Top Rangers prospect Willie Calhoun admitted that starting the season with Triple-A Round Rock "felt like it was a slap in the face," according to milb.com.

The Rangers shipped Calhoun to their top affiliate so that he could work on his defense in left field. Calhoun primarily had been a second baseman in the Los Angeles Dodgers' organization before coming to the Rangers in the Yu Darvish deal in July.

"I was really mad, just because I felt like I had nothing else to prove here at Triple-A," Calhoun told milb.com in his first public comment on the demotion. "When you hear that you're going back to a league after you had such a good year like that ... I just kind of felt like it was a slap in the face."

Calhoun started slowly at Round Rock, hitting .200 with a .550 OPS in his first 30 at-bats. Calhoun hit his first homer of the season Tuesday and had his first multi-hit game Saturday. He extended a hitting streak to seven games Sunday, during which he is 8 for 26 (.308).

"If I believe in myself, that's all that really matters," Calhoun told milb.com. "Just because the first week I was kind of mentally not all there, I was just really upset with how things had been going. ... But two nights ago, I feel like I really started to settle back in and forget about it and not really worry ... and just kind of play my own game."