You can't even see, much less access, anything for the complex league teams. Like they nuked that section of MILB dot com.
The Javier lack of hype was because of these commercial sites having limited time and resources. Anyone that really followed the Astros system and had a good understanding of pitching could see that he was a rare player that was greater than the sum of his parts. His pitching repertoire was perfect, all of his pitches fit together well with his other pitches and made it hard for hitters to really get to him often.
Not that I followed closely at the time . But I disagree a bit with your Javier assessment because up until this year he’s been more reliant on a dominant weapon vs having a great mix . that heater is nasty . Despite not topping the gun , his FB has always been his bread and butter key . In years past when he’s fallen off it’s when the juice / spin isn’t quite there .
Javier and Abreu were beasts in 2019. It was always a question of command. Javier appears to have found enough of it to be very good. Abreu not quite as much but better than 2020-2021. I feel like the Astros have always signed "stuff" over command and roll the dice. They hope teaching mechanics, experience, and repetition fix that.
His success is in part because his three breaking pitches are hard to differentiate. In the minors he was throwing fewer sliders and fastballs and throwing more change ups and curveballs. The change up for awhile was a real weapon for him in the minors and it really played up the fastball for him. The last I looked, he has backed off the change up and curve and is throwing them more as a change of pace and really hitting teams with his fastball and slider. Teams were trying to force him to come back to the fastball at key points last year, but he has been devastating with the slider for about a year now. Last I heard he is only throwing his curveball and change up to lefties, but they are working with him on the change up long term, but the increased rotation on the slider has been enough to keep teams honest against him. He is deceptive with his fastball as well.... the upside for him is tremendous if he can ever get his change up going like it was in the minors.
Javier has basically become a two pitch pitcher for the Astros over about the last 12 months. His fastball is very good, but he has really been throwing his slider well with movement. His curve and change up are really good when he has command, but it is something he is mostly working with on the side at this point. His change up has a lot of potential against lefties. With Javier he needs to improve on command and giving up homers on fastballs....
Yes, but also because once they have decided something about a guy, it is more difficult to get them to change their mind. Had Javier received a $2.5 million signing bonus, he would have been a top 20 overall prospect with the type of production he was putting out. The fact that he got signed late, and for very little money, stuck him in a place that would have been impossible to recover from in regards to prospect rankings
this is good info . I hope he holds up over the course of a season . He deserves a chance to start . I think his other pitches are good , but that fastball is something special . the way it’s gets by MLB hitters is impressive. It’s tough to say . Do we want him to be our 3/4 starter or should he be our best reliever . right now it’s gotta be JV , framber , him or Luis . Luis is a G too . That guy is the same age as Javier but had less minor league IP by almost 2:1 . And he’s already thrown more major league innings . he wore down a bit last year too . But maybe he’ll be one of the ones who can stay healthy. who knows . Both guys have great arms . Luis , to me , has even more potential and I could see him adding more pitches in addition to refining his own . He already has the cutter slider , I wonder how a two-seam would work . If he can locate 3 different fastballs that would be good
Colin Barber has a 3-run homer (2) in the early going for Asheville. He's starting to get himself going at the plate although he'll need to have a better showing on the road (.373/.439/.490 at home, .208/.382/.245 on the road) before we entertain any discussion of him going to Corpus.
My Colin Barber baseball card collection certainly needed him to get it going. I think his overall numbers are so luch better in May. that his road numbers are also much better in May not as easy for me to see his May road numbers but a quick glance seems to show over a .300 ba on the road this month
Something about Cerny reminds me of Jordan Schafer. But on all those highlights his bat looks so quick.
Corey Julks with his 10th home run in 17 games. I perked up when Jake Kaplan wrote a whole feature article about Corey Julks in February. No way Kaplan was trawling the minor league box scores and noticing that Julks had a decent second half last year after his development stint - somebody on the Astros told him to write about him because they knew he was going to be good. Putila gives the quotes in the articles so probably him. Maybe I'm reading way into things, but it seems like the FO doesn't hesitate to let the writers know which of our prospects are going to be good, and it also seems like they tend to be pretty consistently correct in their assessments. By the same token I'd bet the Astros approached Rosenthal about Jeremy Pena this spring and not the other way around.
Am I missing something on this guy? He's hitting .263/.315/.509. Sure the power looks nice but .263/.315 in AAA isn't particularly good. He's got a dead average wRC+ of 100.
He has broken out in May. .501 OPS in April and had a 1143 OPS this month entering tonight’s game. K rate went down and SLG went way up. If he sustains his May performance he’s a very good prospect because he’s always had athleticism and can probably handle all 3 OF spots plus 3B/1B (although he is probably stretched in CF and hasn’t tried 1B yet).
If he can stay healthy and have another good 4-6 weeks in Asheville I think it’s reasonable he could be in Corpus the last 6-8 weeks of the season. If he hits well in Corpus later this year his stock would be skyrocketing.
I think what he has done in May is where it gets interesting. Before today's game, he had a 1.143 ops and nine homers for the month. The fact that he went from something of an after thought to perhaps being a piece in a trade along the lines of what Roman Laureano turned into out of nowhere or Josh Rojas. From a guy just sorta toiling away down in the minors not getting much traction to over the last half season of last year and into this year becoming a legitimate trade piece another team could desire.
Rotations at lower levels seem to be stabilizing/improving. In Asheville, Arrighetti, McDermott, Coats, and Jaquez have all looked pretty good, and Gomez, Brown, Tokar, and Gusto have shown flashes. In Fayetteville, Batista, Kouba, Calderon, Miley, Santos, and Ullola have been solid, while Swanson and Salgado have at least posted good k rates. In AAA, Brown and Bielak have been money. France, Dubin, Donato, Solomon, Bermudez, and Conine have been inconsistent and struggled overall. In AA, Endersby has been the only productive SP. The high upside young international arms (Macuare, Melendez, Robaina, Bravo, and Tamarez) have all struggled mightily with walks. Ty Brown has sucked and Adrian Chaidez is still adapting after being promoted. All in all I expect Houston’s teams to perform a lot better in the 2nd half.
