Danry Vasquez and Mott Hyde had a nasty collision in Corpus Christi last night. Game was delayed about 45 minutes. Mott had to be taken off in an ambulance with a neck injury and concussion, but appears to be okay. Vasquez looks like he tore his left knee up pretty bad.
WHIP below 1 and K/9 right around 10 in the Cal League... I'll take it. Trent Thornton is also pitching very well in that league. Our AAA lineup last night was depressing. 7 out of 9 had batting averages below .210, with Eury Perez (.272) and Danny Worth (.358) as the lone exceptions. Especially disappointed in Stassi, Duffy, and Singleton, who should be itching to get back to the big leagues, and Aplin and Fontana are also blowing a good opportunity. In AA, Fisher is starting to heat up. The average is a bit lower than you'd like, but the power is starting to show, and he's getting on base, which is nice. Bregman is of course a complete monster leading the league in OPS.
From BP yesterday: Alex Bregman, SS, Houston Astros (Double-A Corpus Christi): 3-for-4, 3 R, 2 2B, HR. I recently had a scout tell me that he believes Bregman is ready to contribute for Houston right now. He’s not going to, but that should give Houston fans some excitement. In that same Minor League Update, BP also notes that Josh Hader is one of the best lefty pitching prospects in baseball. Sad!
If he's ready to play now... he needs to get up here. This is no longer an experiment, and he fills a specific need (low K, high contact hitter). They have a dynamic 1-3. They need production everywhere else, and there aren't many other options to explore right now. The Orioles must be kicking themselves for trading him for Bud Norris! In all seriousness, though... I'll wait to see how long it takes him to become a above average MLB pitcher before I start lamenting his loss. Still could be another 2-3 years before he's at "that" level, and I'm not so sure the Astros haven't found a similar replacement minor league arm by then.
Would like to see Bregman go the other way with power, MLB pitchers are going to exploit his tendency for pull power and just pitch him outside so he can't hurt them.
No it isn't. His ceiling is a #2 type... lack of a quality third pitch dilutes his value a ton. I'm not too upset about trading Hader. Two pitch SPs get exposed once they get to the bigs.
He is young enough so that he can learn / improve his change up . I agree he isn't as good as Sale ... But he has a lot of room to fill out in his frame and does have similar upside . When your two pitches grade 65+ then you can have success even with a crappy 3rd pitch . Just look at McCullers , he really only had 2 pitches coming up and then developed a change up . Hader has a pretty high ceiling and could easily end up being the best player we let go of in that trade .
At this point, you have to rely on the scouts/front office's evaluations of him.... remember, the Astros/Luhnow specifically asked Baltimore to include him in the Norris trade, so they obviously saw *something* in him that contained value. Those same front office members/scouts also saw *something* in him that deemed him to be expendable, if it would allow them to acquire an established player for 1.5 years that would help the current nucleus more-so. (of course, it hasn't worked out that way). Does every team make mistakes such as this? Of course... but the Astros were not the first team to trade Hader, and they may very well not be the last.
If Fisher keeps finding his groove, then he'll be ready for a September call up, and after Gomez is gone at the end of the season, I'd figure you re-up Rasmus, and the outfield is set for next year. Kyle Tucker might be ready by 2018 or sooner. Which is why you do another year of Rasmus. An outfield of Springer, Fisher, and Tucker is pretty good. As was said, nobody in the 2014 draft had the combination of power and speed Fisher has.
I'm not saying they made a mistake or that he wasn't expendable . I'm saying he's a good prospect ... And his lack of a third pitch at this time doesn't limit his ceiling .
Good to see a solid start by Martes tonight 6 Innings, 1 earned, 4 hits, 1 bb, 5 k's And of course in a game tied at 1, Bregman has knocked in the 1 run
