Top 10 prospects, 2004 offseason, per BA: Taylor Buchholz Jason Lane John Buck Chris Burke Fernando Nieve Hector Gimenez Chad Qualls Jason Hirsch Matt Albers Jimmy Barthmaier Barf. Astros top 20, 2005 offseason, per Sickels: Chris Burke, 2B, B+ Mitch Einertson, OF, B+ Ezequiel Astacio, RHP, B Matt Albers, RHP, B Ben Zobrist, SS, B Fernando Nieve, RHP, B Hunter Pence, OF, B Troy Patton, LHP, C+ Willy Taveras, OF, C+ Josh Anderson, OF, C+ Taylor Buchholz, RHP, C+ Jared Gothreaux, RHP, C+ Mike Burns, RHP, C+ Brooks Conrad, 2B, C+ Mitch Talbot, RHP, C+ Tommy Whiteman, SS, C Juan Gutierrez, RHP, C Luke Scott, OF, C Todd Self, 1B, C Enyelbert Soto, LHP, C Barf.
Haha honestly its not a horrible list for 2005. Three guys are still playing 12 years later, two of which were multi-time all-stars with >$50m in career earnings.
I would say the MLB/farm combo was better in 98/99. We were absolute stacked top to bottom. Our MLB team wasn't quite so young, but it wasn't aging either. The scouting and development fell apart soon after though, and a ton of things went wrong in 2000. I don't foresee that happening with this regime.
One advantage the current big league team has over 98/99 is this squad doesn't already have multiple playoff choke-jobs. The Killer B's didn't see their first postseason until they were 30, while this squad has already gotten experience in their early/mid-20's. Looking at the playoff stats now, Bagwell ended up with a higher career OBP than SLG... don't recall ever seeing that by any player in any situation. He was walking while mostly single'ing when he did make contact. Bad news, McCann and Reddick both have very similar OPS's as Pipes. Beltran has also played poorly his last 3 series (Bagwell-like OPS). Maybe Carlos' deterioration is more attributed to wearing down over a long season because he's pretty much been All-World every series in 10 tries prior. He too had a higher OBP than SLG in the last 3 series. Guess that's pretty common with limited ABs if you're mostly stinking it up.
So by 99 they had multiple failures, and were both over 30. You deleted 10 sentences to say that. Somebody is shook. LOL
By 99 they played all of 7 playoff games. Sure, they looked bad against the likes of Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, K. Brown all pitching at HOF levels. Extrapolating small sample size playoff stats is rife with statistical anomalies like you've just apparently uncovered for the first time.... reminds me of those who argue about strength of schedule. If this current regime churns out another Biggio/Bagwell/Berkman-like trio (in terms of career numbers for the Astros).. regardless of playoff failure... it would be a huge success.
Enoli Paredes might be turning into a guy worth keeping an eye on. 5.1 IP, H (solo HR allowed), ER, 2 BB, 2 K Season stats: 5 appeareances (3 starts), 0-2, 3.00 ERA, 24 IP, 16 H (3 HR allowed), 8 ER, 7 BB, 20 K, 0.96 WHIP, .198 opponent average
Not sure what you're arguing. Are you saying you don't like the current squad getting early experience? As for discrediting strength of schedule, you basically just stated the HOF-level pitching the Killer B's faced made for a tougher SOS.
I'm saying that experience wasn't necessarily the problem with the 90's Astros. If this current team goes up and has to face a run of pitchers like those guys did, they too could be labeled (wrongly) by some as "playoff chokers". The good news is that no team possess' the type of pitching staff's that the 90's Braves had or the 2000 A's had. The Astros could get there with just one more major addition. That wasn't any sort of schedule... that was the freakin playoffs, going up against an stacked/elite pitching staff year after year.
Craig Reynolds did it over the course of 200+ at bats in 1989. I had to look it up as I remembered him doing that, but I thought he had done it multiple times. Pete Rose did it a lot.
Ok, so it's pretty rare. Rose's first time was his 18th season, then he did it every year thereafter except one. Basically it's slap-hitters who draw walks.
Nah, it's definitely SOS. If you enter a series facing a team's Top 3 starters vs missing 2 of them, there's an SOS discrepancy. Similarly in this quote, you basically just stated no current team possesses ATL's SOS because their pitching can't match. I really don't understand why you would argue otherwise. Also, somebody tell Zerlein that Bagwell's career postseason OPS is higher than Biggio's. He completely missed the boat on that one. Seems he just LIKES Craig more and mis-remembers.
- D.J. Fisher went 3-5 with a stolen base and scored a run in Fresno's 6-4 win in OKC. He's now on a 16-game hitting streak. - Jon Singleton (remember him) hit a grand slam for Corpus. His average is a paltry .234, but he also has an .891 OPS on the season.
Agreed. Just have to find the singles hitters (of which Bagwell was not - at least in the regular season)
Fisher is performing better at home than on the road; Fresno's ballpark is actually a pretty neutral environment for hitters. The PCL's wide geographic footprint provides a variety of hitting environments; the hitter's parks seem to be concentrated in the Southwest and the mountains... and then there's Omaha. Here's a recent Baseball America article on park factors from the Majors all the way down to the Rookie leagues. The home ballparks of the Astros' minor league affiliates do appear to favor hitters, with the exception of Fresno and Greeneville.
Rodrigo Ayarza went 4-5 with a 3-run homer and 5 RBI for Quad Cities last night. That home run came when the River Bandits were down to their final out of the game. Ayarza now has 5 home runs on the season; his previous career high was 3 in 2015. He's hitting .341 but only has a .355 OBP because he's only drawn one walk in 93 plate appearances. He was signed as a minor league free agent sometime during the 2013-14 offseason after the spending his first two seasons with the Rangers. Organizational guy who's having a really nice season, so I just wanted to put him in the spotlight.
Gotta think between Ayarza (168 wRC+), Randy Cesar (139), and Marcos Almonte (162), at least one of them is experiencing a true break out. My money is on Almonte.
