- Another strong outing from Miguel Ullola: 5 IP, H, 3 BB, 7 K. He got the win in Sugar Land's 4-2 win over Sacramento. - Walker Janek hit his 3rd home run of the year as Asheville beat Winston-Salem 8-3. Cristian Gonzalez went 2-3 with a bases-clearing double in a 4-run 4th. - Cesar Hernandez went 2-5 with a go-ahead RBI single in the 10th for Fayetteville as they topped Augusta 5-4. He also stole a base, his 20th of the season. Esmil Valencia went 2-4 with two stolen bases. Leomar Rosario allowed a hit, walked one, and struck out five over three scoreless. Rosario, a 21-year-old righty from the Dominican Republic who missed all of last season, was moved up from the FCL last week. - Jean Pinto allowed a hit and struck out three over four scoreless in the FCL. Jeron Williams' sac fly and Anthony Huezo's RBI double in the 3rd was enough to give the FCL squad a 2-1 win over the Marlins.
I’m thinking Ullola may be just 3-4 more good starts away from a callup. Not like Gusto or Gordon have locked anything down.
The All-Prospect Position Player Team thru 2 months: C/1B Walker Janek, High A: 111 wRC+, 12 SB C/1B Will Bush, High A: 134 wRC+, 7 HR, 16% BB C/1B Jancel Villarroel, A: 110 wRC+, .66bb/k IF Brice Matthews, AAA: 127 wRC+, 16 SB, 6 HR IF German Ramirez, FCL: 146 wRC+, .273 ISO IF Hector Salas, FCL: 168 wRC+, 28% bb(!) IF Max Holy, A: 128 wRC+, 18% bb IF Caden Powell, A: 123 wRC+, 7 HR OF Joseph Sullivan, High A: 151 wRC+,20SB,12hr OF Jacob Melton, AAA/MLB: 132 wRC+, 96.5 EV OF Lucas Spence, A/High A: 137wRC+,16SB,.7bb/k OF Drew Brutcher, A: 161 wRC+, 8% swstr OF Shay Whitcomb, AAA/MLB: 143 wRC+, 18 HR
Omar Damián made his pro debut this morning for the DSL Blue team: 3 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K In the same game, Sami Manzueta hit his first professional home run.
Indeed. Valdez had some of the worst command in the minors (and the first few seasons with the Stros), but had some of the nastiest stuff. Stuff plays in the majors and command can be developed. Valdez was always going to be a ToR pitcher if he developed some command. However, if Ullola doesn't develop some command that will spell doom for him IMO.
Pitchers: SP Miguel Ullola, AAA: 32% k SP Bryce Mayer, A/High A: 31% k SP Anderson Brito, High A: 28% k SP Alonzo Tredwell, A: 3.15 era SP Jackson Nezuh, AA: 3.65 xfip SP Brett Gillis, High A: 2.84 era SP Jose Fleury, AA: 2.25 era SP Twine Palmer, A: 2.25 era SP Colton Gordon, AAA: 2.55 era SP Alex Santos II, AA: 31% k RP Michael Knorr, AA: 30% k RP Amilcar Chirinos, High A: 37% k RP Alimber Santa, AA: 0.96 era
Brett Gillis vs. Winston-Salem: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 K Julio Rodriguez (3 IP, BB, 3 K) and Amilcar Chirinos (IP, H, BB, 2 K) completed the shutout as Asheville won 2-0. Alejandro Nunez went 2-3 and walked in a run, and he also scored on one of Drew Vogel's doubles.
Omar Narvaez is back with Sugar Land; the Astros signed him today after he was released by the White Sox a little over a week ago.
