Not Greinke. Too much $$$ owed, can regress at any moment, and his velo has been dropping in recent years. Matt Boyd is where it's at. Three years of control left after this season, on the rise, young, lefty, excellent K numbers even going back to last year (for reference, this time last year he was 4th in the AL in K's, behind JV, Cole, and Sale, FYI). Fisher + JBB gets it done?
Looking at minor league pitchers with a low WHIP ( < 1.10 or thereabouts ) with at least 10 IP A- 0.76 Brett Conine (2018, 11) 0.87 Nivaldo Rodriguez 0.91 Luis Garcia 0.92 Shawn Dubin (2018, 13) 0.94 Austin Hansen (2018, 8) 1.05 Humberto Castellanos 1.06 Jojanse Torres 1.08 Matt Ruppenthal (2017, 17) 1.11 Brett Daniels (2018, 17) A+ 0.86 Carlos Sanabria 0.92 Cesar Rosado 0.93 Brett Conine (2018, 11) 0.95 Enoli Paredes 0.97 Willy Collado 1.01 Yohan Ramirez 1.02 Bryan Abreu 1.08 Cristian Javier 1.11 Parker Mushinski (2017, 7) AA 0.84 Tyler Ivey (2017, 3) 1.00 Jose Urquidy 1.07 Carlos Sanabria 1.09 Colin McKee (2016, 18) AAA 1.03 Corbin Martin (2107, 2) 1.07 Jose Urquidy 1.14 Ronel Blanco 1.15 Tanner Duncan (2017, FA) The 2017 draftees show well. The 2018 draftees (light pitcher draft for the Astros) are starting to show.
I expect Houston to sign all 30 of their top picks (and would be surprised if they signed any picks from rounds 31-40). Updated TC/GCL roster predictions: Tri-City: C: Lee, Perry, Stubbs IF: Cueta, Kessinger, Carrasco, Urdaneta, Biermann, Arias, Mendoza OF: Brewer, Barefoot, Ramirez, Pavlica, Santana, Reese P: Macuare, Brown, Henley, Battenfield, Lopez, McDonald, Cody, Jaquez, Jiminez, Palmer, Gayle, West, De Paula, Mejias, Rodriguez, Vainer, Barry, House, Serrano GCL: C: Rodriguez, Alvarez, Krabbe IF: Jordan, Castillo, Perez, Mascai, Mendoza, Espinosa, Bermudez OF: Barber, Guerrero, Pinto, Cortabarria, Carrillo, Giron, Castillo P: Tokar, Lopez, Gusto, Campbell, Dickey, Gonzalez, Holcomb, Drennan, Chavez, Cobos, Garcia, Taveras, Bello, Bellozo, Solano, Placencia, Casey, Horrell
I don’t think it’s certain he’ll go to TC. They have shuffled guys on and off quite a bit, saying they’re assigning them to XST when really they’re just inactive. Seems crazy to send a guy all the way to Iowa for 6 innings.
Too bad Correa isn't almost ready for rehab. I would have liked to see RR trot out a lineup starting with Springer, Altuve, Diaz, Correa, Tucker, Alvarez.
Jesús Liranzo, a Dominican OF who signed for $270K last year, hit his first career home run yesterday in the DSL. According to Baseball America's Astros International Review, Liranzo is described as having an "intriguing toolset" but he hasn't quite transferred it to actual games yet. If he can do that, he has "promising power/speed potential."
Hey, I was trying to be nice to the AAA pitcher. I put Alvarez at the end so they can still intentionally walk him.
Nolan Fontana. Talk about lineup protection...you IBB Alvarez and it immediately turns into 1st and 2nd.