It's always fun to speculate about what our hot-at-the-time players in the minors could do if given the opportunity...but it's also June and the Astros have a .700 winning percentage. Every year he's been in the league Aoki has been a high contact, .350 OBP guy. Honestly, if he's able to provide that, that is absolutely perfect for this roster. Of course it'd be nice if Fisher is a .300 hitter with 30 HR pop, but we all know how unlikely that is. I'm really hoping Aoki can turn it around and "regress" back to his very solid mean.
Someone will likely need to get hurt for Fisher to come up, though Astros have a hole in LF whether they cut Aoki (no options) or not. Fisher stinking wouldn't change that. Astros are very likely going to address LF whether internally or externally by deadline. I personally, though I know Astros likely won't do this, would give Aoki to some other team in exchange for them paying his salary and give Fisher 2 months to earn job. Marwin and Marisnick are there as band aids if he falters until they can acquire a LF in trade. On trade value, it is a risk. That said, Astros need a LF and he's the cheapest option available. Seems worth risking his trade value to see if he can help the Astros in my opinion. I give Fisher about a 60% chance of being better than Aoki going forward this season. That said, I do see that Astros could want to just preserve his trade value as the Astros might not see Fisher in their future with Tucker now in AA. On Fisher not being in Astros organization after deadline, I would give Aoki worse odds than him. Something usually breaks to give guys like Fisher some PAs in majors. Luckily, Astros haven't had that.
Aoki cannot be optioned to the minors. He'd have to be passed through waivers and removed from the 40 man roster to be sent down. Not sure if he would have the option to choose free agency or not. He is under team control for one more season.
I don't think there will be any significant changes to the big league roster prior to the trade deadline. If a hitter is injured they would likely pull up a player already on the 40 man (Teoscar, Tucker, Kemp, Reed, Moran, White, Stassi) before adding Fisher. That said, if he is not traded and continues to mash, he will be the everyday LF to start next season.
It is refreshing that we are whining about a .260 hitter after having guys flirting with the mendoza line the last few years. This is a great team.
Didn't realize Fisher was not on 40-man. That may keep him down until deadline until Luhnow makes a couple of trades. It is unfortunate as it would be nice to get a peek at his abilities in majors before deadline.
While I'm sure that would still hold true, we can easily add a 40-man spot by moving Rodgers to the 60-day.
Jonathan Arauz's suspension is over and he's joined Quad Cities. Alex De Goti, Ryan Hartman, and Rodrigo Ayarza are heading to Buies Creek.
Jake Rogers is proving me an idiot...basically he has started hitting everything in A+ ball after having a 37% K%.
Season line: 8 appearances (6 starts), 1-3, 2.11 ERA, 38.1 IP, 21 H (3 HR allowed), 9 ER, 13 BB, 33 K, 0.89 WHIP
Small sample size be damned. I've given up trying to guess what Jake Rogers is going to do offensively. He's flashing offensive dominance at HiA which is actually level appropriate for him. He's becoming a more intriguing prospect everyday.
If he can show anything with the bat he is a high level prospect. Said by many to be the best defensive catcher prospect they have ever seen.
