Jacob Melton is 3-4 with an RBI single and a three-run homer (17) so far for Asheville. He also stole a base, his 36th of the season. Ryan Clifford (14; 16 season) has also homered for the Tourists.
The DSL teams played each other this morning and the Orange team got a 6-run 3rd inning that ultimately held up in their 7-6 win. Yosweld Vasquez, who joined the team at the start of this month, hit a grand slam (2) for the Orange team. Camilo Diaz hit two doubles for the Blue team; the first one drove in a run.
Jordan Brewer (4) and Chad Stevens (12) have both gone deep for Corpus. It's too bad Brewer can't stay healthy. A guy with his tools is always interesting, but he's missed too much time to be a serious prospect at this point. Stevens has shown a bit of pop since turning pro, but he apparently only knows how to hit at home. If the power is sustainable, he will continue to get chances.
Pretty fitting that he drove in Jackson Loftin, who scored all three of Fayetteville's runs. In the first, he walked and proceeded to steal his way home. He hasn't hit well, but he's up to 39 steals while playing both CF and SS. He is slashing .323/.380/.446 in July, so maybe there's some hope for the bat.
Brice Matthews is in the FCL lineup at shortstop and is the leadoff man. He walked in his first plate appearance as a pro. Nehomar Ochoa (LF), Ryan Johnson (2B), Jeron Williams (3B), and Anthony Sherwin (DH) are also making their pro debuts today.
Tyler Guilfoil vs. Down East: 4 IP, 3 H, 3 BB, 3 K Guilfoil lowered his ERA to 2.13 and now has 72 strikeouts in 50.2 innings.
Pre deadline 30 most valuable prospects 1 Drew Gilbert* 2 Kenni Gomez 3 Alonzo Tredwell 4 Colt Gordon* 5 Ryan Clifford* 6 Luis Baez 7 Korey Lee 8 Brice Matthews 9 Zach Dezenzo 10 Jacob Melton* 11 Trey Dombroski* 12 Colin Barber* 13 Pedro Leon 14 Jake Bloss 15 Chase Jaworsky 16 Spencer Arrighetti 17 Rhett Kouba 18 Michael Knorr 19 Justin Dirden 20 J Loperfido 21 Ryan Wrobleski 22 Jose Fleury 23 Nehomar Ochoa 24 Kenedy Corona 25 Will Wagner* 26 Andrew Taylor 27 Anthony Huezo 28 Camilo Diaz 29 Waner Luciano 30 Guilfoil Gusto Guedez Couldn't come up with one final name so I put these to represent all the possibilities. A more detailed list will come after I see who we lose at the deadline.
I tease blindhog because he put 2021 6th rd pick SS Hector Nieves on his top 30 prospects list awhile back. I pressed him on that and he answered with supreme confidence but without further detail/logic that Nieves would break out. Nieves was an interesting take when he was drafted but at this point is pretty clearly a non-prospect, or at best a deep deep sleeper. Blind hogs lists always have wild variations from any others you will see but he doesn’t provide any sound logic for why. No one who is knowledgeable about prospects would rank Colton Gordon as Houston’s 4th best prospect without giving an extremely insightful analysis or at least claiming info from inside the org.
Luis Encarnacion hit his 7th HR today, his 4th this month. He has been pretty good the last 2 months and is only 20. Another guy worth tracking. Luis Baez went 0-3 today but is up to 42 pa in a ball and his k rate is <10%. With the power that he has already shown that is a really really good sign that he has the potential to be a complete hitter and that he has superstar potential.
Playing Center Field in Fayettville. My process is pretty simple. I assign a numerical value to all the possible ceilings and floors. I assign a ceiling and a floor to each prospect as accurately as I can. Average each players ceiling and floor and list them in that order. Floors win all ties. Proximity wins further ties. When I am finished the results are as surprising to me as they are to anybody else. It is not meant to compare with other top prospect lists. The numbers and letter grades I wind up with do not correlate to other lists by intent. I am taking myself and the effect others opinions have on me as far out of the process as I can. The results are indeed filled with wild variations from any others you will see. It is always surprising to me how close some of them come though. I have done this for years now. It gives me a different perspective and it has been a lot of fun. I hope others can enjoy it too.
Waner Luciano went 2-4 with an RBI double in the FCL Astros' 3-0, 7-inning win over the Mets today. Brice Matthews stole two bases, Nehomar Ochoa was 0-4, Ryan Johnson singled and was hit by a pitch, Anthony Sherwin walked three times, scored a run, and stole a base, and Jeron Williams went 0-3. Sandy Mejia and Alain Peña combined on the shutout. Mejia: 3 IP, H, 2 BB, 5 K Peña: 4 IP, 2 H, BB, 4 K
Of course it's all in fun. But basing your rankings on arbitrary floor/ceiling ratings that come solely from yourself is anything but "taking myself as far out of the process as I can". If the floor/ceilings were based on a model that generates the ratings based on statistics or other non-subjective data, then I could see the logic. But as it is, your list is just "this is what I think".
Snake Diggity was already around when I first found out there where places on line to talk with others about the Astros. I have always enjoyed hearing his thoughts and I am always pleased when he has something to say about my stuff. At least I know somebody whose opinion I value is paying attention. Thank you for that. I utilize all the objective information I can find to assign those ceilings and floors but my own intuition does indeed play a large part in those assignments. I do not think there would be much value in creating another top prospect list based on what has happened. There are tons of those done by people better equipped to do them than I am. My Most Valuable Prospect list is intended to make projections about what is likely to happen and most importantly to stimulate ideas about those projections in myself and others.
