At least Macuare and Kouba have come out of nowhere to provide a spark in AA. I wonder if Kouba has picked up a couple of ticks this year as the reporting on his stuff last year didn't seem all that exciting.
A quick and dirty way to look at pitchers is to call them up on Milb and scroll down to advanced stats at the bottom of the page. Look across the bottom for K/BB. The higher that number is the better. In A and A+ Double digits is elite, 8-9 is very good, 6-7 is above average and that is where I start paying close attention. As the player moves up those numbers get more difficult to attain and you will have to temper your expectations accordingly. I also pay attention to P/IP on the upper line of advanced stats. I like to see a number around 15 there for a pitching prospect. That combined with a good K/BB# will help you find the best performing pitchers. Over time those numbers can be predictive if the prospect maintains them. They only point out results but get you looking at the right prospects and will lead you to more in depth ways to look at each individual.
Yeah the only report I saw was that he topped at like 94 in the Fall League, so it would be surprising if he’s added much since then, but if he keeps it up we will see him in AAA at some point this season and then have access to his velo.
The fact that both played AFL ball at a relatively young age shows that somebody has been taking a close look at them and we should not be too surprised to see them providing some sparks.
We are in a lull area in AAA, we have already picked through the bones of the players in that time period of player development and they are all either in the big leagues or didn't pan out. AAA is also paying the price for us not having high draft picks for a couple years. There is Leon and a couple others than may be okay big leaguers, but that is it. AAA will be strong in a year or two with so many potentially good players in the lower levels.
I was super excited about Dirden but he's been horrible. Maybe he's thinking too much and the changes in his approach and swing has put him in a funk.
I would agree with that on the pitching side, as the Astros have chewed through any viable pitching prospects pretty quickly and brought guys up as fast as possible. But the AAA lineup *should* be pretty good: C Lee: 1st rd pick, former Top 100 prospect 1B Matijevic: 2nd rd pick 2B Bannon/Machado: proven AAAA players SS Kessinger: 2nd rd pick 3B Perez: 2nd rd pick RF Madris: proven AAAA player CF Leon: top intl bonus in his class LF Dirden: strong statistical track record These guys should be better than they’re currently performing.
I agree and I was talking about it last season especially on the pitching side. I said we have Hunter Brown and then after that the upper levels are not good. The responses were well yea but we have Framber, McCullers, Javier, Urquidy, Garcia, and Brown so we are fine. Now 3 of those dudes are hurt and it has become a big issue.
Good for Dirden. 3-4 with the grand slam and 2 doubles. He needed that in a bad way. Sadly, the newest starter for AAA was shelled. Macuare 4.1 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 2 HR
Michael Sandle had 3 hits one of them a HR. It’s only been ~30pa, but it’s nice to see him able to compete at that level. His placement there is more a show that he’s viewed as organizational depth than anything else, but he’s got some tools and it’s possible he could get back into the conversation. Would be nice if he could play 2B since the OF is so crowded.
Sandle's line entering today was pretty funny: he was hitting .130/.313/.391. He was slugging .391 because 2 of his 3 hits entering today were home runs. His OPS will be .928 (with a .207 average) after today because of his two doubles and his homer in this game. The Asheville Effect somehow did not apply to him last year: he barely cleared .700 OPS at home (.254/.335/.366). He hit much better on the road: .282/.348/.437.
Minor league wRC+ (last I knew) is not park adjusted. Whether or not the SL hitters get the shaft depends very much on whether SL stands for Sugarland or Salt Lake. JJ Matijevic has had almost the same season as Shay Whitcomb, but is 20 points lower by wRC+. I thought I saw yesterday that France was slated to start today, so I'd guess he got scratched in case he's needed in the majors.
I have been thinking we have seen this a couple of times. A prospect that outperforms in Spring and believes he has done enough but does not make the roster can be very morose when he gets back to AAA. It takes some time for them to recover and get back on track.
The odds of finding all of these stud young pitchers in a 3 yr span and having a deep AAA pitching staff is rare. There's still hope for Whitley, France and there's more good young pitchers in the lower levels coming. If you need pitching over the next couple years looks like Brown will have to trade for it. Right now it may make sense to try to make a small trade for an Odorizzi type starter if Unquidy is going to be down for a month or more.
