Was looking at this guy's stats and since he plays catcher I was wondering if anyone has read much on his upside. It is Lancaster, but pretty promising so far. Not sure if he will have much power outside Lancaster? What were his college stats like?
Lancaster effect in full force like Heineman before him. He has a .982 OPS at home and .660 on the road. Our only other minor league catcher with multiple HRs is Ritchie, and he is also at Lancaster.
He's tiny for a catcher - 5'10", 175 - so it'd be nice if he could put on some weight to handle the grind behind the plate. He's never hit for power anywhere, and the best you can hope for is him developing some gap power. He is an excellent all around defensive catcher, blocking, throwing, receiving.
I figured as much but was too lazy to look it up. We need Castro to keep it up and maybe we can get a solid backup catcher someday that can hold their own at the plate. Also would be nice if Gattis can be a decent defensive catcher and be productive at the plate the rest of the season. There is nothing beyond Castro from what I can tell. I am pretty disappointed in our minor league system this year. Lancaster is desolate from what I can tell and Kyle Tucker appears to be the only bright spot in the lower minors. I guess once all of the minor league seasons start we will see how things shakeout. If Martes can turn it around, Musgrove keeps it up, Bregman stays hot and AJ Reed heats up our minors will be fine but I have been spoiled by the dozens of players overacheiving in the minors the last couple of years and that has definitely dwindled. We need an excellent 2016 draft to keep the talent pool up and Luhnow seems like the right guy for that. I think it is wise to build up as much talent as possible and then evaluate those players as much as possible IN THE MAJORS before you trade them off. Out of 3 highly touted prospects, 1 will most likely turn out to be an above average player so a part of me wishes we just kept our in house guys to compete against each other.
With a talented young team with pretty good control of its player contracts for the near future, the necessity for the minor league teams shift to finding gems for trade bait and non star type players. As it is Altuve, Correa, Springer, are establishing star power in the ML. Bregman has got to be popping some eyes wide open with what he is doing. K. Tucker is playing exceptionally well, and may be on his own fast track. Other than finds no cheaper talent in the minors, I think if guys play to their potential, the Astros are setting the table for their team of the next 10-15 years.
Not to be a Debbie downer but I wouldn't be surprised if last season was the exception not the rule in terms of minor league success. The system isn't going to be getting the same types of boosts they've had in the last by picking first in every round and having the biggest pool. If the system settles in as a solid above average system like the cards, in particular getting ML contributions from unheralded players then I'm fine with that. The lower level clubs have a bunch of talented IFAs. Albert abreu in particular sounds like he'll be a top 100 prospect in the offseason.
Martes, Musgrove, Devenski and White were break through players last year. The draft and the short summer seasons have not happened yet. There will be plenty of time before the end of the minor league season, for players to improve their stock.
I don't think it is being a debbie downer. I think it makes sense. It does make every trade and draft pick that much more critical though. We will have to continue hitting on major league talent to either trade away or contribute in the majors at some point. I just remember how much people talked about the "surplus" we had last year in the minors, mainly in pitching and my thought was, is there such a thing as a surplus of pitching? The more arms you have competing in the minors the better. We had (maybe still have) a real chance to be the next Giants with several young stud pitchers under control. I don't think our minor league system will dry up with Luhnow at the helm but he needs to really evaluate the system and only trade high upside players for 100% proven all stars. Easier said than done but I do have faith he will progress on the trading front and find ways to get elite talent through trades, free agency, and the farm.
Very true, I will keep my eye on Albert Abreu. Any other sleepers that may have breakout seasons? It is always fun to watch a player progress through the system, sometimes from nothing. Luhnow and the front office seem to have a couple of little known guys jump the boards and impress every season.
Fact is, Most minor league players won't make the show at a ML game. And year in and year out, it's the same cast of characters at an allstar game in the Majors. Most teams have on average 3-4 players in the top 100 prospects list. When teams have 8-9 players in the top 100, those are abnormalities. And most of those top 100 will likely be just average players who never reach the zenith of their potential.
There is such a thing as a surplus, because you always have to think about roster impact. Guys that get good quickly/unexpectedly start to take up 40 man slots. You have to plan for the future (you know certain highly touted guys will be on that roster on certain dates) and the present (you need pitchers you can call up in season, the flexibility to make moves like we did this week with Moran, etc.). With all of the above, if you just sit on a surplus of anything in the minors, you're going to start losing guys (DDJ) to the Rule 5 unnecessarily. If you're proactive and trade from the surplus when you see an opportunity to strike, you get something for that surplus.
Ultimately you have to trade some of the surplus. Otherwise they die on the vine and they keep younger players from working through the system. Thus far the Astros have only lost one prospect that looks like a huge mistake, and that is Vincent Velasquez; and the Astros have traded nearly 20 reasonably thought of prospects the last few years. My "hope" was that the Astros would be able to deal prospects for long term solutions; and so far that hasn't happened (but Giles is likely a long term bullpen hammer). The Astros system isn't nearly as good as last year, but it is still very good and there are still a number of high impact players. Also, some of the international kids are starting to work their way up the system and showing some real promise.
Tanielu and Garcia promoted to Corpus. Anxious to see how both of them do. With Davis at 3B I suspect Tanielu will see most of his time at 2B. Hyde and Vasquez must be expected to miss a lot of time. Garcia was my sleeper pick this season but he didn't hit that well in Lancaster. His age may have as much to do with them moving him up as his performance did.
There's guys that can maybe help you right now or this year, like your Devenski-Kemp-Feliz-Bergman-Reed types, and guys who can help you in September or next year, and then there's guys who can potentially help you 3 years from now. You have to have that balance.
