https://twitter.com/zacharylevine/status/220666251465338880 Not surprised, as he was set to debut in AA tonight.
holy ****. I was just looking at his record and thinking he needed to report to Corpus. I don't see the logic in this at all. He's batting .234/.291/.357 in AAA. There's absolutely no way his bat carries in the show. Agreed, I think a 3.60 era in HiA carries in the Texas league.
Yeah...I wonder what the plan is here. Gotta be a bit mystifying for Brett Wallace too. Could mean they're cutting CJ loose? If they bring up Dominguez, he's getting every day at bats at 3rd...
Hmmmmm....very interesting. Is Chris Johnson on notice now? I imagine that Moore goes back down to make room for Wallace?
I'll give luhnow the benefit of the doubt for a lonnnnng time at this point. They want him in the majors? They have a good reason Also, I think we should show some love to Jim Crane. After seeing a deal fall apart where he wouldn't have to spend money, he shelled out somewhere between (I wild guess) 5 and 8 million more just to get more prospects. Legit move, mr crane
Sucks for Wallace. They should call him up and send Moore back down. Moore is no where near part of the future. There's no point to having him on the club.
A nice stat for Matt Dominguez is he does not strike out too much. He currently has 23 walks to 31 strike outs in 286 AB's. Since he's so good defensively maybe he can turn into a Ken Caminiti type, pre-steriods of course.
Before I forget, I should post my initial reaction about this trade. Props for both of them. This is a great trade. But that's what makes Luhnow's decision to send Dominguez to the show so puzzling. There's absolutely nothing in his record to show that he'd stick. The Marlin's twitterverse seems very happy to be rid of him.
Here is Sickel's take on the new guys: Here is Kevin Goldstein's take. He's the big writer at Baseball Prospectus:
Great trade again by Luhnow! I have faith in the future of the Astros with him at the helm. Paying for Lee's contract shouldn't be that big a deal, it's better than paying him to play baseball for us. Might as well pick up a couple decent prospects and give the job to Wallace for the rest of the year instead of paying Lee to play for us. I don't get the major league call to Dominguez already but I trust Luhnow and the gang that they know what they're doing.
Sometimes all an underachieving prospect (Dominguez) needs is a change of scenery to fulfill his potential. It wouldn't shock me to see Dominguez thrive in an environment where expectations aren't as high. I'm a big fan of his K/BB ratio as well.
I'm glad Lee vetoed the deal to the Dodgers now. Rasmussen is on par with the guy we were getting from the Dodgers, and Dominguez is a steal.
True. But personally I think this is rather an instance of a prospect horribly rushed through a system and then dumped when they signed his replacement. He put up solid (not great) numbers at LoA at the age of 18. After that he struggled at every level and yet inexplicably kept getting promoted. He made it all the way to the show as a 21 year old who had absolutely no business being there. Now he's a prospect who has seen extensive time at AAA and big leagues who is considered a failure; all at the ripe age of 22. That's mind-boggling to me. By comparison, George Springer is 22 y/o in HiA and is considered a top 50 prospect. Jonathan Villar was the same way. He was rushed through the system because the Astros wanted to promote Altuve and Villar together as a double play combo (lol). He hit .231 in AA as a 20 y/o and suddenly his prospect status was gone. He went from being a BA top 100 prospect to a bust. He is repeating AA as a 21 y/o this year and signs point him putting it together. DDJ is another great example of repeating a level when they're not ready. I just don't understand continuing to fast-track prospects who clearly show they can't handle it. This makes Luhnow's decision all the more curious to me. They could send Dominguez all the way down to Lancaster and I wouldn't second guess it. But sending him to Houston just makes no sense.
I am not high on either prospect the Astros got from the Marlins. I know they are rated highly but having seen both play I see a future utility player with the upside of Bill Mueller and a long reliever... Better than nothing, especially under the circumstances...
I've been impressed with every trade luhnow's made. Even the one that didn't go through. There's less than four weeks until the end ofthe trading deadline; it should be a fun month.
Jeff Luhnow has done a very solid job, I am very encouraged by the direction of the franchise.. The owner deserves a great deal of credit too.. He knows baseball, but he let's Jeff and his staff do their jobs and will spend money.
