Not much, but I did see that he turned in decent numbers. Tejada's only gonna be 20 in 2018, so I think he'll probably progress one level at a time unless he really busts out. Greeneville's pitching staff wasn't overly exciting this year, but a few of them had nice years. Humberto Castellanos could be a Jose Luis Hernandez-type of pitcher; average stuff but advanced pitchability. Hernandez didn't have a chance to build on his big 2016; he got hurt in the spring and didn't pitch at all this season. Adam Bleday was a senior sign from this year's draft who did well against younger competition. Jairo Solis is the one to watch, though; he signed last July 2 and got out of the complex leagues in his debut season, which most likely puts him in position to pitch in Quad Cities next year.
Odd to release a player you drafted 4 months ago who put up a .392 obp. Also odd to release 2 lefties who put up pretty good numbers. Oh well.
Further proof that the Astros don't really care about conventional numbers; especially in the lower levels. They are certainly into advanced analytics but also value the opinions of their advanced scouts.
Dropping an affiliate always meant casualties. I too think it is weird, but I felt that way when they released Jason Chowning. I just hope to avoid cutting a Jose Quintana, who was released by the Mets and then let walk as a minor league free agent by the Yankees.
The organization is extremely confident when it comes to player development and talent evaluation of younger players. For the most part that is a good thing, but let's hope it doesn't drift too far into blind arrogance.
Could it be that the Greeneville team lost money for the Astros? I thought that the Astros needed all of their minor league teams to get playing time for all of their signings. I guess that college draftees that skill wise need to start their pro career at Greenville are extreme long shots anyway. Pushing those players into the GCL Astros team means that the Dominican league grads and the drafted HSers will have more competition. Unless the Astros really want to cut the number of minor league players, I suspect that the Astros will replace the Greeneville team at some point. Having a second complex league team to go along with the GCL Astros makes the most sense in that case.
Now that the minor league seasons are (pretty much) over, here is what I expect the 4 full season rosters to look like on opening day 2018: AAA Fresno: C: Stubbs, Centeno IF: Reed, Kemp, Moran, Mayfield, Davis, White, Nunez OF: Ferguson, K Tucker, Martin, Kemmer Rotation: Paulino, Armenteros, Thornton, James, Emanuel Bullpen: Deetz, Ferrell, Valdez, Guduan, McCurry, Gustave, Hoyt Extras: Dorris, Thome, Garza, Comer, Thompson Released: Garcia, Sneed This roster is the most unpredictable. The decisions on who will DH in Houston will have a big impact as will any offseason trades. Stassi and P Tucker are out of options. I didn't speculate on bringing in AAAA guys but if Centeno and Stassi both end up elsewhere I could see them signing another catcher, and I could also see another Brignac type. There's more confidence on the pitching staff. I could see a AAAA guy replacing Emanuel in the rotation. This roster is pretty stacked. AA Corpus: C: Hermelyn, Ritchie IF: Rojas, Tanielu, Michelena, Birk, Cesar, DeGoti OF: Laureano, Straw, Alvarez, Wrenn Rotation: Whitley, Quiala, Bostick, H Perez, C Perez, Dykxhoorn, E Hernandez, Adcock Bullpen: Stutzman, N Hernandez, Deemes, Hill Extras: McCall, Winkelman, Heredia A little more cartainty here. I have them continuing to be aggressive with Josh Rojas. This is a decent roster with a very high upside rotation, but not a great lineup. High A Buies Creek: C: Papierski, Robinson IF: Sieber, Matijevic, A Sierra, Trompiz, Duarte, Almonte OF: Dawson, Julks, McCormick, De La Cruz, Benedetti Rotation: Bukauskas, C Martin, Javier, Alcala, LaRue, G Valdez, Scheetz, P Sandoval Bullpen: Mushinski, Saldana, C Sierra, Balaguer Extras: Jones, Pinales, Bower, Hartman, Blanco Released: Brey, Carr, Chavez, J Hernandez, J Ferrell This is a great roster. Very good lineup and stacked pitching staff. A Quad Cities: C: Toro, Henderson IF: Adams, M Sierra, Arauz, Franco, Bohanek, Tovalin OF: Payano, Celestino, R Garcia, Pineda, Meyers Rotation: Solis, Ivey, Bielek, H Martin, House, Hiraldo, Ruppenthal, Bleday Bullpen: N Thompson, Sanabria, Paredes, Robles Extras: Corniel, Rosado Released: William, Montano, Johnson, Castro, Ramirez Extras in EST that could be in full season: Davis, Shaver, Russell, Mathis, Bracamonte, Slenker, Solomon, Donato, Serrano, H Paulino, Y Ramirez That QC roster would be heavily dependent on a few young guys who might not be ready. The pitching should be pretty good. But that lineup is scary in a bad way.
MLB.com posted their prediction for the Top 10 prospects in the league at the end of NEXT season, and Whitley was 9th. They have assumed K Tucker will graduate.
Not sure how a pitcher that starts the year in AA can be the 9th best prospect by the end of the year.
MLB pipeline is always 6 months behind the curve. If Whitley pitches anywhere close to how he has this year, he will be a top 1-2 prospect in baseball and in Houston by the break. Pitchers at his age with his WHIP and SO numbers are very very rare. Whitley is already a better prospect than Tucker and likely, other than Correa, the Astros best prospect in a really long time. After Whitley and Tucker graduate, we are possible devoid of any potentially elite prospects for a year or two. There are some possible candidates like Alvarez and Jairo, but they need to have a strong year next year. Otherwise we will be a deep system with out any plug and play guys.
I want Whitley and Verlander to share a dugout as much as possible the next two years. Even if it means our Minor League System ranking falls to the bottom half.
If he's shows he's good enough to be the 9th best prospect, he'll be in the majors long enough by end of next year not to be a prospect. If he's not good enough to lose his prospect status, he should be lower than 9th as there would be some reason the team is holding him in the minors. It would be different if he was a hitter as elite hitting prospects typically only get promoted at certain times of the year.
We always say that the farm will be devoid of top end talent after we graduate a guy like Bregman, Correa, McCullers. But somehow guys always seem to step up. Like you said there's Yordan, and then there are Bukauskas and every coming year's first round pick. Another sleeper is this guy Joe Perez. Very strange to draft a guy 2nd that most rating systems didn't have in the top 200 picks, but when the Astros and the dominant groupthink diverge the most, the past few years I would tend to side with the Astros!
If there's one thing Luhnow can be trusted with, it's keeping the pipeline running a la his time with the Co-ards.
All good as long as the pipeline keeps churning out 2 core players per year: 2015 Correa, McCullers 2016 Bregman, Devenski 2017 Fisher, Martes 2018 Tucker, Whitley 2019 Alvarez, Bukauskas 2020 Matijevic?, C Martin? 2021 J Perez?, Solis? 2022 Nova?, E Rodriguez? Margin for error will decrease as they get further into the phase of being deadline buyers and drafting late. But for at least the next 2-3 years it still looks good.
