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2021 Astros Minor League Thread

Discussion in 'Houston Astros' started by tellitlikeitis, Dec 7, 2020.

  1. Snake Diggit

    Snake Diggit Member

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    OF Drew Ferguson was taken by the Mets in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft. If Myles Straw and Chas McCormick make the MLB roster, the OF in the upper levels of Houston's farm is going to be embarrassingly thin.
     
  2. awc713

    awc713 Member

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    Good. They don’t need any more of our outfielders now.
     
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  3. tellitlikeitis

    tellitlikeitis Canceled
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    Rule 5 Draft Results

    In

    RHP Joe Record (from Twins - minor league phase)
    RHP Seth Martinez (from A's - minor league phase)

    Out

    RHP José Alberto Rivera (to Angels)
    OF Drew Ferguson (to Mets)
    C Chuckie Robinson (to Reds - minor league phase)
     
    Joe Joe likes this.
  4. sealclubber1016

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    At this point I'm really rooting for this guy to at least get a taste.
     
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  5. Joe Joe

    Joe Joe Go Stros!
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    Mets and their love of corner OFs continues. Are we sure they don't plan to sign Brantley and put him in CF?
     
  6. Snake Diggit

    Snake Diggit Member

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    Updated 2021 Astros Org Opening Day roster projections following Rule 5 draft:

    Astros:
    C: Maldonado, TBD (Castro?)
    IF: Gurriel, Altuve, Correa, Bregman, Diaz, Toro
    OF: Tucker, Alvarez, Straw, TBD (Puig?), TBD (Bradley?)
    SP: Greinke, McCullers, Valdez, Urquidy, TBD (Richards?)
    RP: Pruitt, Raley, Taylor, Paredes, Javier, Smith, Pressly, TBD (Yates?)
    DL: Verlander, James
    Traded: Martes
    DFA: Emanuel

    AAA Sugarland:
    C: Stubbs, Papierski, Shaver
    IF: Jones, M Sierra, Pena, De Goti
    OF: McCormick, Dawson, Matijevic, Meyers, De La Cruz
    SP: Whitley, Abreu, Bielak, Garcia, Dubin, Conine
    RP: Rodriguez, Castellanos, Blanco, Garza, Torres, Perez, Scrubb, Velazquez
    Released: Quintana, A Sierra, LaRue, McKee, Scheetz, Hartman, Ferrell, Bravo

    AA Corpus Christi:
    C: Manea, Salazar
    IF: Adams, Valdez, Nova, Hensley, Lee
    OF: Adolph, Julks, McKenna, Costes, Taylor
    SP: Solis, Ivey, Solomon, Hansen, Deason, Donato, Daniels
    RP: Mushinski, Record, Martinez, DeJuneas, Hernandez, Collado, Cabral
    Released: Rodriguez, Schreiber, Bermudez, Henderson, Benedetti, Rodriguez, France

    High A Asheville:
    C: Lee, Stubbs, Paulino
    IF: Santana, Kessinger, Correa, Wielansky
    OF: Daniels, Brewer, Barefoot, Dirden, Abreu
    SP: Brown, Henley, Brown, Freure, Serrano, Bellozo, Chavez
    RP: Endersby, Gruller, Sprinkle, Matthews, Peck, Gayle
    Released: Holderbach, Biermann, Machado, Conn, Ceballos, Robaina, Ruppenthal, Cody, Tejeda

    Low A Fayetteville:
    C: N Rodriguez, Perry
    IF: Coutinho, Whitcomb, J Perez, Carrasco, Jordan, Zimmerman
    OF: Corona, Barber, Guerrero, Orr
    SP: Santos, Macuare, Schroeder, Gusto, Ramirez
    RP: Melendez, Tavarez, Lopez, JP Lopez, Jaquez, Tamarez, Jimenez, West
    Released: Palmer, Castillo, Krabbe, Ramirez, Cueta, Arias, Urdaneta, Mendoza, Gomez, Barry, Casey, Dickey, Drennan, McDonald, Horrell, Plumlee, De Paula

    EST/GCL:
    C: Palma, Hurtado, Toro, Alvarez
    IF: Uceta, Martinez, Lorenzo, Mendoza, Espinosa
    OF: Rivas, Pinto, Machandy, Cortabarria, Ramirez, Giron, Carrillo
    P: Tokar, Vega, Holcomb, E Rodriguez, Pacheco, REina, Chavez, Pereira, Mejias, SOlano, BOjorquez, Monzon, Garcia, Gonzalez
     
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  7. prospecthugger

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    From an MiLB.com article last year, apparently Asheville is a very hitter friendly park:

    Asheville has long been held up as the bandbox of Class A, and the numbers tell no lies there. That was especially the case in 2019, when there were a combined 813 runs scored in the 70 games played in Asheville. The average of 5.81 runs scored per team per game was just below the average of 5.85 scored by Pacific Coast League teams. Essentially, Asheville's McCormick Field brought PCL baseball to the Class A level, at least in terms of offense.​
     
  8. texans1095

    texans1095 Member

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    Yeah, it’s only 370 to center, 320-ish down left field line and 297 down right field line. I think it’s got a high wall in right, but that’s still a small field.
     
