He's had too many red flags IMO. No longer getting peak value for him, but I'd like to salvage something. All the injuries and such are a big yikes to me. Ideally this would have been his second year in the bigs. I mean, the jury is still out but I've lost optimism.
Fangraphs added signing bonus amounts for all the prospects on their Board. I love it since I consider signing bonus to be by far the most objective predictor of success for prospects. Here are how many prospects each AL West team has that received $1M+: Angels: 12 A’s: 15 Astros: 8 Mariners: 11 Rangers: 19 Note that only includes the prospects ranked by Fangraphs. For instance there are several other big bonus Astros prospects not included there (MiguelAngel Sierra, Anibal Sierra, JJ Matijevic, Joe Perez, Elian Rodriguez) because they are not ranked. But I think it’s a very good non-subjective indicator of a farm system’s top end talent level. Obviously Houston is in really bad shape from that perspective. https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects...-list/summary?sort=18,1&team=oak&pos=&filter=
Second to last. Brutal, but not at all surprising. With Whitley’s stock dropping precipitously, and no minor league season to allow younger prospects to breakout, it is very easy to see why these rankings would have Houston near the very bottom. Looking for silver linings, this season is giving the upper level pitching depth opportunities they never would have gotten otherwise, and it looks likely that several of them will pan out. Guys like Javier, Bielak, Taylor, Paredes, and Scrubb were not highly thought-of at all, or if they were, it wasn’t until they were either already breaking in or at least in the upper levels, and that kind of pitching depth exists in the system from top to bottom. The position player side of things is bleaker, but the 2nd and 3rd tier depth is still decent. I still contend this farm is 2-3 good position player prospects away from being above average.
I have a hard time believing a team with 5 prospects that have looked like Major League Players is the 29th best farm. I don't expect all the rookies that are producing to continue producing, but I expect at least two will. Scrubb becomes very interesting if the MLB adopts an electronic strike zone. The high curve ball with a ton of downward movement is rarely called a strike. Also, curveballs that cross bottom of zone, but hit dirt are also rarely called strikes. He's already lost 2-3 Ks that became BBs because umps aren't giving his curve the top and bottom parts of the zone.
Good read on the Athletic about how Astros minor leaguers are getting their work in that aren't in CC. https://theathletic.com/1963880/202...dstones-astros-player-development-2020-style/ Some days Barefoot will attach a Blast Motion sensor to the knob of his bat. It’ll automatically upload information about his swing to the team. Based on video and data, the Astros believe Barefoot has made what appear to be significant improvements in 2020. In his first short season of pro ball last year, the Campbell University product struggled mightily to adapt to the dramatic swing change the team suggested. But now he’s hitting the ball a lot harder, and he feels like he’s built his swing to a point where he could play in games and focus on competing rather than on his mechanics. .. Brown, a 2019 draftee who has already become one of the Astros’ better pitching prospects, has a good friend he trains with back home in Michigan who has his own Rapsodo. When Brown was throwing live batting practice to other local pro players at a high school field in June, his buddy sat in the dugout with the machine. “Feeling pretty good today, Hunter?,” his friend quipped at one point. Brown didn’t think much of it. After he was done throwing, he learned that he hit 100 mph for the first time in his life. It was 100.6 mph, to be exact. .. In [Colin] McKee’s case, that means a weighted ball program he mapped out with Murphy, the Astros minor league pitching coordinator, with the goal of increasing his velocity.
I agree. There’s no longer really an argument that Houston has a “good” farm, because the bulk of value comes from the top prospects, which Houston just flat doesn’t have. But there certainly is an argument that Houston should be ranked in the 15-20 range due to their pitching depth.
That’s great. There’s a potential silver lining for prospects having essentially an entire year to focus solely on change rather than performance. Guys can build their bodies, work on mechanical changes, get reps at different positions, etc without having to worry about how it’s affecting their numbers or promotion schedule.
I agree with you. The truth is that it is very difficult to evaluate a farm system, not to mention evaluating 30 farm systems and then provide a numerical ranking. It is done because that is what the public wants but it is so difficult to do....... for example, it is possible Whitley and Javier and someone like Scrubb or Taylor emerge as long term parts of the Astros team and IF that happens, in hindsight the Astros really had a top 3-4 system. It is also possible that none of them really do anything and perhaps we have a terrible system in hindsight.
I think it would take more for the Astros to be a Top 3-4 system currently. Though, bottom ranked farm systems are usually lucky to produce 1 average MLB player in value.
