Crazy to think that Whitley was a Top 10 overall prospect just a couple years ago. Between Whitley and Martes (who was a Top 25 overall prospect), thats a whole lot of bust. Got me thinking, if Whitley ends up as a total bust he will probably be the biggest in the last 10 years in terms of prospects who were ranked highly on lists. Appel was a bigger bust in terms of draft position. Singleton may have been a bigger bust in terms of how he was counted on at the big league level. But neither of them was ever ranked as a top 10 overall prospect. Astros all bust team 2011 to present: C none 1B Jon Singleton 2B Delino DeShields Jr SS Jonathan Villar 3B Colin Moran RF Domingo Santana CF Daz Cameron LF Derek Fisher DH AJ Reed P Jarred Cosart P Mark Appel P David Paulino P Frances Martes P Mike Foltynewicz
I don’t thunk Whitley will go full Appel and just quit. I think he’ll be a productive major leaguer at some point in his career, although it may be with a team besides Houston.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/kevin-goldstein-chat-2-22-21/ Rock Auto Parts 12:19 Hunter Brown is a guy I’ve been reading some good things about. Should we be buying a breakout from him? Kevin Goldstein 12:19 And buying big.
Goldstein has me thinking Astros still have a secret sauce in pitching evaluation and dev. I wonder where he would rank Houston against other orgs solely on current pitching farms.
Fangraphs had Astros as the 11th best in pitching prospects prior to getting Goldstein based on last year's update with only 2 teams with notably higher rankings (i.e., Would have been third without Greinke trade). In other words, Astros are outperforming every team besides two teams with pitchers that were selected incredibly high in draft (Gore, Mize) before getting Goldstein.
Really all that stands between Houston and a Top 10 farm system is 2 MLB Top 50 prospects (like maybe Vidal Brujan and Josh Lowe from Tampa). Crazy that can be the only difference between a top 10 farm and a bottom 10 farm.
Good add. Dude has monster power and can play all over the field (although I don't think he is a very good defensive player). Has an option left.
Yeah I noticed in 2019 he hit a combined 32 homers between AA,AAA, and the big leagues with the Cubs. Good add for Click. This seems like one of those “Tampa Bay type” of moves
He hasn't done JACK $HIT yet (in the minors mind you) and yet you continously put him down in your lame a$$ projections for the rotation next yr.
I hate athlete interviews because they are almost always worthless. This one was very good. Thanks for posting it. As for Whitley, he’s simply not good enough to be as self absorbed as he comes across. He needs to become more coachable in a hurry or all of that talent will have been for nothing. I personally don’t believe in him, never have, but the potential is still there. Maybe this will be the year. Also, I like the Garcia signing. He’s a low risk lottery ticket who is about to turn 28 years old. Big power, could also DH a little if he can improve his contact. Have my doubts about that last part, but there’s hope.