lulz. By the way, that's his fiancée. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>I feel your pain, Texas league hitters. I haven't scored on Jake Buchanan this month either > <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23June8">#June8</a></p>— Chelsa Messinger (@ChelsaMessinger) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChelsaMessinger/status/340288502740697090">May 31, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Ok prospect comparisons: What is your best and worst case scenario for the following: (feel free to add your own) Carlos Correa George Springer Delino DeShields Jonathan Singleton Jarred Cosart Lance McCullers
Thursday Stories Organization sweep! Again! Astros upper affiliates blast the Royals upper affiliates. Jake Buchanan... just unreal. Lancaster appears to be unstoppable. Recap Oklahoma City 8, Omaha 1 This game went on as scheduled, as the storms that pounded the OKC area moved out. The Redhawks proceeded to pound the Storm Chasers on the field. Asher Wojciechowski rebounded from 2 rough, rough outings to throw 6 strong innings. He allowed a run (on a solo homer) on 3 hits, walked 2, and struck out 4. Although I'm not too enamored about his ball/strike distribution (95 pitches, 50 strikes), it was a good start. Kevin Chapman worked around a hit to retire the side in the 7th. Ditto for Josh Zeid. Rhiner Cruz struck out 2 in a 1-2-3 9th. Robbie Grossman made his way back to Oklahoma City. As the CF, he went 0-3 with 2 walks and 2 runs scored from the leadoff spot. Jake Elmore hit an RBI single in the 3rd. Marc Krauss hit an RBI groundout, and Che-Hsuan Lin got an RBI on a squeeze bunt in the 4th. In the 5th, Brandon Laird hit a sac fly, and Fernando Martinez hit an RBI single. Lin added an RBI single in the 8th, and Carlos Perez drilled a 2-run double. Martinez and Perez had 2 hits apiece. In the finale of this shortened series, Brett Oberholtzer will be on the hill for OKC. He will take on Nate Adcock at 7:05. Corpus Christi 5, Northwest Arkansas 0 Sweep! Jake Buchanan continues his mastery of the Texas League, as he tossed another 5 shutout innings. He allowed a hit and fanned 4. Carlos Quevedo tagged in and finished up a 3-hitter, allowing 2 hits, walking 1, and striking out 4. Jio Mier finished 2-4 with an RBI double in the 3rd that put Corpus on the board first. Rene Garcia followed that up by blooping an RBI single to score Mier. George Springer was temporarily in a tie for the Minor League home run lead after Lynchburg's Robby Hefflinger (Braves) homered, but he quickly regained the lead with a solo shot in the 6th, his 16th of the season. Erik Castro sent one out in the 7th (solo), his 5th. Domingo Santana brought in the final Hooks run on a force play in the 8th. The Hooks are making their way to Little Rock, where they'll take on the Arkansas Travelers. They're doing it in the middle of a massive storm. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>No idea why we are driving in a bus right now. Middle of a Tornado warning and heading to Little Rock, AR <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23stupid">#stupid</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23Caliboy">#Caliboy</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23outofmyelement">#outofmyelement</a></p>— Drew Muren (@JustDrewIt760) <a href="https://twitter.com/JustDrewIt760/status/340315822050385920">May 31, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Ohhhhh myyyy!!! Please pray for us, we're driving with tornado warnings and everything heading towards our destination! <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23weliveforthis">#weliveforthis</a></p>— Enrique Hernandez (@kikehndez) <a href="https://twitter.com/kikehndez/status/340317321610555392">May 31, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Well, Bobby Doran and Nick Tropeano will be on the mound for Corpus in their series opener with Arkansas. They will be opposed by Nathan Hynick. Assuming that conditions improve, first pitch will be at 7:10. Lancaster 15, Visalia 2 9 in a row. The Jethawks are absolutely clicking now, guys. They scored in every inning except for the 1st and the 8th and pounded out 16 hits in what amounted to be a laugher. Everyone in the lineup had a hit and an RBI. Everyone scored a run except for Telvin Nash. Despite this onslaught, the only home run hit by the Jethawks was a 2-run homer from Matt Duffy (8) in the 5th. This was the scoring, in order: Chris Epps hit an RBI triple in the 2nd that scored Preston Tucker. After that, Jean Carlos Batista hit an RBI groundout and Delino DeShields had an RBI single. In the 3rd, Tucker hit a sac fly. Joe Sclafani had a 2-run single in the 4th, then Duffy took Kyle Schepel deep in the 5th. M.P. Cokinos hit a sac fly in the 6th, and then they blasted the game wide open with 6 in the 7th with RBI singles from Andrew Aplin, Cokinos, Tucker, and Nash. Finally, Epps capped it off with a 2-run double. Epps doubled twice, tripled, and drove in 3. He also scored twice. Tucker extended his hit streak to 13 games with that single. He also walked twice and scored twice. DeShields finished 2-4 with 2 walks and 2 steals (12). Sclafani also went 2-4 with 2 walks, which snapped a 3-game walkless streak for him. Aplin went 2-5 with 2 runs scored and a walk. Duffy was 2-3 with 2 walks and 4 runs scored. For Cokinos and Nash, their singles were their only hits. Jean Carlos Batista finished 2-5 with a double and 2 runs scored. As I mentioned earlier, Tucker is the first player in the system to 50 RBI. Lost in all of that was Kyle Hallock's excellent outing. He threw 5 shutout innings and allowed a hit, walked 1, and struck out 5. Luis Cruz went 3 innings and allowed 2 runs on 3 hits (solo homer), walked 1, and struck out 3. Tom Shirley finished it out, allowing 2 hits and striking out 1. Blair Walters and Aaron West will be on the hill for game 2 of this 4-game series. The Jethawks will look to make it 10 in a row at at 7 Pacific. Walters and West will be opposed by Keith Hessler. Quad Cities and Kane County was cancelled The field at Modern Woodmen Park was deemed to be unplayable. This game will not be made up. The River Bandits will now begin a 10-game road trip. First stop: Beloit for 4. Jordan Jankowski and Brian Holmes will face Raul Alcantara in the opener. First pitch is at 6:30. Three Stars 3. Carlos Perez, C, Oklahoma City 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI, R We could see Perez in Houston in September. 