Guduan had such a bad year in AA. He's kind of like Gustave last year. He might get taken, but extremely unlikely to make it.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="sl" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash">#Astros</a> add 5 players to their 40-man roster: C Alfredo Gonzalez, RHP Jandel Gustave, RHP Juan Minaya, RHP Joe Musgrove, RHP David Paulino.</p>— Houston Astros (@astros) <a href="https://twitter.com/astros/status/667774063482400769">November 20, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="sl" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash">#Astros</a> add 5 players to their 40-man roster: C Alfredo Gonzalez, RHP Jandel Gustave, RHP Juan Minaya, RHP Joe Musgrove, RHP David Paulino.</p>— Houston Astros (@astros) <a href="https://twitter.com/astros/status/667774063482400769">November 20, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
One more spot to fill. Gonzalez had a career year across the board on offense and threw out 47% of would-be base stealers across 3 levels in 2015. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Gonzalez has an absolute cannon. Really worked on his framing in CC last year and is an above-average hitter. <a href="https://t.co/tQoqAMs2qX">https://t.co/tQoqAMs2qX</a></p>— Tyler Stafford (@tylercstafford) <a href="https://twitter.com/tylercstafford/status/667774537677717504">November 20, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Astros protect their better pitch-framing C in Gonzalez. Likely leaves Roberto Pena as a key member of my to-come Rule 5 preview.</p>— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) <a href="https://twitter.com/jjcoop36/status/667776031080718336">November 20, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Adding Gonzalez and Minaya is interesting. I would have left Minaya off personally but obviously they must think he can contribute in the big league pen next year.
Interesting. Ensberg said that Pena will be Salvador Perez good... Although I've learned to take what he says with a grain of salt.
Ensberg is the crazy football uncle that signs up for college message boards and posts his nephew's 45 second highlight video, claiming that he is the "next big thing" once he gets a chance.
I take it this means Conger is being dealt or released. No way that they have 4 catchers on the 40 man roster (Castro, Straily and Conger were on it yesterday).
It's not common but a quick googling shows at least one team (Mariners) carrying 4 catchers on the 40 man.
Thinking about it, catcher is the one area we have such little depth in the minors, so maybe this is Luhnow's way of protecting that depth (i.e., carrying 4 catchers on the 40 man roster). But I don't really expect Conger to be on the roster next year, so we'll see.
I like Aplin. He's nothing special, but he'll be a decent backup. Very surprised on Gonzalez and Minaya. Honestly not familiar with Gonzalez at all.
Gonzalez had a pretty solid offensive season across 3 levels with a .321 Avg and .409 OBP. He doesn't hit for any power whatsoever. They've always waxed rhapsodic about his glove, but if he can continue to provide a competent bat he's gonna be a least a solid backup in the majors.
He's probably the one I'm most surprised is unprotected. High OBP, real good speed, good defender. Position players are harder to stash on another teams 25 man roster (as opposed to pitchers), but Aplin seems good enough that some team will pick him up as their 4th outfielder.
I dont know much about Aplin, but I don't see the rationale in keeping Hoes over Aplin. We know what Hoes is. A replaceable player. Good for maybe 1-2 games a year, at best. Why not just protect Aplin?
I'd agree with that. And I'd say the same thing about Conger, I'd release him and Hoes and protect Aplin and Pena.
They still have time to make other moves. I agree with you on Aplin over Hoes. Maybe some trades are in the works that will free up some spots and/or deal some of the quality prospects that we can't all protect
