Toro rocked his first AAA home run tonight. Tucker inches closer to a 30/30 season - picked up SB #29 tonight.
Who homered tonight Drew Ferguson (15, solo) Abraham Toro (17, solo); first AAA homer Alex De Goti (15, 2-run) Bryan de la Cruz (7, solo) Chandler Taylor (11, 3-run)
Enoli Paredes in relief for Corpus: 3 IP, BB, 4 K Shawn Dubin @ Down East: 5 IP, BB, 5 K Nivaldo Rodriguez, after coming in: 4 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 5 K José Alberto Rivera @ Peoria: 4 IP, 4 H, 2 R (1 ER), BB, 7 K R.J. Freure, after coming in: 4 IP, H, BB, 6 K
De Goti has a career high in HR and has been on fire in August (1139 ops). He will make a nice AAAA guy to have around the next few years.
Somewhat surprising. I guess Toro at 3rd / Gurriel at 1st vs. Gurriel at 3rd and Tucker at 1st won out. It also costs a 40 man spot.
Nice! Stats make him look like an MLB player. Not sure if he'll be able to get enough power into game to be a good MLB player.
Toro is the first player from Houston’s 2016 draft to reach the majors with the Astros (Jake Rogers has reached the majors with the Tigers). There are 6 guys from that draft in AAA, and 7 in AA. I’d put the over/under on players from that draft to reach the majors at 8 (guesses: Rogers, Toro, Whitley, Dawson, Howard, De Goti, Donato, and Jones). Whitley will determine that drafts overall grade, as he is the only player likely to contribute star level value.
Switch hitting 3B (with some 2B and 1B mixed in), big arm, adequate glove, line drive hitter with pop. Really broke out in the AFL a couple of years ago after retooling his swing. Just in time for one of the more perfect yet terrible Player's Weekend nicknames: Matador This was in the Statesman just yesterday, and now he's called up: The next big thing for the Round Rock Express isn’t physically intimidating like Yordan Alvarez. He’s not from a Sunbelt baseball hotbed like Florida’s Kyle Tucker, and he didn’t play for a major college program like Oklahoma’s Jack Mayfield. The Express’ newest buzz-worthy addition speaks three languages, waited until he was 14 to dive into the sport and comes from a place where “Hockey Night in Canada” is much more popular than “ESPN Sunday Night Baseball.” Meet third baseman Abraham Toro, a 22-year-old French Canadian from the Quebec town of Longueuil (pronounced Lon-gay) across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal. Give them some clicks and read the whole thing: https://www.statesman.com/sports/20...ewest-star-is-making-waves-long-way-from-home
I’m officially worried about Whitley. He might be a total ****ing bust, which would be a gigantic setback for Houston’s plan to contend past 2022.
Keep us posted about your worries. Like I said before...if he went to college he would have been drafted this June and would be spending a little bit of time pitching 20 innings in SS A-ball on a pitch count. Sometimes it takes taller guys a bit to fill out and figure out the repetition of their mechanics. Sometimes they never figure it out. It is weird that he just all of the sudden imploded once he hit RR, now they've said they're working on his delivery, so why worry yet? Everyone has admitted he was rushed, from Astros brass to fans, me included. I dunno, though, he could be a total bust. Next year's draft is the deepest in college pitching in a decade or so, there's always green grass if you look hard enough.
Valente Bellozo allowed a run on three hits and struck out four in five innings in his first Quad Cities start. Looks like he'll be in Baseball America's top 30 Astros prospects in 2020.