Time for my annual @No Worries not-so-highly-scientific look at the Astros minors. Hitters with a OPS over 800: AAA .956 Shay Whitcomb .879 Jacob Melton .855 Luis Castro .826 Brice Matthews AA A+ .924 Joseph Sullivan .848 Will Bush .829 Alejandro Nunez .811 Lucas Spence A .921 Drew Brutcher .827 Lucas Spence .799 Oliver Carrillo Rookie .942 German Ramirez .913 Hector Salas .866 Yosweld Vasquez .860 Andrews Sosa Pitchers with a lowish WHIP: AAA 0.76 Brandon Walter 47.2 IP 0.94 Jason Alexander 16.0 IP 0.98 Nick Hernandez 26.2 IP 1.02 Luis Contreras 14.2 IP AA 0.93 Alimber Santa 37.2 IP 0.94 Jose Fleury 32.0 IP A+ 1.031 Hudson Leach 10.2 IP 1.045 Bryce Mayer 22.0 IP A 1.050 Alonzo Tredwell 40.0 IP 1.095 Dawil Almonte 24.2 IP Rookie 0.346 Jean Pinto 8.2 IP 1.059 Luis Aguilar 17.0 IP 1.091 Javier Perez 11.0 IP Top 30 prospects are bolded.
Tredwell has been very effective at preventing runs and hits but with a BABIP of .220 I’m a little pessimistic about him. Brett Gillis is firmly on my radar. He has an era <2.00 since May 1st. He’s 25 so that probably discounts his High A numbers, but he’s Rule 5 eligible this fall so I’m sure they’ll want a look at him in AA this season; if he has success there he will be a real prospect. Scouting reports and analysis on him seems hard to come by.
It’s probably the worst AA position player roster Houston has ever had. The upside is that the other rosters are pretty talented and in a few months that Corpus roster should look wildly different/better.
I missed this, but Juan Rojas of the DSL Orange team hit his first pro homer yesterday. Rojas, a 17-year-old Dominican, signed at the start of this year's IFA period on January 15.
Dylan Howard made his professional debut for the FCL Astros this morning, going 1.1 IP 3H 1ER 2BB 1K. He was their 8th round pick in last year's draft, and joined Parker Smith (4th round who just got assigned to Fayetteville) in starting the season late in the FCL. It's kind of weird that neither started in Fayetteville as both had decent track records in college for throwing strikes as starting pitchers. Ryan Verdugo (12th) is in a similar boat, having not debuted for the organization nor being put on an injured list. These are the 3 drafted pitchers with the most consistent workloads in college, so it's possible that they want to ease them into pro ball. Of the 11 pitchers taken by the Astros in the 2024 draft: 4 are listed as injured (Forcucci, Hertzler, Mathieson, Burleson) 2 are tandem starters (David, Mayer) 1 is a reliever (Smith) 3 started the season late in the FCL despite not listed as injured (Smith, Howard, Verdugo). 1 -Twine Palmer- has been a healthy scratch for a month despite pitching well out of the tandem for the first month of the season. Between these pitchers and whatever was going on with Luis Baez at the beginning of the season, I'm not sure what to make of some of their playing time choices.
I think Baez was working on a position change. I think Smith, Howard, and Verdugo were working on pitch development. I also think the Astros don’t really care if an injured player is listed as active as long as they’re not running afoul of any roster rules.
Thats all fair, especially the IL aspect. It seems weird to not have Baez even playing DH if they're working on a position change, it's not like there are a ton of can't miss prospects in AA that needed the ABs. And no pitchers in the 2022 or 2023 drafts spent the first 2 months working on pitch mixes in extended spring training, as far as I can tell. The 2024 draft featured a lot of large dudes from small schools, so maybe this is related to a steeper competition change. Maybe they felt they did the likes of DeVos, Dombrowski, Knorr, etc a disservice by making them apply new pitches in a competitive setting with little time to get a feel for them. Maybe Dana is hiding some of his favorite under the radar prospects so no one demands them at the deadline. It just seems different than what they've done before.
Both DSL teams won today; the Blue team entered the win column for the first time this season with an 8-4 win over the Rojos (Reds 2). Cristopfer Gonzalez reached base in all his plate appearances, going 2-2 with a couple of walks. He had a two-run double, and one of the BBs drove in another run. The Orange team romped to a 12-3 win over the Red Sox's Blue team. Miguel Flores went 2-4 with a bases-clearing triple that finished off the scoring for team Orange. Yensi De La Cruz went 3-4 with an RBI single and scored twice.
