Minor League Monday - Jose Hernandez, 1990 Charlotte Rangers Star.

Not a whole lot of Ranger news out there. Colby Lewis accepted the club's offer of a minor league contract with an invite to Spring Training and a chance to make the team. Glad to see that. I like Lewis and it's nice to see him resign. Figuring he will make the team and there will be plenty of other times for me to show one of his cards.

For now though, it's back to Minor League Monday for the first time in almost a month. Today we see shortstop Jose Hernandez on card number 10 of the 1990 Star Charlotte Rangers set.

Texas signed Hernandez as an undrafted free agent in 1987 and sent him to the Gulf Coast Rangers. He spent the 1987 and 1988 seasons in Rookie Ball before moving up to Single A Gastonia in 1989. So far he had not impressed.

In 1990 Jose would appear in 121 games for the A+ Charlotte Rangers. 119 of those games were at shortstop and one was in the outfield. At short Hernandez posted a .959 fielding percentage. That was due to 24 errors in 588 chances.

Hernandez made 455 trips to the plate for Charlotte. He ended up with a .255 batting average and a .345 on-base percentage. He had just one home run but 14 doubles and seven triples. Those were an indicator of some possible power developing. He also struck out 122 times while walking just 50.

In his fourth professional season, Jose Hernandez was not looking like future Major League material. If he wanted to make the Bigs he needed to work on his defense and cut down on his strikeouts. Leading the team in errors and strikeouts was not the way to win friends and impress people. If he couldn't fix the holes in his glove and bat, he could find further climbing in the Rangers system to be rough going.