For those of us not watching or passively watching the Rockets, Osvaldo Duarte and Abraham Toro have both hit their 6th home runs of the season.
What's the scoop on Duarte? He's one of those guys I know of (in that he exists) but have paid zero attention to.
Signed for a modest bonus in 2013 (in the $110-115K range, if I remember correctly). Good athlete who didn't really have a defensive position, and even now he's still been deployed in a Marwin-like role. Has a fair amount of pop in his bat despite being in the 5-9, 180 range. Scuffled terribly in 2017 between both Class A teams, he was trying to play through an injury that year and that obviously didn't pan out. Marcos Almonte was a guy in the system who had a similar skill set and background, but he ended up getting released last year.
Chas McCormick is now slashing .302/.483/.407 for Corpus after reaching in all four of his plate appearances tonight, going 2-2 with a couple of walks and a run scored. He now has a BB:K ratio of 25:9 this season.
This is somewhat concerning.... 4 of our top 10 prospects according to MLB.com Forest Whitley AAA 0-2, 10.80 ERA, 18.1 IP, 7 HR, 1.80 WHIP, 11.9 K/9 Josh James MLB 0-0, 6.11 ERA, 17.2 IP, 4 HR, 1.415 WHIP, 13.8 K/9 Cionel Perez AAA 0-0, 7.13 ERA, 17.2 IP, 2 HR, 2.09 WHIP, 7.1 K/9 J.B. Bukausas AA 0-3, 9.00 ERA, 20.0 IP, 1 HR, 2.150 WHIP, 10.4 K/9
Positively Fontana-esqe It is troublesome, but there has to be more to it than everyone just ******** the bed all at once. I wouldn't include James in there, also. Ivey and Martin...how they doin?
Toro is in my Org Top 10 now. Easy to see a path for him as an everyday player. He’s putting up excellent numbers as a 22 year old in AA and when you consider his background he still has some room to get even better. I’d like to see him get some time at 1B and 2B along with 3B.
It’s concerning, but I’m not worried at all, I completely trust the FO. It seems to me the Astros are aggressive in making adjustments that take one step backward to take two steps forward. Strom had James make delivery and mechanical adjustments, and now that experiment is done, and James pitched like his old self in his last outing, hitting 100 for the first time this year with 5 Ks in 2 innings. No idea how much was integrated or not or if it will last. They had Tucker adjust his swing to counter the heavy shifting, and it seems he’s calibrated somewhat, hitting .351 with a 1.239 OPS in his last 10. No idea what’s going on with the others, but I do know there was a lot of buzz that Whitley’s mechanics were related to his being injury prone, as well as high pitch counts, so who knows what adjustments may be going on there. They all seem to be generating a ton of walks, so that to me may be a sign they’re experimenting outside of their comfort zone. I’d add Bielak to the list. I’d say it’s a very good sign that the K rates stay high indicating the pitches still have movement if not the velocity through the adjustments. I’d rather see terrible numbers at the beginning of the season than at the end.
Agreed. Assuming those guys have bounce back performances I'm okay with facing adversity and making adjustments now rather than later. Always got uncomfortable with the guys that burn through the minors without fail. Don't like the idea that they need to learn to make adjustments for the first time in the bigs.
I'm worried because some of those guys are trade chips that are losing value and the Astros need a number 3 starter for the playoffs.
Toro seems like a 2nd division starter at best or a bench bat that people will clammer for more playing time.
Think of it this way. If we're ready to hit the panic button because certain players are underperforming in just the last month, they're going through adjustments now so that trade partners are ready to hit the 'fall in love' button in the last month prior to the July 31 trade deadline. Think of Alvarez, he's had such a terrific month that he's now untradeable, and that's just because of one month. The prior month? He was on everyone's trade list. It's a buy low sell high market. I really do think the FO knows what they're doing.
I've always wanted to keep Alvarez and have thought he was better than Tucker. Tucker is going to be the main trade piece for a guy like Tallion. Anybody still wish the Tucker + pieces trade for Realmuto would've happened? Or is everybody happy with Chirinos?
