Raimy Rodriguez threw six shutout innings for Fayetteville and allowed four hits, walked two, and struck out five. This was probably his last outing as a teenager as he turns 20 next Wednesday. Fayetteville lost 2-1 and got no-hit. They were actually two outs away from winning this game until Delmarva got the go-ahead home run in the top of the 9th.
I’ve seen several people concerned about Brice Matthews power. He has a power - and projects to hit more homers in time. He isn’t a punching Judy hitter at all. I would compare his power to Brandon Phillips or Joe Morgan. You try to hamstring him and he will turn on an inside pitch on the hands.
Anthony Huezo hit his 3rd home run of the season down in the FCL. I still think there's something (he's 4 months younger than Nehomar Ochoa) there with him, but he's on year 3 in a complex league, and he hasn't really made much progress with his bat-to-ball skills.
Angel Peralta threw five shutout innings and allowed a hit, walked two, and struck out eight in the DSL Orange team's 2-0 win this morning. Peralta, an 18-year-old righty from the Dominican Republic, signed at the start of the 2024 IFA period. He's taken a big step forward in his second year as a pro after slogging to a 7.83 ERA in his pro debut last year, which was mainly because he walked 28 in 23 innings last season. Peralta is 3-0 with a 2.67 ERA in 8 appearances (6 starts, 33.2 IP total) this season. Side note: His full name is Angel Daniel Peralta, not to be confused with another pitcher in the system named Engel Daniel Peralta. Not sure if they're related.
Fangraphs released their Astros prospects list. This is the worst written least insightful writeup from that site I’ve ever seen. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/houston-astros-top-38-prospects/
I think they may have kind of rushed it trying to get every 'off-season' list out prior to the draft. Their lists are usually my favorite, but I wasn't really impressed with this one.
This was also the first article ever written by the new prospect writer, who is clearly not as good or as credentialed as Eric Longenhagen. Super disappointing as reading their prospect list is usually one of the highlights of the year for me.
He’s a non-prospect at this point but Tyler Whitaker has improved his ops each month in High A. April .483 May .536 June .694 July .764 Most of that is improved batted ball luck, as he is not improving his dreadful k rate. But he may be doing enough to avoid getting released and maybe get a shot to get a short audition in AA to start next year.
A 2029 Astros position player roster would look like this if fangraphs’ analysis plays out: SS TBD* RF Smith DH K Alvarez 3B Neyens CF Melton* LF Sullivan* 1B Baez 2B Matthews C Janek Bench: Dezenzo, Bush, A Hernandez, Corona *They don’t project any Astros prospects as everyday SS and they don’t project any Astros prospects as quality top of the order hitters. They also project Melton and Sullivan as strong-side platoon hitters, so as it stands they’d project this roster to be very weak against lefties.
Looking back at previous drafts it stood out to me how little attrition there’s been from the 2022-2023 drafts. The 2022 draft still has 15 of the 20 players Houston signed in the system. Of the 5 who aren’t, 2 were traded (Gilbert and Clifford) and only 3 have been released (Loftin, Borden, and McGowan, all of whom were late round picks). The 2023 draft has yet to see a single player be released, as 18 of the 19 guys who signed are still in the system, with Jake Bloss being the only one not there. The 2021 draft only has 7 guys left, with only 2 (Arrighetti, Gordon) having reached the majors and none of the other 5 (Hamilton, Kouba, Brown, Swanson, Whitaker) projecting to reach the majors. That draft represents the end of a really bleak 2 year period in drafting (the years where they lost their 1st and 2nd round picks). I am very excited about the 2026 draft representing a real rebirth of Houston’s farm, since they might have extra picks and it should push out the remainder of the non-prospects leftover from the dark ages, as Houston will have had 5 years of at least having their 1st rounder.
Yeah, missing on Whitaker during the dark ages really setback the farm a little bit. But the farm still keeps pumping out prospects as guys go down, the next man up philosophy is real at Union Station. I'm looking forward to seeing what Dana and his guys can do in the 2026 draft. There appears to be some real talent in it. Love the Neyens/Frey picks, although I loved LaViolette. Frey is a similar RHB with a similar skillset in the field.
Rehab Monday down in the FCL. Luis Garcia (2 IP 2H 0R 0BB 3K) and Jackson Nezuh (2.2 IP 1 H 0R 2BB 3K) on the mound while Austin Deming and Caden Powell (didn't realize he was injured, but it's good to see him back) play the field.
Post draft, here's the list of C and where I think they project in the system next season: FCL (3): Alexi Quiroz, Jace Mitchell, Arturo Flores (with Andrews Sosa as a release candidate) Fayetteville (3): Yosweld Vasquez, Carlos Cauro, Hayden Travinski (with Kedaur Trujillo as a release candidate) Asheville (3): Jancel Villarroel, Jason Schiavone, Fernando Caldera Corpus (3): Walker Janek, Will Bush, John Garcia (with Ryan Wrobleski as a release candidate) Sugar Land (3): Garret Guillemette, Collin Price, Miguel Palma (with Bryan Lavastida, Omar Narvaez, and Joe Hudson as pending free agents) It's not a balanced depth chart but there's plenty of overall talent and depth there. Here's the list of IF and where I think they project in the system next season: FCL (5): Anderson Areinamo, Xavier Neyens, Landon Arroyos, Wilton Lara, Sandro Pereira; there may be add'l DSL promotions Fayetteville (6): Waner Luciano, Alberto Hernandez, German Ramirez, Camilo Diaz, Hector Salas, Darwin De Leon Asheville (6): Zach Dautet, Kyle Walker, Nick Monistere, Caden Powell, Max Holy, Chase Jaworsky (with Cristian Gonzalez, Drew Vogel, Reylin Perez, and Justin Trimble as release candidates) Corpus (6): Alejandro Nunez, Jeron Williams, Trevor Austin, Ryan Johnson, Narbe Cruz, Pascanel Ferreras (with Bryce Willits, Anthony Sherwin, Austin Deming, Luis Encarnacion, and Jack Blomgren as release candidates) Sugar Land (6): Wes Clarke, Brice Matthews, Tommy Sacco, 3 TBD minor league free agents (with Jesus Bastidas, Luis Castro, Greg Jones, Jon Singleton, and Edwin Diaz as pending free agents) The lower levels looks great, but that AA and AAA list is extremely weak. Here's the list of OF and where I think they project in the system next season: FCL (8-9): Kevin Alvarez, Ariel Lebron, Ethan Wagner, Elijah Farley, Roiner Quintana, Juan Sierra, Joey McLaughlin, DJ Newman, (potentially) Bryce Boettcher Fayetteville (6): Karniel Pratt, Anthony Huezo, Luis Rives, Esmil Valencia, Nehomar Ochoa Jr., Josh Wakefield Asheville (6): Ethan Frey, Cesar Hernandez, Drew Brutcher, Kenni Gomez, Chase Call, Justin Thomas (with Tyler Whitaker, Oliver Carrillo, and Cam Fisher as release candidates) Corpus (5): Yamal Encarnacion, Joseph Sullivan, Lucas Spence, Jose Gonzalez, Luis Baez (with Orlando Martinez as a pending free agent) Sugar Land (5): Zach Cole, Kenedy Corona, Pedro Leon, Colin Barber, Shay Whitcomb (with Quincy Hamilton as a release candidate and Zach Dezenzo and Jacob Melton on an MLB roster) I think that is fantastic OF depth. It'll be interesting to see who is released in a few weeks as they have to get under the total 165 player limit and are about to add 20-25 players.
Position wise or location? If a high schooler starts anywhere besides rookie ball I would be pretty damn surprised.
