Yep.... Someone (don't care whether he's a pitcher or hitter, don't care what level he's at) needs to go on a tear and be rewarded with a fast track... Standings-wise: OKC at 6-12 is in last in the PCL AL South. They are tied with Memphis for the 2nd-worst record in the league. Corpus Christi is 7-10, 3rd place in the Texas League South. Lancaster is 9-9, tied for 2nd in the Cal League South. (Sidebar: Best [3-way North division leaders Bakersfield, San Jose, and Stockton at 11-7] and worst (Modesto and Visalia [the other 2 teams in the North]and Lake Elsinore at 7-11) are 4 games apart.) Lexington, at 10-8, is in 2nd in the South Atlantic League's South division. So the farm system's record is 32-39, and after exhaustively combing the standings of the minors, the Astros' .451 winning percentage ranks 25th out of 30. Only Seattle, St. Louis, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore's systems have a worse winning percentage. Still plenty of season left, and the short-season teams haven't started play yet, however.
An interesting position change in CC: Brandon Barnes (who led our minor leaguers last year in HRs) has been playing 2B the last couple of games. And he hit a home run today. Mier has also hit two home runs in the last two games.
Anderson Hernandez's 3-run homer fueled OKC's 4-1 win over New Orleans. Henry Villar gets the win with 6 innings of 1-run ball. Brandon Barnes, in his first game since being promoted from Corpus, batted 5th and went 0-4. Andrew Simunic, the guy who went the other way when Barnes was called up, batted leadoff and went 1-5. Jonathan Gaston (remember him?) homered and T.J. Steele had 2 RBI, but Corpus Christi fell 12-8 to Midland. Lancaster loses 13-6 to Rancho Cucamonga. Altuve goes 3-4; he's now hitting .440. Pitchers got rocked again... Lexington split a double-header with Kannapolis. They won the first game 3-2 with Mike Kvasnicka contributing a 2-run double in the 6th. They lost 3-1 in the second game, which was called in the 6th due to rain. Ben Orloff drove in the only run.
Strong pitching performances for OKC and the Hooks.... and Jose Altuve continuing his torrid start. Jordan Lyles struck out 8 through 6 shoutout innings, but reliever Casey Fien served up a homer in the 7th, which turned out to be the decider. OKC loses to New Orleans, 1-0. For Corpus Christi, T.J. Steele hit a 2-run homer, J.D. Martinez and Brandon Wikoff drove in a run apiece, and Xavier Cedeno struck out 6 in 7 shutout innings. Daniel Meszaros pitched 2 perfect innings to complete the 4-0 win over Frisco. The Minor League leader in hits, Jose Altuve, continues his domination of the Cali League. He stole his 12th base and went 3-4, a triple shy of the cycle, and is now hitting .455. Lancaster lost 4-2 to Inland Empire. Andrew Robinson took the loss, allowing 4 runs in 6.2 innings. Lexington won 10-9 against Kannapolis. Delino DeShields Jr. hit his 2nd homer of the season, Adam Bailey and Telvin Nash had solo homers, Jio Mier and Chris Wallace drove in two runs each, but Roberto Pena gives the Legends a walk-off winner with a homer with 2 outs in the 9th.
Side note: Jose Altuve has now moved into a tie for the Minor League lead in batting average with the recently promoted Alexi Amarista of the Salt Lake Bees (now with the Angels).
They need to keep moving him up. Doesn't sound like he has much competition in the cali league (where offensive numbers can be overinflated).
Brian Dopirak homered twice and drove in 5, but OKC lost to New Orleans 10-7. Ross Seaton pitched well.... until the top of the 7th. He was charged with 2 earned runs, and Frisco pounded the Hooks pen to the tune of a 9-2 defeat. Seaton was charged with the loss. Who said the Cali League was a hitter's heaven? Apparently Jake Buchanan forgot the memo. He tossed a complete-game 4-hitter and shut down Inland Empire 3-0. Jacob Goebbert drove in all 3 runs. Jose Altuve went 1-5; his average is now .423. Lexington scored 3 runs in the 1st, 2 more in the 3rd, and held on for a 5-4 win against Augusta. Mike Kvasnicka and Dan Adamson drove in 2 runs apiece, and Adam Bailey drove in the other. Tanner Bushue wasn't sharp, giving up 3 runs in 5 innings off 2 homers, but he's still done well in the early going. 4-0, 3.13 ERA.
