Quad-City Times piece on Ayarza: His older brother, Max, played in the Astros system from 2009-11 but never advanced past the complex leagues. He's now playing college baseball in Canada.
11 Guys I Think Can Make Huge Jumps in Value Over the Course of This Season: 1. Kyle Tucker: if he gets promoted to AA next month and puts up anything close to what he's done in High A, he will be in the conversation for best prospect in baseball. For context, he's easily outperformed what Bregman did in High A at the same age. 2. Franklin Perez: dominating High A as a teenager, if he gets promoted to AA next month and does well, he will likely be a Top 25 overall prospect by seasons end. 3. Derek Fisher: dominating AAA, if he keeps this up he will be a Top 50 guy. 4. Garrett Whitley: dominating A ball, he may not throw enough innings to really amp up the hype, but he will be a midseason consensus top 100 prospect and if he throws enough could jump into Top 50 territory. 5. Jake Rogers: Answering questions about his bat, if he continues to hit he will jump up to a grade 50 and org top 10 type. 6. Yordan Alvarez: showing a big bat to complement his offseason hype, will skyrocket up the org list and could be a Org top 10 guy. 7. Hector Perez: stuff has gotten love, now numbers are there, I now have him as a 50 grade 8. JORge ALCAla: see above 9-11. Trent Thornton, Dean DEETZ, ROGELIO armenteros: upper level arms dominating AA; whoever of that group does well in AAA will jump up into grade 50 territory.
If they trade him, it better be for somebody I like. The kid's gonna be really good. Curious what he does in AA later this year, as the youngest?ish hitter in the league.
How is Dean Deetz not more highly touted? Will be 24 in November, but the guy throws mid 90s and has a crazy wicked slider. Had command issues and is a TJ survivor, but seems to be making strides with his control. Check out this video to see his slider, which has a bigger break and looks more like a power curveball.
I think you answered your own question. Minor league ratings are heavily influenced by initial draft rating. Altuve never got rated. He was too short to be taken seriously. Deetz should get his due, if he continues to do well in AA.
I haven't been paying attention to the farm at all this season...probably due to the successes of the major league team. Have they abandoned the tandem system?
I think it still exists in some fashion with the A clubs. - Jorge Alcala has piggybacked Forrest Whitley on a couple of occasions in Quad Cities. - Alex Winkelman has backed up three of Justin Ferrell's starts out of the bullpen for Buies Creek. - Ryan Hartman backed up Hector Perez to start the year in Quad Cities; he's now partnered with Enoli Paredes.
D.J. Fisher hit his 9th homer of the year last night in Fresno. Andrew Aplin threw a 1-2-3 9th inning last night; all three outs were recorded on the ground. He's allowed one run in 5 appearances.
AAA hasn't used the tandem system in the past and haven't this season, but they have had 9 pitchers who have each started at least 3 games so far. AA started in a tandem system but abandoned it after a few weeks; they've had 8 pitchers with 3+ GS. I believe High A is in a partial tandem system, with some pitchers in tandem and others being allowed to go more than 5 innings. They've also had 8 pitchers with 3+ GS. I think A ball is in a mostly tandem system, although recently there have been a few guys allowed to go more than 5 innings. They've had 9 pitchers start at least 3 games. In general I think they avoid the tandem system in AAA, and start the other 3 teams in tandem to allow them to evaluate more prospects in a starting role, then slowly whittle the rotations, starting in AA and moving down. I would expect Corpus to stick in a 5 man rotation for the rest of the season. But the 2 a ball teams will likely be in some sort of hybrid tandem system for the bulk of the season. Based on the numbers above, regardless of whether they've stuck to the strict tandem or not, they've still evaluated 8+ guys as starters on each team. I wouldn't be surprised to see them move away from the 8 man 5/4 tandems toward a system with 8 pitchers in a 5-6 man rotation, meaning a pitcher throws a standard start (with the standard 100 pitch limit) but after a few cycles of starting every 5th game, he takes a break for a few weeks and someone else takes his place. That would allow the team (and other teams scouting their prospects for potential trades) to evaluate them in a more traditional role, but still allow them to keep innings down, avoid injury, and evaluate more pitchers as starters. It would also have the added benefit of letting guys step away and get specific instruction on things to work on without having to do it on the fly in games.
The longer Fisher's great year goes, the more I kinda want to see him in LF. I've just never felt good about him as a prospect, so I honestly never had him pegged as anymore than trade bait (which he still may be of course). At this point I would be disappointed to see him go.
