Houston went over their pool in 2016 and were then under severe penalties for 2017 and 2018. This year with Houston not under penalty and with the bonus amounts having a hard cap will be a better gauge of Luhnow in that arena. In 2013-2016 they have signed some decent prospects: 2013: Albert Abreu, Bryan Abreu 2014: Franklin Perez, Hector Perez, Jorge Alcala, Jorge Guzman, Framber Valdez, Rogelio Armenteros 2015: Gilberto Celestino, Enoli Pare 2016: Freudis Nova, Cionel Perez, Jairo Solis, Deury Carrasco They’ve gotten a lot of value out of those signings, they’ve just gotten it via trade.
I find it humerous that the same scouts that called Alvarez stiff, too big a strike zone, slow bat speed and questioned his athleticism are suddenly kissing ass. Anyone that had the opportunity to see his play semi regularly could see he had a lot of ability. He adjusts to pitchers during at bats... his bat isn’t slow and he is a solid athlete and he always has been. Someone was telling me that scouts were surprised by his bat speed improvement this year. His bat speed was always good. Just lazy scouting. He is a big kid so he must not be able to play the field or be a solid athlete. He has a long swing so his bat speed must be slow... he changed his swing when he got to the States. Ohh he has cultural issues. No he doesn’t, listen to him speak... he is very confident and bright and mature. It just gets old. Jose Altuve went through the same crap in the minors because he was short, didn’t hit with power and swung the bat early in counts... his hand eye coordination was elite and that was a special skill.
I thought the digs on his athleticism were especially funny after the coaches in the Texas league voted him the "best athlete".
I’m close to ready to option Diaz, make Gurriel the utility guy, White the 1B, and Alvarez the DH. Maybe another 30 or so PA of Gurriel or Diaz struggling and it needs to happen. I’m very concerned about Gurriel’s viability as an everyday player for the remainder of his contract. OF Springer 3B Bregman 2B Altuve OF Brantley SS Correa DH Alvarez 1B White/Gurriel OF Reddick/Marisnick/Kemp C Chirinos/Stassi
Alvarez is 1-1 with an rbi and run Tucker with homer #7 and he is now hitting a cool .200 In the slow creeping up department.... Jones with homer #7 in AAA and now has a .950 OPS. He jumped several levels all of a sudden last year when he went on a tear and then cooled off in AAA...seems like he may have solved AAA... I keep waiting for a positive PED test but none so far. Seth Beer is the slowest athletic guy to ever live... but he is moving up fast... rbi double and now has his OPS up to 935. A lot of talk about him not walking, but when you slug 550 and hit 300, it doesn’t matter much.
I will disagree on Beer a bit, his walk rate matters. It’s easy for good prospects to hit for power in the lower levels, but when he gets to the upper levels against guys who can pitch where and how they want, both tricking guys to swing at balls and inducing weaker contact, he’s going to have trouble. If he’s going to be a valuable player he’s going to have to have the total offensive package and that means being able to draw walks. That said, he’s at 9% so it’s not like he’s not walking at all. I’d just rather he be at 12-13% before moving up to AA.
It was somewhat tongue and cheek on the walks. I don’t agree that he has to be a complete package on offense to be valuable. I think that is overplayed with prospects that play corner outfield spots or are slow. They have to produce but they don’t have to be a complete package on offense.
