Yes he’s a pitcher now and it looks like they begun stretching him out to be a starter. He threw 40+ pitches tonight and he’s been very effective so far.
His legs look a lot thicker than I remember him when he was drafted. Both he and Whitcomb should hit for some nice power in that league and could easily pan out to be really nice bench players or fringe regulars.
I dunno if they're actually doing that, but I wouldn't mind seeing Carrasco get a few starts to see if he's competent in that role. At the very least, they've set the foundation for him becoming a multi-inning reliever if that doesn't work out. This was the third time Carrasco has pitched 2+ innings this season and he hasn't had too many issues so far: in these appearances, he's allowed an unearned run, two hits, walked one, and struck out eight. They might as well try him out...
Once again I ask: WTF is wrong with Albuquerque's CF camera? I'm going to make a comment based on watching all of 1 AB by each player: Look at the difference b/t Kenni Gomez and Juan Sierra: quiet vs loud at the plate
I'd say the Luhnow Astros produced a lot of prospects better than Machado, Madris, and Bannon such that there was never any room. How many players were in the Astros Farm System under Luhnow that are now in the majors or at least on a 40-man?
I really don’t think the 2nd/3rd/4th tier depth is much if any worse now than in the Luhnow era; Luhnow signed plenty of AAAA roster filler (I posted the list last page, Alex Presley and Reid Brignac come to mind). The difference is at the very top. If you added 2 MLB top 50 prospects to this farm, I think it would be every bit up to the standard of 2014-2019.
I'm not sure the de Gotis, Mayfields, Fergusons and Kemmers of the world are necessarily better than Bannon/Madris, although taking a look at their stats now, they're performing worse than my gut feeling. The current AAA roster is mostly composed of 2019 and 2020 draftees. The 2020 shortened draft hurt the Astros and their ability to develop an entire draft class rather than a few players. The 2019 draft class was Luhnow's last. The top 2 picks were the top infielder and Catcher on the roster, but project as backups. Much of the 2019 class didn't work out. The Astros haven't really developed a lot of Latin American position players, which also helped lead to the depth issue. I think its way too complicated to try and assign blame to Luhnow/Click. Much of the Astros depth was because of solid prospects that were blocked like JD Davis and Derek Fisher. Part of the reason that the Astros depth isn't great is because Grae Kessinger, Korey Lee, Jordan Brewer etc aren't really knocking on the door and the time the Astros went big on international players (Nova et al) largely went bust.
So taking away 2 Top 50 prospects (Whitley and Tucker) from the Astros farm in the middle of 2018 leaves..Framber, Javier, Garcia, Urquidy, Sandoval, Yordan, Pena, Rojas, Chas, Straw, De la Cruz, Toro, Abreu, Meyers, along with a ton of busts. That is significantly better than every farm in baseball right now (unless there is team right now with a farm that is 2-3 players away from being dominate over about 6 years).
Well yes, but that’s only when evaluating with the benefit of hindsight. The vast majority of those prospects far outperformed how they were valued at the time. We can’t know if the current group will do the same for another 5 years, but they’ve continued to do it in the post-Luhnow era so far including this season.
Right. If Jose Fluery and Miguel Ullola match Javier and Framber, Baez becomes Alvarez 2.0, and Kenni Gomez is a lefty Jake Meyers, the Astros could use a series of Twitter polls to make their draft selections still keep on chugging. The turnover in the Astros front office since 2019 isn't exactly comforting, but the Astros are in decent shape largely because that previous group exceeded wildest expectations. I think Fangraphs will drop their Astros prospect list soon, that should be an interesting read, especially for some of the players that have raised their profile like Loperfido, Dezenzo, and Clifford.
As great as the player development system has been, developing international position players has been the worst area for the organization and it really isn't close. Ariel Ovando should've been a franchise cornerstone at this point. Remember those days? I couldn't believe this, but the only two IFAs who signed, developed, and debuted with the Astros during this century are Jose Altuve and Teoscar Hernandez.
So I guess we can’t count any of the current Latin pitchers? (Framber, Javier, Garcia, Abreu)? Or we’re just focusing on position players…
