I'm not even sure if it's a mechanical issue or a degradation in his stuff. He cruised through the first 2 innings no problem, then 3rd inning they strung up several singles in a row, he walks a guy, then guy hits a grand slam. So many reports of him not able to keep his composure. Perhaps it's a mental issue in which he's not able to handle stressful situations and push through them. He's likely never had to struggle before and he just doesn't know how to cope with it. Just my opinion without ever having watched him.
19 year old Valente Bellozo was promoted to Quad Cities and is pitching for them tonight. He will be a major sleeper prospect next season.
Abraham Toro went 0-4 tonight. His avg is currenty .420, a long time favorite of the substance abuser community.
4 innings, 2 singles, no walks, 5 Ks. That’ll do. Meanwhile, Corpus racked up 19 Ks en route to the win. Bryan Abreu logged 8 in 4.1 innings (4 walks though), and Cristian Javier got 10 against 1 walk in 4 innings. Each of them allowed 1 run and 4 hits. A Scrubb got the final 2 outs (1 K). Even Round Rock put together a pitching performance, tossing a shutout against OKC. Bielak went 6, with 4 hits, 1 walk, and 10 Ks. Deetz and Ferrell combined for 3 perfect innings, with 4 Ks. Tucker doubled, Super Jack homered again. Tucker is probably gunning for that 30/30 before a September callup — he’s at 28 SBs now after picking up 2 last night. He also played first base again.
Holy crap, Cristian Javier did it. I had a feeling that he'd get to 100 IP before he allowed 50 hits this season and he did... rather convincingly. Javier has allowed 46 hits in 102.2 innings this season.
Very nice numbers. 102 innings is a decent portion of a minor season. Can’t help but wonder though how he’ll adjust to pitching longer outings in the majors when he averaged 4IP per outing this year. Their minor pitching strategy always seemed at odds with the big league club getting workhorses like Verlander, Cole and Greinke.
Eh- they are trying to create more bites at the apple and more prospects by not winnowing the field of starters. I personally love it.
Yea, that's the process; I get it. It's been that way since Luhnow took over. But as Nook has pointed out several times their minor league starter development record isn't the greatest. Lance McCullers is the best but considering the resources they've committed to starting pitcher, you'd hope it'd be better.
Keuchel was developed while Luhnow was here. One Cy Young, LMJ, and the scattered BoR and emergency starters across the league suggests the development thing is overblown. If you want to limit it to drafted or signed and developed, I'd say the Astros devoted more resources to position players besides for Appel, and won a World Series.
Jack Mayfield was removed from the game in Triple-A. He might be the infielder the Astros call up to replace Aledmys Diaz, who landed on the IL.
They spent a decent number of top 5 round picks on pitchers. If not for Keuchel it would be downright grim over Luhnow's tenure for pitchers drafted and developed internally. Since 2012, there have been 5 seasons of > 2.0 bWAR by a pitcher drafted by the Astros. 4 seasons were DK's. LMJ put up the 5th in his rookie season and hasn't done it since. It's not a great record. Not the worst, but certainly nothing like their position player development record.
For sure. It's certainly first world problems complaining Luhnow's minor league pitching development program. They've done wonders turning up some later picks into prospects: Bielak, Soloman, Josh James, etc... What they really haven't done beyond Keuchel is develop an innings-eating starter, whether TOR or back of the rotation. The question is if they're so good at rebuilding veteran pitchers, what can they bring over to their minor league program.
