2012 Astros Minor League Thread

Mike Hessman just homered (2 run) to make it 6-3 OKC in he bottom of the 5th.

 

3 straight games, and 5 in the last 10 games.

Just an OPS of 1.400 in his last 10 games, nothing major.

 

will be curious to see how he does in Corpus next year, to figure out how much of this is just the Lancaster effect

 

Most scouting reports say the power is real (e.g. 70ish) and many Pence trade articles said he has the chance to be the best of the haul (over Singleton and Cosart).

The key stat to follow with Santana (and Springer) in AA will be the strikeout rate. While that's not specifically the Lancaster effect, it's a corollary.

Fortunately, while he's rawer than Springer, Santana is also 3 years younger. Thus he's got a lot more time to develop. He could spend 3 years in AA/AAA (if needed) and still make the majors at age 24. That's a huge plus.

 

With Folty and DDJr having stellar years, looks like the final Wade-Heck draft may end up paying some major divedends after all. Too bad Kvasnicka (the third of the three first rounders) hasn't done a whole lot.

 

Today's AskBA column highlights DDJ.

Hard to interpolate where he'd put DDJ on the BA top 100 list, but it sounds like DDJ will be on their list.

 

Folty finishes a bit meekly as he got bounced early.

Fontana has his customary 4 walk game to finish the year. He hit .225 with a .464 OBP... That's pretty weird.

 

Edit: Double post

 

DDJ with a caught stealing... I think he's very aware that he's sitting on 99.

Likely only 1 or 2 more at bats to get on base again and give it a go.

 

100!!!!!

DeShields stole 2nd base in the top of the 7th inning. The defense correctly predicted the SB attempt by calling for a pitch-out but catcher Carlton Tanabe's throw was offline to the RF side. DeShields was safe despite sliding headfirst and oversliding the bag.

He later stole #101/3b in a double steal and was driven in on a triple by Andrew Aplin.

Congrats Lino!!!!

 

WOOOHOOO GO LINO!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Initially had thoughts of making this a daily feature, but then I remembered I'm in med school. So enjoy this random article that popped up in my head

Intriguing Prospect of the Day: Carlos Perez

Age: 21
Position: Catcher
Affiliate: Lancaster Jethawks (HiA, California League)
Acquired in the 10-player Happ/Lyon/Carpenter trade with the Blue Jays
Season line: .281/.357/.433 in 356 ab’s between LoA Lansing and HiA Lancaster

Since the beginning of the year, the catching position in the Astros’ system has gone from total black hole to reasonably promising. Starting with the early trade acquisition of Jobduan Morales from the Marlins, the Astros front office snatched Tyler Heineman out of UCLA in the 8th round of the draft and followed that by completing the 10-player deal with Toronto that netted Carlos Perez. While the upper minors remain bereft of top catching talent, the low minors now have multiple prospects that project as everyday starters at the big league level.

Entering the 2012 season, Baseball America ranked Carlos Perez the 14th prospect in a strong Blue Jays system. He graded as a 55 (first division regular) with a ‘high’ risk factor. Formerly the top catching prospect in the Blue Jays’ system, Perez’s ascent up the ladder stalled in LoA Lansing last year and he repeated the level this year. Because of that, he was passed on the catching hierarchy by Travis d’Arnaud and A.J. Jimenez and deemed expendable by Alex Anthopoulos. Upon acquisition, Luhnow and crew immediately promoted him to HiA Lancaster. All he’s done there is hit .301/.356/.386 in 92 plate appearances.

The top catching prospect in the Astros’ system, the question becomes: where do we place him next season? Given his age and short tenure at HiA, the easy answer would be to have him repeat Lancaster next season. The flip side is that there are no prospects blocking his path to the majors and his limited HiA numbers suggest he can handle more. The Lancaster effect always has to be considered and thus scouting reports will be crucial in his placement next season.

The even more fascinating component to his placement is his Rule V status. As an international signee with 5 years of minor league experience, he’ll be eligible for the Rule V draft this offseason. The Astros will certainly protect him by adding him to the 40-man roster, but that will start his option years*. The downside to this is that if it takes 3 more seasons for him to reach the majors, he will put the Astros in the position of being unable to demote him to the minors without placing him on waivers. This issue came up this season with Jordan Schafer, who the Astros could not send to AAA without waiving him even though his performance merited it.

All in all, the Astros added a talented young catcher in Carlos Perez. Unfortunately, his Rule V status makes his promotion a complicated roster decision. It’ll be interesting to see how the front office deals with it in the spring.

*Once added to the 40-man roster, a player is granted 3 ‘option’ years in which he can be shuttled back and forth between the majors and minors.

 

Nice write up on Perez.

Thinking/hoping he's placed on the 40 man roster and promoted to AA Corpus for next season. Reaching the majors at some point in 2014 in a backup role similar to how the Reds are handling Mesoraco. That way the Astros would have 1+ year with the option to send him down for more AB.