Jose Valdez was optioned to OKC and got the save in their 2-1 victory over Nashville. Douglas Arguello, the winner, went 6 innings and gave up 2 hits and 1 run, and drove in a run himself. Jose Vallejo scored the other run after a Koby Clemens GIDP. Corpus Christi's bats came alive in a 15-6 thrashing of Frisco. Jimmy Paredes mashed a 2-run homer in the 2nd, and J.D. Martinez clubbed a grand slam in the 3rd. Hooks had a 13-4 lead after the 3rd. Wladimir Sutil chipped in 2 RBI and went 4-6 and is now hitting .410. Last year's 4th round pick, Bobby Doran, had struggled mightily in his first 4 starts. He didn't have a great outing tonight, but it was stellar compared to the other 4. First quality start as a pro, but the bullpen lost the tie in the 9th, as Lancaster loses to RC 4-3. Jose Altuve went 1-3 with an RBI. He's now hitting .420. Jacob Goebbert drove in the other 2 runs. Lexington's game with Augusta was suspended due to rain. The Legends are currently leading 4-0 in the bottom of the 2nd. Dan Adamson drove in Chris Wallace and Mike Kvasnicka, then came home himself as Tyler Burnett homered. They will complete all 9 innings of this game, then play a 7-inning game tomorrow.
JD Martinez is killing it again this year. I see him being a Brett Wallace like player: solid line drive hitter, above .300 hitter, 15-25 HR potential, top of the order type of guy. He is our future 3 hole hitter. This guy will be the opening day starter in left field in 2012 when we waive Carlos Lee.
Definitley not, I'm glad you have been keeping up with the minor league clubs for us. These summaries you have been posting have been very insightful, and without them I'd hardly know how our guys are doing. I'm not really aware of a good site to follow all of the Astros minor league affiliates. Occasionally Thecrawfishboxes.com has some updates but that's about it. Keep em coming
Forgot to mention this: In the Corpus Christi game, Dallas Keuchel left after pitching 2 1/3 innings after colliding with 3rd baseman David Flores while chasing a popup. Both left. Andrew Simunic moved to 3rd while Jon Gaston came in at right field. Gaston ended up leaving after running into the wall. He left the game a little bloodied. Haven't found anything regarding their conditions yet, but hopefully all 3 will be fine. Keuchel and Flores were reported to be walking off under their own power.
Brian McTaggart: "Lexington slugger Telvin Nash on DL with left hand/wrist injury." Huge blow to that lineup.
Not to dismiss the job tellitlikeitis does, but check the Astros message board on their official site. There's a poster there that gives stats for all the minor league affiliates.
Also you could go to milb.com and look them up yourself and get the complete box-score... but it is alot easier when someone just posts them.
I tried to keep track of everything last year after the deadline deals but it's hard to do. Hats off to tellitlikeitis if he can keep it up.
A Collin DeLome grand slam fuels a 5-run 1st for OKC as they romp Nashville 12-4. Carlos Corporan drove in 2. Henry Villar gets the win despite an unspectacular line of 5 IP, 4 ER, 4 BB, and 4 K's. Guess the Wesley Wright as a starter experiment was nixed rather quickly. 3 innings, 3 K's. Hooks over Midland 7-1. Jimmy Van Ostrand finished a double short of the cycle. Another solid night for Jimmy Paredes... 3-5 with a steal, his 11th. And how about Brandon Wikoff? 2-4 with 2 RBI. He's hitting .471, but doesn't have enough plate appearances to qualify for the lead. Kyle Greenwalt got the win with 6 innings of 1-run ball, striking out 8. Lancaster let a 2-2 tie snowball into an 8-2 loss to RC. Jonathan Meyer drove in both runs. Jose Cisnero struck out 13 in 7 innings. If I'm not mistaken, that's a season high for an Astros minor league pitcher. His start breakdown: 3 great outings, 1 alright outing, and 2 stinkers. Oddly enough, he didn't allow a homer in either stinker. His line for the season: 24.1 IP, 1-2, 6.66 ERA, 21 hits allowed, 18 runs (all earned), 15 BB, and 42 strikeouts. Guess the Quakes got tired of him... they plated 1 run in the 8th and put up a 5-spot in the 9th. Lexington took both games from Augusta today. Remember, they had to finish last night's game, which had been suspended. They took that game 15-2. In addition to Burnett's homer, Delino DeShields and Adam Bailey went deep. Everyone had a hit, everyone scored except for Ben Orloff, and everyone drove in a run except for Jio Mier and Orloff. Dydalewicz was the scheduled starter, and Carlos Quevedo got the win by pitching 7 solid innings. In today's scheduled game, the Legends won 8-4 in 7 innings. Jhonny Medrano and Roberto Pena drove in 2 runs apiece. And I think DeShields may be settling in. He's gotten his average up to .226. Yordany Ramirez gets the win despite getting 2 outs and walking 3 in the 4th. Alex Sogard got the final 10 outs, racking up 6 K's.
