Power is definitely showing up. Still major strikeout issues tho. Came into tonight with 15 k in 30 ab in June.
Who was it yall were comping him to? I'd take Reggie Sanders as a ceiling and BJ Upton as the floor. That sounds about right as the middle 70% of probabilities
Joan Ogando threw six shutout innings for Fayetteville and allowed four hits while fanning six. He also plunked somebody. It took him 71 pitches (51 strikes) to get through those six frames. After being extremely generous with the free passes to first base for the first couple months of the season, Ogando has issued just two walks in his last three appearances (14 IP). Ryan Smith allowed a run on a solo homer, one other hit, and struck out five over the final three innings. Unfortunately, that home run was the only scoring play of the night as the Woodpeckers lost 1-0 to Fredericksburg.
Bryce Mayer @ Brooklyn: 6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, BB, 5 K The two runs came on a pair of solo homers in the 7th. Good bounceback outing for Mayer after he gave up five runs in 4.1 in his last start. Garrett Guillemette drove in four with a three-run homer (7) and a double as Asheville won 7-2. He's having a much better time offensively in his second go with the Tourists. Guillemette and Will Bush have both been playing more 1B in deference to Walker Janek and while that's probably not ideal to them (they would probably rather be catching), having some 1B prospects in the system, even as "sure he can play there, even though he doesn't necessarily play it well" types, wouldn't hurt considering how getting offense from that position has been torture for the Astros the last few years.
Something is seriously wrong with AJ Blubaugh. Since April 23 he’s allowed 48 runs in 35.1 innings pitched. He is just not that bad, so I think he’s either forcing pitches to work on something or he’s hiding an injury.
His fastball velocity was down in May, but it has been better in June. Probably the biggest change I can see in his statcast numbers is less vertical movement on his fastball, and less horizontal movement on his sweeper since his MLB stint. I don't see anything that jumps out to me to indicate that he's working on mechanical adjustments. Hitters are swinging less at his 'chase' pitches and hitting his pitches in the zone harder.
All three complex-league teams won today. The FCL squad walked off with a 1-0 win in 8 innings. Anthony Huezo stole three bases and his RBI single was the game-winner. Three pitchers combined on a two-hit shutout; Jesus Carrera allowed a hit and struck out four in 2.2 innings. Dylan Howard walked one and struck out seven in 3 innings, and in his Astros org debut, Brandon McPherson allowed a hit, walked one, and struck out three in 2.1 innings. McPherson was signed last Friday. He went undrafted after finishing his college career at Northern Illinois in 2023. He's spent the last two seasons in independent ball in the Pioneer League. In two starts with the Yuba-Sutter High Wheelers, he allowed three runs on 11 hits, walked 2, and struck out 16 in 11.1 innings. The DSL Blue team scored 4 in the opening frame and knocked off the A's 6-2. Kevin Alvarez came on as a pinch-hitter in the 8th and doubled. Luis De Leon drove in two on a groundout in the 1st and an error that allowed Alvarez to score. Juan Fraide allowed three hits, walked one, and struck out two over five shutout innings to help the DSL Orange team beat the Dodgers' Mega team 3-1. Fraide, who turned 19 in April, signed when the current IFA period opened on January 15. Miguel Flores hit a two-run homer, his first as a pro. Flores signed last June and is one of a myriad of Venezuelan catchers in the lower levels of the system.
I remember the days when I knew most/all of the minors prospects. Now it's seemingly every day yall throw out somebody I've never heard of before like "Johnny McFergus threw 5 shutout innings while Jesus Thibadeaux hit 2 HRs"
Yes and no. Isn’t he striking out like 50% of the time in June? I saw that the other day I thought. Utterly unsustainable.
Strikeouts are an issue… but when I say he’s on a heater this is what I mean: In this 4 game series vs Reno (halfway thru the 4th game) Matthews has 9 hits, 23 total bases, 3 homers, 2 triples, a double, 8 runs, and 8 RBI’s
Andrew Taylor had a nice outing for Asheville facing the minimum over 5 innings. He struck out 6 hitters, and the only baserunner he allowed got thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double. That was his longest outing since 2023, and he threw as many innings tonight as he did in April and more than he did in May. He went on the IL in for 3 weeks in May, and struggled in his first outing back, but has 16 strikeouts to 2 walks over 12 innings in his last 4 outings. The 5 innings pushed him over last year's injury shortened total. I'm not sure he's a huge threat to be taken in the rule 5 draft this off-season, but it'll be interesting to see how they handle him. Walker Janek went 2-4, plating the go ahead run with a double. That's a 22 game on-base streak for Janek, who has gotten his strikeout and walk rates into decent territories. He's also stolen 14 bases on the season without being caught. I'm not super high on him, but as an athletic catcher from a small school, he's probably more of a project than your average 1st round college hitter.
I liked the Zach Gelof comparison you made sometime ago. I think he'll take walks, steal bases, and play a good 2B. In years where he strikes out less and hits more HRs, he'll be good. In years where he strikes out a lot and the balls don't leave the yard, he'll have to rely on the other skills to provide value. I'm not convinced he's actually worse than Brendan Rodgers is at this moment, but that's largely because Rodgers hasn't produced.
Astros prospects 23 or younger with wRC+ >130 (min 200 pa), 2006 to present: Yordan Alvarez Kyle Tucker George Springer BRICE MATTHEWS Yainer Diaz Domingo Santana Jon Singleton Derek Fisher AJ Reed If you limit the list to guys who could play up the middle you’d have just Diaz, Springer, and Matthews. Honestly Matthews’ bat probably profiles closest to Santana, who had a wRC+ of 110 over 7 MLB seasons. That level of production with plus speed and plus 2B defense would make Matthews a really good player.
