I saw that Colin Barber was placed on the 60 day DL, so I'm assuming his injury was serious. I haven't seen any news on it. If he is out for the year that's a really bad break for him and the Astros as he is one of their highest ceiling prospects. Freudis Nova sure is struggling over the last month. Hopefully just an interim phase where the adjustments he is being told to make are proving frustrating for him, but he is not making any hard contact right now and striking out far more than he ever has before. I am starting to think Miguelangel Sierra might have a chance to reach the majors. He can handle all 3 infield spots and has good speed and power, plus he takes walks when they come to him. He strikes out too much to be an everyday major leaguer, but I would like to see him given a chance to play everyday for another season or so before giving up on him completely.
I kind of glossed over it in the article that mentioned Meyers the other day, but apparently he hit a HR 110 mph. I don't think there's a handy max exit velo to raw power grade, but I think that is around least plus. Only Correa, Yordan, and Taylor Jones have hit a ball harder this year. I'm hersitant to react too much to a 25 year old in AAA, but he's certainly very intriguing. I wonder if there is a point in which they would put him on the roster, of if he's waiting for McCormick/Straw to get injured or regress to be called up.
Per Future Value book, Max EV Raw Power Grade 118 80 116 70 113 60 111 55 110 50 108 45 106 40 103 30 100 20 Astros as a team hit the ball hard often more than they just really smack the tar out of the ball (Alvarez, Correa, and Tucker being exceptions who do both)
There are 29 pitchers who have thrown at least 30 IP in AA wit ha FIP of 3.5 or less, but there are only nine similar pitchers in AAA. What is it about AAA that makes it so hard on the pitchers? The parks? The lineups have more depth since they serve as reserve squads? It just seems extremely hard for pitchers to succeed in AAA (even ones that dominate AA) while position players typically do pretty well when they graduate to AAA.
A lot of Coors Field wannabe stadiums plus MLB ball has made pitching in what is now the AAA West very difficult.
It is worth a look for sure, I would only caution that I said it a few years ago after the Bregman, Tucker promotions...... the Astros lacked guys that were "top 10" but they had a lot of depth and players that could turn into well above average starters in the big leagues. The Astros knew their system was good, and were not concerned about the rankings. I think that there are some good players in the lower minors as well that were held back because of COVID, but we will have to wait and see.
The ranking services are always behind the times, and the internal valuation of teams varies drastically from projection services and even commonly held advanced metrics. At the end of the day, for teams that are huge on advanced metrics, scouting and raw measures. From everything I have heard around people that are involved in the game, the Astros coaches and scouts involved in player evaluation are excellent. The Astros, Indians, Dodgers and Padres are the teams I consistently hear mentioned with the Astros being more common than the others.
Skeeters playing another game of batting practice in Oklahoma. 10-0 Skeeters with 19 hits and still in the 7th inning Meyers is on fire 3-5 tonight bringing his season numbers to : 315 AVG and 1.007 OPS Siri hit his 7th HR Papierski is 4-5 with 2 doubles and a HR Matijevic is 3-4 with 2 doubles and has his average at .353 with a 1.127 OPS
Would anyone be upset if Leon ends up as a similar player to Ramon Laureano? A guy who might hit around .250 with some swing and miss but who will hit for power (around an .800 ops) and play very good defense. I'd honestly be pretty thrilled with that outcome. I know we all want him to be a 1.000 ops superstar outfielder like Acuna but that's just not all that likely no matter how naturally talented of a prospect he is.
Of course I’d be thrilled if Leon ended up as good as Laureano. But I don’t think Leon will be as good on defense as Laureano, so he’d need to be a better hitter to make up for it.
AAA: Sugar Land Skeeters (25-15) AA: Corpus Christi Hooks (18-23) A+: Asheville Tourists (18-23) A: Fayetteville Woodpeckers (15-25) So whats up at lower levels? Bad year or did we deplete the talent there?
