Bryan Abreu threw three innings in his Texas League debut and allowed four runs on three hits, walked three, and struck out five; one of those three hits was a three-run homer.
Willy Collado also made his first appearance in the Carolina League; he had an unearned run charged to him following an error in the 8th, which turned out to be the difference in Fayetteville's 1-0 loss. The run was an inherited runner that scored; he allowed a single, walked two, and struck out six. Collado has never started a game in his career, but he could be on the verge of an Abreu-like breakout this season.
Wonder what their development plan for him is. It looks like he's averaged 3-4 innings per appearance going back to 2015. Is that just the result of being the tandem system or strict pitch counts?
I wanna say that it's pitch counts. He's gotten into the 5th in each of his three starts for Fayetteville and he topped out at 79 pitches, so it seems like he's done a decent job of handling a starter's load. They allowed him to stretch out a few times last season as he had three starts where he threw at least 80 pitches. Otherwise, he's been topping out in the 70s.
Matt Ruppenthal walked one and struck out six for Quad Cities last night; he now has 21 strikeouts in 14.1 innings of work this season.
He certainly has had impressive numbers and I believe Longenhagen has mentioned him as someone to look out for.
Idk how hard he throws, but Oz said he has maybe the best slider in the system when he's on. Which is high praise considering that MLB pipeline rated Bukauskas' slider as the best breaking ball in the minors.
After issuing five walks in his first two appearances of the season, Parker Mushinski has not issued a walk in his last three. Last night, he went five innings and allowed two unearned runs on a home run, six hits, and struck out eight. In those three appearances (12 IP), he's struck out 22. Mushinski, the Astros' 7th-round pick in 2017 from Texas Tech, finishes the first month of the season with 30 strikeouts and 5 walks in 19.1 innings (5 appearances, 3 starts). In his draft year, he was described as having a 91-92 MPH fastball (T94) and an above-average curve but also had control issues.
Tyler White has a very confusing batting line. His power completely evaporated. His .268 average is highly BABIP fueled (.423). His K rate is up 50% but his walk rate is up 80%. As tedious as he's been to watch this year, I'm actually curious to see what stabilizes. His power and contact should be come back.
All of his numbers this year are weird as hell. He's got one of the lowest soft contact rates in baseball, and the 2nd highest medium contact rate. He's striking out or walking in almost half of his plate appearances. His pitches seen per PA isn't much higher than last season, but his BB/K rates have both skyrocketed somehow. He's also hitting a ton of ground balls. If Tony Kemp had his current line I would feel good about it, but Jabba the Hut needs to start hitting for some power not drawing the occasional walk and clogging the bases.
My current expected position player roster moves leading up to the draft (June 3-5): AAA: Reed, Ferguson released/traded/DL. Goetzman, McCormick, Wrenn promoted from AA. AA: Beer, De La Cruz, Adams, Julks, Shaver promoted from high A. A Sierra released. High A: Costes, Schreiber, Lacroix promoted from A. J Pineda promoted from EST. A: Wielansky, Machado, R Rodriguez promoted from EST.
I'm still surprised the sorry ass Giants gave up on Ferguson so quickly given the overall trash state of their outfield.
White doesn't clog up the bases as often as people say he clogs up the bases. There are very few times that a player can't advance an extra base due to White especially since he usually bats in front to the catcher. Most of the time, White is trading his AB to get Springer. Altuve, Bregman, etc. an extra AB. I like when Springer, Altuve, Bregman, etc. are batting. If White swapped some on base for power by forcing it instead of waiting to get out of his slump naturally, that would for all intents and purposes be taking the bat out of Springer, Altuve, and Bregman's hands.
Crazy **** like that happen can certainly happen in 50 PA samples. He has a super low zone% so far this season so it makes sense his BB% and K% are up.
I probably come off that I like White more than I do. I don't get the negativity he gets when he's essentially free money.