  9. Joe Joe

    Joe Joe Go Stros!
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    Need to flip those RF and LF dimensions. Astros need to be training their prospects how to clear a high, but close wall in LF.
     
  10. sealclubber1016

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    WTF, those are unacceptable dimensions if they're my farm club.

    We can use all the metrics in the world to parse out facts, but excessive dingers effects your mindset. Can't be great for judging outfielders either.
     
  11. Joe Joe

    Joe Joe Go Stros!
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    Maybe that mindset f!@% is what Astros want. Teach pitchers not to throw meatballs when behind, and helps batters see swing change effects quicker.

    Not sure this is why Astros did it, but it is possible. Most likely, Astros don't care about results of games too much as they focus on EV and LA. As such, convenience was all they were thinking about.
     
  12. sealclubber1016

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    We'll see, I would be much more worried about the Coors field effect where good pitchers suddenly start to suck everywhere they pitch. Somewhat uncoincidentally I think, they've been the Rockies affiliate for 26 years

    I imagine they did it more for the shuttle convenience with Fayetteville. FWIW, it is a pretty little stadium, but f**k that is a bandbox.
     
  13. tellitlikeitis

    tellitlikeitis Canceled
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    Oh right, I forgot Asheville's park is basically Lancaster East.
     
  14. Buck Turgidson

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    I'm 100% in favor of this strategy. It's bold, but it just might work.
     
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  15. No Worries

    No Worries Contributing Member

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    The link is to a pod cast. Astros stuff starts about at the 18 minute mark.


    James and Keith Law sit down and talk about writing, reading, what to expect from James Click, what's up with Forrest Whitley, Cristian Javier, and the Astros' farm system in general.
     
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  16. Joe Joe

    Joe Joe Go Stros!
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    For a team that hasn't prioritized ceiling, guys making professional debuts with Astros Organization under Luhnow make up almost 10% of the position players projected to make at least 3 WAR this season, and a smidge under 10% for pitchers as well. Maybe just maybe, the way the Astros brought in amateur talent is a lot better than Law gives them credit.
     
    #36 Joe Joe, Dec 15, 2020
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2020
  17. No Worries

    No Worries Contributing Member

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    Law definitely was biased toward how most MLB teams run their scouting and development departments, which gives insights into how the rest of the league viewed Luhnow and his FO.

    I also found Law’s comments on Cristian Javier interesting. Minor League scouts did not see a MLB prospect. His numbers outperformed his talent. But now that Javier has had success at the MLB level, even after his second time through the league, scouts will need to go back see (or not) what they missed.

    Analytics likely saw something that the scouts did not and were proven correct.
     
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  18. raining threes

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    This is why Luhnow got run out of MLB.

    He was changing how MLB scouted players.

    Screw you Manfred
     
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  19. Joe Joe

    Joe Joe Go Stros!
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    On Javier, Law talked about data not out there for Javier's fastball. Javier's fastball exhibited great rise by Statcast (top 15 min 250 fastballs), especially in early innings despite not having elite total spin or extreme velocity. Javier just got most of his spin as backspin. I expect in early innings, his fastball rise was in the top 2-3.
     
    #39 Joe Joe, Dec 16, 2020
    Last edited: Dec 16, 2020
  20. Nook

    Nook Member

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    As for Keith Law, I have had an opportunity to talk to him a lot over the last dozen or more years.

    First he isn't anything like his articles, he is pretty kind and down to earth.

    He was offered the head of scouting by Luhnow when Luhnow first took over the Astros..... so Law really doesn't have anything personal against Luhnow or the Astros.... in fact he was flattered to be offered a MLB major job after how the Blue Jays job ended for him. He was very close to taking the Astros offer BTW.

    The think with Law is that he is kind of stubborn in his beliefs when it comes to evaluating baseball players. He will change over time somewhat but he isn't someone that jumps quickly or easily to new methods of thinking when it comes to prospects.

    As for Javier, his success really isn't THAT complicated. He is the rare guy that has an assortment of pitches that compliment each other very well and over the last couple years his mastery of them has increased. Last year he only had confidence in a few of them at the big league level, as he gets more comfortable and mixes the pitches in better he will have more success (as long as he can keep some version of his velocity). He throws 5 pitches and last year was mostly going with 1-2 pitches.

    In hind sight I am very glad Law did not take the Astros job. The players the Astros took that he praised largely failed, and there were some players the Astros targeted that Law bemoaned their lack of upside and he was just wrong. Essentially Law relied on just a couple measures and the Astros had a dozen measures and over time the more information the better.

    Still, I can say he has always been a very genial and nice person. He has overcome a lot of mental health issues and works hard to be a better person. I like him a lot.
     

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