HOUSTON -- The Houston Astros announced Sunday that the club will purchase the contract of outfielder Willy Taveras from Double A Round Rock on Monday. Taveras will join the club Monday afternoon in Houston, at which time a corresponding move will be made to make room for him on the 40-man roster. The announcement was made by general manager Gerry Hunsicker. Taveras, 22, hit .335 (137-for-409) with two home runs, 27 RBI, and 55 stolen bases in 103 games at Double A Round Rock this season. The 2004 Texas League batting champ, Taveras also led the TL in steals and finished eighth in hits (137) and third in on-base percentage (.402). Originally selected by Houston in the Rule 5 Draft in December of 2003, Taveras was acquired from Cleveland along with Luke Scott in exchange for left-handed pitcher Jeriome Robertson on March 31, 2003. In 516 career minor league games, Taveras has hit .296 (587-for-1981) with 15 home runs, 181 runs batted in, and 257 stolen bases. http://houston.astros.mlb.com/NASAp...40905&content_id=848835&vkey=pr_hou&fext=.jsp This is kind of sprising since the Astros are not known for promoting young guys during playoff race and not from AA. He is fast and should be excellent pinch runner.
This is great news. I've been watching this kid's stats. We could definitely use some speed on the base paths. Hopefully, he won't let the big lights get to him. 55 stolen bases & only caught 11 times. That's an 80% success rate.
I imagine he will primarily be used for pinch running situations as stated above. But as it looks right now, ths is the most lop sided Astros trade in our favor since the Bagwell one years ago, provided Tavaras continues to hit well. Tavaras and Beltran batting back to back next year could put fear in every oppsing pitcher's mind. Much like Pierre and Castilla do for the Marlins.
I hope the Astros can manage to hold on to any young power hitting players they have (mainly Berkman) since most of the young, promising hitting prospects right now don't seem to have a lot of pop. Specifically Burke, Taveras, Josh Anderson, etc. Having the fast contact hitters is all well and good at the top of the lineup, but you need those power guys to drive them in.
if you want to feed that idea, go check out what luke scott did this year, kid put up some nice numbers, especially in RR.
While Biggio has been good, we haven't had a great lead-off hitter for a long, long time. If Taveras can keep his average around .300 & can have a similar success rate in stolen bases, we could finally have the lead-off hitter we've been missing. Now, if we can only get Beltran to resign with us. Did anyone else hear Beltran's post-game comments about the future of the Astros, the other night? He, in essence, was implying that the Astros had some promising young talent that's starting to put it together now. I don't think I've heard him say that much about the team since he got here. It sounded pretty positive to me.
Things could change for him, you never know. Bagwell hit 4 homeruns in 136 games for New Britain in his last year in the minors.
The kid strike out in his 1st at bat today, but one thing is for sure, he's got a real quick bat & appears to not be intimidated at the plate. It was just the look of "bring it" on his face that impressed me. Maybe, next time, he'll make contact with the ball.
Have you ever looked at Juan Pierre's numbers? This season he has a career high 3 homers, and he started his career in Colorado. As long as Taveras can hit around .300 and steal 40 bases, I'm happy.
It wasn't meant as a critcism, I was just surprised that an outfielder called up to the major leagues only hit 2 HRs in AA ball.
To continue the Juan Pierre comparison, Pierre hit 1 HR in over 1300 at bats. As a 22 year old in AA, Taveras hit .339 with 74 runs, 55 SB in 102 games. For comparison, a 23 year old Juan Pierre put up .326 with 63 runs and 46 steals in 106 games at AA. The HRs don't bother me so much, but Taveras only had 16 XBH total. I'd like to see him at least get some more doubles- of course with MMP's spacious CF, he may be able to take 2nd a little more often.
