He is extremely slow, but he makes up for it with his hand-eye coordination and his instincts. He knows where to play the ball and position himself well. If he ever ends up at 1st base full time, he will be very good defensively. His reflexes and hands are both positive. He just happens to be VERY slow running, but that isn't the end of the world.
The only thing standing between Josh James and a 10 year MLB career is his command in the zone. He walks a little too many and some of those pitches guys are swinging and missing in AA and AAA will be hit if his command is a little off.
Heitor Tokar returned with a scoreless inning down in the DSL. I'm guessing he was injured and they're obviously easing him back into the thick of things. Jojanse Torres allowed the only run of the game; he went three innings and allowed two hits, walked one, and struck out three in three innings.
Brandon Bailey allowed five hits, walked one, and struck out eight over six shutout innings in the first game of Buies Creek's doubleheader.
From what you described, LF sounds like the much better option of the two corner outfield spots, if that's where he ends up. Knowing where to play the ball is key to playing LF at MMP with the Crawford Boxes and the nearby walls. RF needs more speed and arm strength. Tucker should move to RF next year and Reddick to LF, Tucker has struggled most with knowing where to play the wall, and his arm is best suited for RF, I think.
I don't want any reports on him unless it contains an extra base hit. Or a stolen base, that would be newsworthy.
Berkman could run better than Beer. Think younger Pujols. For those old enough to remember, he reminds me of Buddy Bell on the bases.
AJ Reed just keeps going yard. Give him a good long chance to prove himself in the bigs and he may be the next Bregman. We can really use another lefty power bat, and the answer might just be in our system. Sorry to sound like a broken record, but I really want to see him get a chance.
What I mean is, Bregman had a terrible start to his MLB career? Was he eventually able to get settled in? Yes, with enough regular at bats he finally started delivering at the MLB level. Reed needs to be allowed to do that, he was like what, a top-15 prospect at one point? And he has a ton of power from the left side, something we need.
Reed was only ever considered a top 15 prospect by BA. Every other prospect ranking had him in the 40-50 range. I always thought he had potential but it seems pretty apparent when you watch him play that he’s not the same kind of player at the beginning phase of his career that Bregman was. His swing is long and slow and he’s very unathletic. Bregman’s swing was always compact and quick and he’s always been very athletic. Also, Bregman put up way better numbers at AAA than Reed has. Not to mention that Reed has hit right around .260 in Fresno over the last season and a half. Could he turn into an average first baseman who hits around .250 with 25 HR’s? Maybe. But I just don’t ever see that happening. Especially not in Houston.
There is a good chance Reed could hit 30 HR if he played full time in the big leagues, but it would likely come with about a .210 average. I’m not sure we are at the point where we need the next Chris Carter
That would basically be Gattis with a few singles traded for walks. While Astros would be leary of giving Reed at bats to see if he can make transition to majors as the next Gattis, they would love if they could snap their fingers and turn Reed into a 0.210, 30 HR hitter under club control.
The projection systems currently have him as a ~.220/.310/.420 slash guy, which would be a roughly league average hitter. Looking at his AAA numbers his walk and ISO rates have been very consistent. I have a hard time seeing his big league ISO <.200, so I’m probably a bit more optimistic, and a .230/.340/.480 would be a good but still reasonable outcome. Unfortunately given his defensive profile and existing sample he is working on a short leash. He will probably get one more lengthy audition before he’s toast.
Not too different from Gattis with Gattis getting an ISO of 0.230 instead of 0.200. Only thing is I don't see Reed getting time to see if he can hit with Astros.
