That's his final line. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Mark Appel done after 5.0 IP. He allowed 2 hits and 1 walk, striking out 4. Travis Ballew on the hill. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cchooks?src=hash">#cchooks</a> up 5-0 T6</p>— Corpus Christi Hooks (@cchooks) <a href="https://twitter.com/cchooks/status/588884817678209024">April 17, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Great to see Appel with another great outing And Correa, wow...just wow I do think if he came up now, he would be our best player
Don't sleep on joe musgrove . He is gonna break out this season and become a top 10 prospect for us .
Brett Phillips went 3-5 with 2 doubles and a triple for Lancaster last night, while A.J. Reed hit his first homer of the year. He also added an RBI double in the JetHawks' 10-7 win over High Desert.
Fisher is still in QC, but I don't expect him to stay there long. That quartet of Phillips, Fisher, Reed and Davis is gonna be an interesting one to watch. I think all 4 have the potential to be on top 100 lists next season. Jacob Nottingham is another interesting prospect to watch, he's off to a solid start. We are finally reaching critical mass in the high minors so it's easy to overlook the guys farther away, but having constant waves of prospects coming in is pivotal in maintaining success. Even is they never help us, they do help us add guys in trades,
Reed and Davis would have to start knocking the stuffing out of the ball, Reed in particular. Bat-heavy guys like those two don't wind up on the list without some serious numbers. Just cause they have the upside of solid/above-average MLer's doesn't mean they're going to get top prospect recognition. Conrad Gregor is a guy I could see hitting .280 with 15-20 dingers at 1b for many years and he'll never make a top prospect list.
Even Luhnow was likely not expecting this sort of breakout. Man, if he hadn't broken his foot and accomplished this last season at AA, there would be not much keeping him from getting to the big leagues except a couple month stint in AAA (if at all). Any "aggressive" promotion will have to have some big league consideration in mind... especially if the big league offense continues to sputter and attendance continues to be at the sucky 2011-2013 levels.
My guess is if Correa continues to tear it up that he will be called up right after the all-star game.
From a marketing and ticket-sale standpoint, this would make the most sense. If the Rockets make a deep playoff run, the Astros are going to struggle to get any sort of major attention till around June... and right about the time when they may be trying to turn the corner and position themselves for a "run", the Texans are going to start up again in August. Thus, that leaves a 2-3 month solitary window for this team to not only show significant improvement, but inspire enough fans who may think about investing in season tickets for years to come. There's still a lot of healing to be done amongst baseball fans in Houston, and this team will need to show them something before they'll all come flocking back in droves. Calling up a "franchise" player mid-season, allowing him to get his first taste, make adjustments, re-adjust to the adjustments made to him, and possibly shine... would create a helluva lot more excitement going into 2016 vs. the obligatory "he's going to be down the first 2 weeks of the season, and be called up after that." I'd still venture to guess that most Houston sports fans (esp. the ones expected to buy tickets) have no idea who Carlos Correa is, and will continue to not know who he is until he not only gets to the MLB level... but starts having success at the MLB level.
If Lowrie is playing well is it really an excuse? Lets say the Astros are over .500, and have some chance to make a postseason push. If Lowrie is playing well is it really the best strategic choice to bring up an unknown commodity and give him significant playing time? We all know the hold him down to get an extra year thing, everybody does it, but if that is the case I think the Astros would have a legit reason to keep him down. Now when they call him up 2 weeks into next season, that's a not so legit reason. Not that I would blame them, we know how this works. FWIW if Correa kills in the minors,I certainly can see a chance he gets here this season. Maybe it would be worth sacrificing that 1 year of team control to have him get his feet wet so he can hit the ground running next year. Virtually all players have an MLB adjustment period, why not get it out of the way.
Preston Tucker is the man. Him, Moran, & Correa are the position players I'm confident will be mainstays for quite some time.
I don't see them giving up a year of control for a SS that looks like he may be a star... I see Correa getting the Bryant treatment up this type next April.
How would Lowrie look at third base? Assuming he is outperforming Valbuena and Correa is ready, that would seem like an option to me.