2. Tonight's starters Asher Wojciechowski, P, Oklahoma City Jake Buchanan, P, Corpus Christi Kyle Hallock, P, Lancaster Wojciechowski: W(2-2; 4-3 season), 6 IP, 3 H (1 HR), ER, 2 BB, 4 K Buchanan: W(6-0), 5 IP, H, 4 K Hallock: W(3-0; 4-0 season), 5 IP, H, BB, 5 K Wojo with a solid rebound effort after two rough road starts. There's not much else I can say about Buchanan... he's just eaten the Texas League alive. Lost in that offensive outburst was an excellent start from Hallock. We all know it isn't easy pitching at The Hangar.... lest we forget, he tossed 5 perfect innings in his Lancaster debut. 1. Lancaster Jethawks 15 R, 16 H, E Well, that was fun. The Jethawks have scored 81 runs in their previous 9 games. They've won all of them. This is by far the best lineup in the system, 1-9. Corpus may have The Springer and Santana Show, and Quad Cities has Carlos Correa and (for now) Jonathan Singleton, but everyone's a threat in the Jethawks lineup, whether it's Preston Tucker, Delino DeShields, Nolan Fontana, or even Joe Sclafani. Honorable Mentions Carlos Quevedo, P, Corpus Christi: Had a very good outing as the piggybacker despite being overshadowed by Jake Buchanan's awesomeness. Rhiner Cruz, P, Oklahoma City: He's been shelled twice since being optioned to OKC. Otherwise, he hasn't allowed a run. Jio Mier, SS, Corpus Christi: Sooner or later, his luck should turn for the better. The one constant is that he's still drawing walks at a healthy clip. Goat Nobody was absolute crap tonight.
This season there seems to be an unusually high number of what I'd consider "organizational depth" players having good/exceptional years.
This might be because of Luhnow's emphasis on player development. The 2012 draft was also completely amazing, after the fifth round. Luhnow had an amazing number of hits in the lower rounds.
OKC area getting pounded by torrential rains again. Asher Wojciechowski's mother tweeted that there have been tornadoes in the area. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Please pray for OKC, tornadoes on the ground! <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23Lordprotection">#Lordprotection</a></p>— Carol Wojo (@CarolWojo) <a href="https://twitter.com/CarolWojo/status/340628946691428353">June 1, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
But what does that mean? How has he fundamentally changed the way the prior-regime's prospects developed so much so that their current results are orders of magnitude better? It's stunning to think that simply changing GM completely changes the performance/career trajectory.
Jonathan Singleton with 3 homers in 3 games. Broke a 1-1 tie in the 14th with a 2-run shot in Beloit.
On the downside, he was 0-5 with 3 Ks, doing his best Telvin Nash impersonation. Correa with 3 more hits.
Yea... the HR's are nice but in the end his stats at LoA are pretty much worthless to me. This is basically an injury minor league stint for him. It's just to get him into playing shape. If Bryce Harper hit .200 in a 10 game injury tour at AA, you'd just roll your eyes and wait to see what he does back in the show. I feel the same way about Singleton; lets see what he does when he gets sent to AAA.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Carlos Correa is hitting .350/.422/.525 in his last ten games.</p>— Astros County (@AstrosCounty) <a href="https://twitter.com/AstrosCounty/status/340704642264625154">June 1, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
It's possible, but given that he'll be 18 all season, I think he'll probably stay in the Quad Cities all year.
The Dominican Summer League kicks off its season in the morning. The DSL Astros will look to have a better showing this year, as they went 22-47 last season. They will host the DSL Mariners at 10:30 Eastern. The Dominican Republic observes Atlantic Standard Time year-round, but Eastern Daylight Time is the same time. This post, from way, way earlier in this thread, is a review of what the Astros did during the previous international signing period. Here is their roster. Interestingly, the big-money signing from last year, OF Luis Payano ($500,000), is not on the roster.
Last season in the minors, Luhnow slowed down the promotions and emphasized wins and losses. After the draft and when the shorts season leagues started, you could see the same emphasis. The draft last year, as I previously stated, was phenomenal, especially in the lower rounds. Mot of the draftees played the short season leagues. Luhnow did not placed the draftees aggressively. And the short season teams did really well. At the trade deadline, Luhnow was able to able to land an amazing haul of new players, who again were conservatively placed. We are seeing the result of last year trades more this season than last. The trades have crowded the long season teams (loA to AAA) so much that Luhnow had to resort to piggybacking their starting rotations. This has in effect created a hyper-competitive environment for the pitchers.
If Villar gets promoted from AAA, my best guess is that Fontana in hiA gets promoted to AAA and Correa get promoted to hiA from loA as long as Correa is not slumping. I think that this is a 50/50 proposition. After the trade deadline in August, Luhnow might set Cedeño free and call up Villar, if Villar deserves a merit promotion. If not, Villar will certainly get called up in September (after the AAA playoffs, if necessary) but that would not require minor promotion to back fill Villar's spot in AAA and thus would not trigger a promotion for Correa.
