Ronel Blanco made his Texas League debut by coming on for Whitley and he dazzled; he walked one and struck out eight over four scoreless. Alex Winkelman allowed two hits, walked one, and struck out four in 4.1 innings to complete the shutout. Yordan Alvarez went 2-3; both of his hits were RBI singles that scored Josh Rojas, who went 3-3 with a couple of doubles.
What is the likelihood of Tucker being called up in the next few weeks? I don't know what better option the Astros have for LF in the postseason unless they feel comfortable with Marwin, who will most likely be a 90-95 wrC+ hitter for the RoS. Of course there is no guarantee Tucker will do better than that, and his projections are a little lower than Marwin's, but he also has a lot more upside than Marwin. I figure if the cost of bringing Tucker up soon is relatively small, then it's worth shoveling MLB PAs at him to see how he adjusts, with Marwin as the backup plan.
I don’t think he’ll be up until after the deadline. If I’m Luhnow I want to let the market for established bats play out before calling up Tucker and starting his clock. 2 months is enough for Tucker to get established and be a fairly known quantity heading into the playoffs. But if they can get an elite bat (Abreu, Choo, Granderson, Castellanos, Beltre, Cespedes, Realmuto, Bour, Dickerson, Gennett) for dirt cheap, I wouldn’t be surprised if they held Tucker back and only brought him up in case of injury to Reddick or Springer.
Luhnow basically said he would be up this year. I'm expecting within the next two weeks. He want's him up as soon as possible so he can get acclimated with team.
That's a good point. Think Luhnow could obtain a good rental bat (like Abreu) for a package of Grizzlies or are we going to have to cough up a borderline top 100-150 guy (e.g., Corbin Martin, Bukauskas, etc.)? I'm guessing our AAAA crop probably doesn't have a whole lot of trade value even though one or two of them may end up being average MLBers. I'm generally not a fan of rentals just for improving the team's postseason chances, given the ability to extract value from them in that scenario is so limited (the Liriano deal stings a bit), but LF appears to be a more ripe avenue for improving the team this season than adding a lefty specialist to the pen last year.
I've been impressed with Kemp's ability to maintain a positive BB%-K% differential with the MLB club, although he's had the luxury of facing mostly RHP. Without the benefit of platooning I still see him as a quality backup.
It's the great Kemp conundrum. I'm sold completely on his offense. That is a bat that has to be in the lineup somehow. But Marisnick actually was a higher WAR than Kemp, despite being a catastrophe at the plate. That's how wide their gulf in defensive value is. I would still much rather see Kemp in the lineup than Jake, but I'm not sure if the improvement is as vast as the offensive numbers would suggest.
It depends on the bat. Of the guys I listed: Realmuto and Bour will fetch a haul; both are star hitters under cheap team control. Definitely not getting them without Alvarez and another team may come with a prospect on par with Tucker. Gennett, Abreu, and Castellanos will cost a couple of good prospects, but definitely shouldn’t cost Alvarez. Think 2 out of Houston’s 2nd tier (Martin, Perez, James, Bukauskas, Straw, Davis, Fisher, Reed, Paulino, Martes) plus maybe another 3rd tier guy. Choo, Beltre, Dickerson, Granderson, and Cespedes all should come with minimal prospect cost. They all have high salaries and come with question marks. 2 3rd tier guys should do the trick. If Houston could add one of those guys for something like Akeem Bostick and Randy Cesar, they should do it. Incidentally the Astros had interest and likely made offers to Choo and Cespedes when they were free agents.
