Interesting that Carrillo pitched two innings, so I guess he's a pitcher now. They gave the start to Carlos Hiraldo on his 23rd birthday. The Astros signed him in February of 2020, so this was his first professional game. I'm always curious when I see the Astros sign a guy that old. They sent a number of players down including Tokar and Vega, so the pitching is pretty interesting. I like Jairo Lopez, but I'm surprised he hasn't been up to Fayetteville yet. Daniel Pacheco was invited to instructs, so that's interesting. Elvis Garcia was mentioned as an arrow up guy shortly after he signed, and he's skipping the DSL. Jose Nodal was a low 6 figure signing out of Cuba iirc, he throws with his left hand and had a nice 2019 in the DSL. Miguel Palma was a 6 figure catcher who performed decently in the 2019 DSL.
I know Perez struggled in 2019 but it's a little funny he hasn't even been listed on Astros' prospects lists on Fangraphs for 2020 and 2021.
Wow Perez in AA this quickly is huge. I didn’t think he had any chance of reaching top 100 type of status this season but if he hits well in AA at age 21, he will likely be one of the top 3B prospects in the league and at least in the mentions of top 100 lists at the end of this season. I took McKenna’s High A numbers with a grain of salt but if he is able to get anywhere close to that level of success in AA his stock will skyrocket. Keeping his k rate down will be a challenge.
Guys who entered the season as non-prospects (not on Org Top 30 lists) who now project as at least bench players with upside to be everyday players: OF Jake Meyers C Mike Papierski OF/1B JJ Matijevic OF Bryan De La Cruz 1B/OF Norel Gonzalez C Scott Manea OF Alex McKenna OF Matthew Barefoot 3B Joe Perez All in all Id say Houston’s farm has taken a step forward so far this season despite disappointing seasons from Pena, Nova, Barber, Kessinger, Daniels, and Brewer. Lee, Leon, and Perez all could be Top 100 prospects at year end, along with Hunter Brown and possibly Alex Santos on the pitching side. It’s very possible that Houston’s farm ends the year ranked as a middle of the pack farm after starting the year as a consensus bottom third system.
Is it safe to say that our farm system is deeper/better than many of us were led to believe? Seems like it, especially when you consider the production we're getting out of guys like Straw, Framber, Javier, Garcia, Urquidy, McCormick, and even Toro. Now it sounds like we have more than a few guys that project to be everyday major leaguers w a handful that show real high level upside.
Shay Whitcomb moved up to Asheville with Sean Mendoza seemingly taking his spot in Fayetteville. Mendoza interests me since he's a switch hitting short stop who walks as much as he strikes out.
Farm system rankings are HEAVILY weighted on the highest ranked prospects. You can usually count the number of top 10/50/100 prospects and the system rankings will follow that very closely. Houston’s system has lacked those kind of prospects the last 2 seasons, so their rankings have suffered accordingly. The strength of Houston’s system over the last 3-4 seasons has been their depth of 2nd and 3rd tier prospects (especially on the pitching side). Combine that with the fact that many of those 2nd/3rd tier guys graduate before they’ve really broken out, and it’s pretty clear Houston’s system has been underrated. That’s not to say the Astros have an elite farm system, but it’s probably closer to good or average than bad, which is contrary to their rankings.
Bryan Arias was also moved up to High A. Chandler Taylor and Corey Julks have their status showing as "Development List" on the AA roster, whatever that means. https://www.thecubreporter.com/inactive-lists https://pirates.pittsburghbaseball.com/2021/05/30/domestic-reserve-list-a-primer/ 2B Dexter Jordan (16th rd pick in 2019) retired. Valente Bellozo and Rolando Espinosa were added to the FCL roster, leaving only 3 players in "roster limbo" (aside from the international signees who haven't played yet): OF Ramiro Rodriguez, RHP Janos Meszaros, and LHP Kevin Dickey. Astros have ~191 guys in their domestic system, with 15 on the 60 day IL, which puts them ~6 guys under the 180 man limit, with the draft of 19 new guys looming in 2 weeks. Likely going to see a dozen or so guys released next month.
Nothing wrong with a high floor but not highest ceiling farm system. just merely executing a draft plan and signing mostly all picks can keep the farm producing, despite maybe not having high picks or highly touted guys. And even then, the highly touted guys are either an injury, a suspension, an adderall addiction or a weed problem away from going from top 100 to reclamation.
I would say it should have been a little closer to average than it has been ranked, but it is hard to be good or even average with the lack of top shelf position prospects. Even if Garcia was considered the best pitching prospect in baseball last year, the Astros would still have been in the bottom 40 percentile of farm rankings. Luckily, the Astros have really only needed pitchers.
Astros announced Jairo Solis underwent Tommy John surgery, one of the top RHP in the Astros system. -per Chandler Rome
It’s actually Whitley + Martes + Singleton… and you could throw in Appel/Aiken for a number of other reasons.
