I knew the founders of Torchys and got hooked on their original truck at Woodrows on 6th. Torchys of 2021 is closer to Chili’s than what it was when it started, but that’s private equity for ya. That said, I will take current Torchys over a crummy gas station quality hot dog every time.
Houston’s 2 2021 HS draftees (Tyler Whitaker and Hector Nieves) played in today’s FCL game; they each went 0-1 before the game was suspended.
Jimmy Endersby @ Amarillo: 5 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 6 K Corpus, up 10-0 at one point, has seen their lead get trimmed to four runs.
Over the 4 games since this prediction, Jones has a .935 ops with 1 HR and 2 doubles. Let’s see what he does tonight.
Nice Fayetteville debut for Elvis Garcia: 4.2 IP, 2 H, ER, 2 BB, 5 K The one run he allowed scored on a wild pitch. Garcia is a Venezuelan RHP who signed for $180,000 on July 2, 2019 and was ranked #26 in Baseball America's Top 30 to start the season. With the draftees coming in, he was not included in the midseason top 30. Garcia's fastball topped at 91 when he signed, but he hit 94 after turning pro, so he might be hitting the mid-90s now. He throws a curve with plus potential and also has feel for a changeup.
Speaking of Baseball America's midseason top 30... Spoiler 1. Korey Lee 2. Jeremy Pena 3. Pedro Leon 4. Hunter Brown 5. Forrest Whitley 6. Joe Perez 7. Alex Santos 8. Jake Meyers 9. Jaime Melendez 10. Tyler Ivey 11. Tyler Whitaker 12. Grae Kessinger 13. Shawn Dubin 14. Jairo Solis 15. Jordan Brewer 16. Matthew Barefoot 17. Alex McKenna 18. Chayce McDermott - stuff rebounded after Tommy John surgery (92-96 with SL/CB), next up is improving control/command 19. Peter Solomon 20. Colin Barber 21. Dauri Lorenzo 22. Zach Daniels 23. Jojanse Torres 24. Brett Conine 25. Spencer Arrighetti - could rise if the Astros can coax more velo out of him 26. Jimmy Endersby - addition of slider has given him an "enticing" arsenal 27. Freudis Nova 28. Brayan De Paula - "antagonizes hitters" with heavy slider use 29. Tyler Brown 30. Michael Horrell - cutters, cutters, more cutters
I saw somewhere compared Joe Perez to JD Davis and felt like that was a pretty good one. Fwiw, JD Davis posted a wRC+ of 140 as a 22 year old in High A; Joe Perez posted a wRC+ of 191 as a 22 year old in High A. JD Davis ranked 11th on mlb.coms Astros prospects list in 2015 and 2016.
Clay Davenport's defensive stat for his play in CC is similar (slightly better) to that put up by J.D. Davis when Davis was in Corpus. This stat isn't very accurate, but is probably good enough to say he's not good defensively at the moment.
I've always wondered how Davenport's translations are computed for MiLB defense. I haven't been able to find a good explanation anywhere regarding his methodology or an analysis on how well it tracks with MLB stats like UZR/DRS/OAA. Still, I guess it's the only game in town for MiLB.
I don't know about his first step and his arm strength is pretty good but, he's committed 19 errors in 68 games so far this season. Even if you provide for potentially solid range (which I'm not saying he has), that's pretty damn terrible.
I've not seen an explanation, but I think it is a complicated version of outs made/inning translated to runs.
I think he will probably be a below average defensive 3B, but playable. And I think he is more athletic than Davis and less experienced so there’s a bigger chance for improvement.