Maybe, but get two long term starting pitchers in the middle of the rotation and a couple long term relievers is a pretty big haul when looking at things long term... especially when you weigh against what the Astros needs are..... but then that all goes back to how subjective rankings really are.
Def the real way to evaluate is only in hindsight. A good farm produces 2 long term meaningful contributors and a few complementary players each year, and certainly the Astros’ farm is on pace to do that with Javier and Taylor looking like long term pieces and 8 other prospects having debuted so far. For comparisons sake, here is the farm production history since 2011 (including veterans acquired via trading prospects away): 2011: Core pieces: Altuve Others: JD Martinez, Lyles, Shuck 2012: Core: Keuchel, Marwin Others: Barnes, Dominguez, Maxwell* 2013: Core: NONE Others: Stassi, Cosart, Oberholtzer, Cisnero, Chapman, De Leon, Grossman, Lo, Clemens, Villar, Krause 2014: Core: Springer, Marisnick* Others: Fowler*, Tropeano, Foltynewicz, Owens, Buchanan, E Hernandez, Fisher, Santana, Hoes, Singleton 2015: Core: Correa, McCullers Others: Gattis*,Fiers*, Feliz, Velasquez, Wojo, Kazmir*, Conger*, Duffy, Gomez*, P Tucker 2016: Core: Bregman, Giles*, Devenski Others: Musgrove, White, Hoyt, Paulino, Gustave, Rodgers, Kemp, T Hernandez, Moran, Reed 2017: Core: Verlander*, McCann* Others: Martes, C Perez, Jankowski, Guduan, Davis, Liriano* 2018: Core: Cole*, Pressly*, Tucker? Others: James, Framber, Straw, Deetz 2019: Core: Alvarez, Greinke*, Diaz*, Urquidy? Others: Armenteros, Abreu, Sanchez*, Martin, Sneed, Toro, Stubbs, Mayfield 2020: Core: Javier, Taylor Others: Bielak, Paredes, Scrubb, Castellanos, Sanabria, Bailey, N Rodriguez, Jones
MLB wants to run the minor leagues, with 120 teams total. I don’t have a BA sub and couldn’t read the article, so I don’t know if that would include the complex league (GCL, AZL, DSL) teams. Regardless, massive changes seem to be imminent.
Pretty sure DSL and Tricky League not included. For GCL and AZL, I would guess these leagues would cease to exist as leagues, and be replaced by informal scrimage games and intasquad development.
Alex McKenna and Colin Barber are participating in the Chicago-based City of Champions Cup (CCC) league. Their stats so far: McKenna: .289 .393 .474 .867; 5 2B, 3 HR, 8/11 SB, 11 RBI 8 BB 23 K Barber: .177 .329 .323 .652; 3 HR, 2/4 SB, 9 RBI, 13 BB 24 K It's clearly a big-time pitchers' league. Both have also been reported to have made great catches on defense too. For reference, league-wide, the quadruple slash is .229 .334 .345 .680
With fewer roster spots for draftees, clubs would be able to customize their approach to the draft and early pro development. Many clubs have told the league they prefer a customizable, gradual onboarding to professional baseball careers, preferring an all-encompassing orientation leading into fall instructional league and more simulated game-type environments. ... Assuming the minor leagues can operate as they did before the coronavirus pandemic, there will not be short-season leagues operating outside of the "complex leagues" level in 2021, or those based at spring training facilities and team complexes in the Dominican Republic. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29782890/2021-mlb-draft-move-july-held-atlanta-all-star-events
The frustrating part about the farm system thinning out is that the only way to restock it would be by trading high-end ML talent. Thanks to the international signing period being postponed and losing first 2 draft picks in this year and next year's draft (as the team chosen to fall on the sword for sign stealing); the Stros future is ****ed unless Crane spends like the Yankees to keep the core for the next 3-5 years. Sure would be nice to have Luhnow and Hinch right now, though I do think Click was right to stand pat at the deadline.
I posted this in the other thread, but Crane could set the Astros up for the future by spending some money this offseason. Teams will be looking to offload payroll and likely be willing to include prospects to shed bad contracts. Maybe add Miguel Cabrera to play 1B (adding 3 of Detroit’s top prospects and the Tigers still picking up some money), Lorenzo Cain to play CF (adding 1 of Milwaukee’s top prospects) and Jason Heyward to play LF (adding 2 of Chicago’s prospects). That leaves them with a stacked lineup for 2021 and a farm system that would be well above average.