Former Astros prospects projected in the top 500 MLB position players or pitchers for 2021: Laureano, Stassi, Davis, Ruiz, T Hernandez, Kemp, Moran, Fisher, White, Phillips, Arauz. Laureano is a star. Stassi, Davis, Ruiz, and Hernandez project as average starters. The rest are bench players. Musgrove, Houser, Sandoval, Velasquez, Hader, E Hernandez, Cisnero, Feliz, Armenteros, Alcala, Bukauskas. Musgrove is a mid-rotation starter. Hader is an elite closer. Houser, Sandoval, Velasquez, and Hernandez project as BoR SP. The rest are fringe starters or middle relievers.
Any reason he didn't play last season? The catchers for Tigers couldn't hit last season and Rogers appears to be a better defender.
Though still about as good as guys they had this last season. If you aren't going to hit, might as well have the better defender.
Per BA, AA , A advanced, and A levels have officially been told their seasons will be delayed, likely to May. Their spring training won't start until major leaguers are gone from their complexes. Their seasons will extend to October and there won't be playoffs.
Baseball America Top 10 1 Forrest Whitley 2 Luis Garcia 3 Jeremy Pena 4 Alex Santos 5 Bryan Abreu 6 Tyler Ivey 7 Korey Lee 8 Hunter Brown 9 Colin Barber 10 Grae Kessinger This looks more reasonable than most years from BA. Very heavy on production (as can be with current farm system) over tools especially with Nova off the list. On tools, I probably should say projection instead. Nova needs to learn plate discipline which is something hard to learn and will get abused until he learns it in the upper levels. Hunter Brown, while light on production, likely has the pitch movement and velocity that tends to do well at upper levels already despite not being there.
I was a bit concerned about Nova, but I think the fact that the Astros protected him in the rule 5 draft having only a mediocre season in A ball suggests the Astros are still high on him. Hopefully he's made some strides during the lost season. Has anyone seen a recent scouting report on him?
Nova still has upside. His falling off the Top 10 either suggests it was an accident (I'm a little surprised he dropped off), Astros have had other prospects improve more (doubtful there is enough info for this), Astros internal views have changed, or the league in general view of him is lower. I doubt the Astros views have changed much on him, but expect it has league-wide. He's always looked like a prospect a few other teams would value more than the Astros (though Astros have been prioritizing MLB talent during the Pax Astros). Also, BA usually reflects average league views on a player which is still too much projection for low level players, IMO. Edit: A 5th option is that BA may be incorporating Statcast Data and statistical analysis more to supplement scouting and sources.
So in a chat, Badler at BA said Nova was still having pitch recognition issues in instructs, and looked to have lost some athleticism.
Hard to believe Nova isn’t in the top 10. Whatever they based that on had to be pretty limited intel. Slightly disconcerting though. Also surprised Jairo Solis wasn’t in the top 10.
Jim Bowden of The Athletic had 1 underrated prospect for each team. Houston Astros Rainier Rivas, 1B/LF Age: 19 B: L T: L HT: 6-3 WT: 224 Scouting grades: HIT: 55 PWR: 70 RUN: 40 ARM: 55 FLD: 45 Rivas was acquired by the Astros at the July 2019 trade deadline in a deal with the Angels for catcher Max Stassi. In his first two years of minor-league baseball, he’s slashed .305/. 415/.379. And although he hasn’t hit for power yet, his raw power on a scouting scale is 70 out of 80. Rivas was signed by the Angels out of Venezuela in 2017 for $200,000. He has the arm to play right field and the defensive ability and legs to be better suited for left field, although we can’t rule out his ending up at first base, either. The bottom line is the bat is going to play and the light-tower bulbs will be in jeopardy once he’s fully developed.
I'm not sure if I've seen stats of a superior worm killer. His BABIP is through the roof indicating he hits ball hard, but hits grounders twice as often as flies. Hardly ever pops up. While pop ups are bad, they happen to hitters that elevate the ball and hit homers.
My updated "Astros of the Future" roster after adding Pedro Leon: C Korey Lee 2022 grade 50 1B Taylor Jones grade 45 2B Dauri Lorenzo 2025 grade 45 SS Jeremy Pena 2022 grade 50 3B Freudis Nova 2022 grade 45 RF Colin Barber 2023 grade 50 CF Pedro Leon 2022 grade 50 LF Chas McCormick 2021 grade 45 DH JJ Matijevic 2022 grade 40 UT Grae Kessinger 2022 grade 45 C Nathan Perry 2022 grade 45 OF Jordan Brewer 2023 grade 45 IF Joe Perez 2024 grade 40 SP Forrest Whitley 2021 grade 55 SP Bryan Abreu grade 50 SP Hunter Brown 2023 grade 50 SP Alex Santos 2025 grade 50 SP Shawn Dubin 2021 grade 45 SP Brandon Bielak grade 45 RP Tyler Ivey 2021 grade 45 RP Peter Solomon 2022 grade 45 RP Jairo Solis 2022 grade 45 RP Jojanse Torres 2022 grade 45 RP Ty Brown 2023 grade 45 RP Angel Macuare 2024 grade 45 RP Blair Henley 2023 grade 45
AL West has very weak farms except for the Mariners. Astros, A’s, and Rangers each only have 1 BA Top 100 prospect. Mariners have 5, including 2 of the Top 5 prospects overall. Astros QA on BA: https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/houston-astros-2021-top-mlb-prospects-chat/ Not much there. Badler says Leon would be outside the Org Top 10 which sounds crazy to me. He also provides examples of pitching prospects who took awhile to breakout so some optimism for Whitley. I’m anxious to see how Brewer and Daniels do, as both guys have elite power/speed combos.
Astros aren't perfect. He would be a fringe Top 100 if he was judged on how Astros have acted. It seems that Leon is being judged solely on views of other teams who didn't see him closely. Also, it seems like his Cuban stats are completely being ignored due to sample size. However, if someone did what he did in Cuba in the same number of at bats in A Advanced, they would be a Top 100 prospect.
https://www.mlb.com/amp/news/freudi...ie-program.html#click=https://t.co/L43aH1KIGE Nothing of note in the quotes, although it may be notable that Houston sent Nova to the rookie program ahead of other recently added prospects like Tyler Ivey and Jairo Solis.
