He's still rocking a 22% K% in June, but it's a massive step up over looking lost at the plate for most of his AAA stints.
The Astros' complex-league teams are playing each other today. Kenni Gomez hit his first homer for the DSL Blue team. Gomez, one of the many Cubans in the Astros system, just turned 17 in May and he's off to a pretty nice start to his career.. The home run is just his second extra-base hit, so obviously, he'll need to add some strength. And Sandy Gaston just keeps on hitting... he's 2-3 with a run scored so far. Rabel Colon has an RBI triple for the Orange team. He's been one of the offensive standouts early on the Orange team... that triple is already his 5th this season.
My updated Top 30 after June: Rank Pos Player Grade 1. RHP Hunter Brown 60 2. OF/IF Pedro Leon 50 3. C Korey Lee 50 4. RHP Forrest Whitley 50: looked great in his rehab starts so far 5. OF Colin Barber 50: stock still going up, needs to get to AA this season to be an offseason Top 100/hype train guy 6. C/1B Yainer Diaz 50: very positive early returns in AAA, stock way up 7. 1B/LF JJ Matijevic 45 8. RHP Alex Santos 45 9. IF/OF Enmanuel Valdez 45 : another hot month but seems to be cooling off in AAA 10. 3B/1B Joe Perez 45: still hurt 11. OF/IF Tyler Whitaker 45: still looks overmatched but slight improvement over May #s 12. RHP Shawn Dubin 45 13. RHP Peter Solomon 45 14. RHP Chayce McDermott 45: not a great month, needs to get to AA 15. SS Cristian Gonzalez 45: massive improvement over April/May 16. IF Grae Kessinger 45: underlying numbers still look much better than slash line would indicate 17. RHP Miguel Ullola 45: Looking very good in Fayetteville 18. LHP Juio Robaina 45 19. LHP Parker Mushinski 45 20. RHP Adrian Chaidez 45 21. RHP Jaime Melendez 45 22. RHP Misael Tamarez 45 23. OF Wilyer Abreu 45 24. OF/1B Jordan Brewer 45 25. OF Kenedy Corona 40 26. OF/3B Corey Julks 40 27. RHP Spencer Arrighetti 40 28. RHP Edinson Batista 40 29. RHP Angel Macuare 40 30. C Miguel Palma 40 Other grade 40: OF Quincy Hamilton, C Nerio Rodriguez, OF Justin Dirden, C Luke Berryhill, IF Luis Santana, IF Will Wagner, C Sandro Gaston, OF Michael Sandle, IF Dauri Lorenzo, OF Joey Loperfido, OF Logan Cerny, OF Alex McKenna, IF Shay Whitcomb, OF Zach Daniels, OF Luis Baez, P Carlos Calderon, P Valente Bellozo, P Colton GOrdon, P Carlos Espinosa, P Rhett Kouba, P Tyler Ivey, P Alimber Santa, P Jairo SOlis, P Diosmerky Taveras, P Alfredi Jimenez, P Jimmy Endersby, P Ryan Gusto, P Matt Ruppenthal, P Jonathan Bermudez, P Christian Mejias, P JP France
Melendez's peripherals don't look bad, but he's definitely getting burned by walks turning into runs. Good on him for turning it around in June.
I would have bet on Lee all day long once Papierski was traded. Lots of pitchers to choose from if one is needed Not many catchers The idea that neither were on the 40 man meant only dire need would trigger either.
That looked like he got under to the opposite field… and it still went out. He’s getting into the range where we need to see what he can do.
No offense Nike…but these type of comments crack me up. I assume you mean he should be called up? JJ had a 1000 OPS in triple A also. Who is he replacing? What we should root for is that he keeps raking so we can trade him cause he will never have a spot on the everyday 25 man. Not this year or next. Just in the last two weeks he’s been passed by Diaz as the next utility guy that’s up next cause he at least can catch in a pinch.
Didn't realize that playing catcher "in a pinch" was a prerequisite towards being an actual MLB utility player... J.J. Matijevic, Mauricio Dubón and Aledmys Diaz can't do that, so I guess they shouldn't be on the Astros roster. "he will never have a spot on the everyday 25 man. Not this year or next." Pretty weird remark to make. Makes it sound like Enmanuel Valdez somehow wronged you personally.
The Orange and Blue teams are playing each other down in the DSL this morning and Luis Baez hit his 3rd homer of the season for the Orange team. Darwin De Leon, an 18-year-old Dominican who signed three days ago and was assigned to the Orange team, hit a two-run home run in his first career plate appearance. Sandy Gaston has an RBI single for the Blue team and he wound up scoring on a wild pitch.
Feels like there’s a lot of power being shown from the DSL hitters. I don’t seem to recall those 1st year guys hitting as many HR.
Glad to provide some humor. Odds are one of Bregman, Altuve, Peña, and Aledmys Diaz hit the DL between now and the end of the year — and that’s a comment on both just law of numbers and the injury histories of each of those players. Matijevic’s all or nothing swing and limited positional ability doesn’t do much for me. With Brantley on the IL, there’s ABs for one of the non-regulars — right now, it’s JJ and Chas. Maybe Valdez is no better, but he’s maybe in the conversation. I also wouldn’t be sure that Valdez doesn’t have a shot on next year’s roster. Aledmys Diaz is a free agent — I’m sure the Astros would like to bring him back, but depending on his cost, they could roll with Dubon and E. Valdez as the utility guys.
