UTSA at Roadrunner Field.
Boyers started 15 games so far this season and had at least one hit in 13 of those games. The 5-foot-11 switch-hitter is batting .352 and has walked six times.
At Champion, Boyers earned San Antonio Express News All-Area team honors. He holds Champion school record for career triples (21), RBIs (83), walks (66) and stolen bases (72).
Lefty-hitting Conner Shepherd drilled TCU’s only home run on a night that felt like it was made for right-handed batters to go deep.
Shepherd’s opposite-field blast down the left-field line in the fourth inning was part of a nine-hit attack by the Horned Frogs in a 6-3 victory over UTSA at Roadrunner Field on Wednesday.
UTSA got home runs by right-handed batters Nick Thornquist and Kyle Bergeron, but had only one other hit in the game. The wind was steadily blowing straight out to left field all night.
TCU is No. 11 in the NCAA rankings and No. 9 by Baseball America.
Shepherd, a senior from California, played for the Flying Chanclas de San Antonio during the 2020 Texas Collegiate League season. He started at third base for TCU on Wednesday. He is hitting .294 and Wednesday’s homer was his first of the season.
TCU’s Luke Boyers, a freshman from Boerne Champion High School, walked and scored in the first inning. The Frogs grabbed a 3-0 lead in the top of the first with two hits and a UTSA error. TCU led the rest of the way.
Jonathan Tapia is a junior at UTSA and has started six of seven games so far this season, hitting .350 and seeing action mostly at second base but also in the outfield.
Tapia played his high school ball not far from UTSA at O’Connor. He played in 44 games as a UTSA freshman in 2018 and 51 games as a sophomore in 2019. He also saw action in 15 of 17 UTSA games in 2020 in the covid-shortened season.
Tapia played in the 2020 Texas Collegiate League, starting the season in Victoria and moving to the Flying Chanclas de San Antonio later in the summer.