The Astros have the one of the best minor league development staffs in all of baseball. Look at Yanier Diaz.... His BB to SO numbers are improving rapidly. Insane power. Is Korey Lee even the best catching prospect in our farm system? The Astros need to get this kid some AB’s this year.
I think the Astros don’t keep it emotional. Though It figures that a guy drafted higher will be better overall, if said prospect flounders the Astros take their losses and focus on the better option if there is a better talent in the system. Valdez, Urquidy, and Garcia never had much fanfare regarding their potential; I guess a few minor league gurus would have seen these guys as legit potential Ace talents, but I didn’t read much about how they were bonafide MLB starters. When most of us were focused on Forest Whitley, the Astros kept developing the guys paving their own way. Also look at Jeremy Peña, most of the nations media and many Astros fans thought the Astros were crazy for being so comfortable letting Carlos Correa go, but the Astros knew what they had in Peña. It’s mind boggling that only Verlander, Altuve, Bregman, Gurriel, and McCullers were on the 2017 title team. And it’s even crazier to think McCullers and Altuve are the only two left from the 2015 playoff Astros who took KC to the limit and we’re the only legitimate challenge to the Royals that postseason. Astros keeping it competitive is a testament to the organization due diligence and quality.
Diaz may be our very best offensive prospect right now, but he's not a major league catcher defensively as is, and they put extreme value in game managing there. Korey Lee has only played catcher, Diaz has basically been splitting time between catcher and other positions. He may get called up for his bat because it looks impressive AF, but he will likely be a DH/1B/3rd catcher.
He would have so much value to this team as a serviceable defensive catcher to pair with the offense. Any idea on what exactly he is missing in your mind? I don’t see him getting PA over Yuli in a playoff setting.
Honestly, I read it the exact same way, and then I re-read it, and in all fairness, he said "3rd catcher" and not "3rd" by itself, but since "catcher" wound up on the next line, it did get me initially, too.
The backup catcher only usually catches 40-50 games, so Diaz could still have a lot of value even if he isn’t a top notch defensive catcher. Catch 40-50 games, DH 50-60 games and maybe log another 20-30 games at 1B and that gets his bat in the lineup full time. Of course if there is a chance he develops defensively into a plus catcher, his value goes up a LOT more so I’m more than willing to be patient with him for that potential payoff.
What are the chances that his bat plays up to make him a top 10 first baseman? If he’s that while catching 45 games to keep Lee off his knees that’s a hell of a player.
I think Carlos Santana is a very good ultimate ceiling comp for Diaz. He was not a good defensive catcher but his bat was good enough to justify him, and in modern times he would fit great as a guy primarily backing up C and hitting well enough to be a top 10 1B. For one thing I would guess Diaz could eventually be a plus defensive 1B if he played it enough.
I would agree if we keep him in the minors for another full season and he develops as hoped. If he fails to take the next step we will have wasted a year of his bat that should play very well at DH or at 1st base, Alvarez looks like he can play in left field or at DH so getting Diaz's bat in the line up could work a couple of ways. I am not as patient as I would like to be.
Would be thrilled if he turned into Santana, looking at this career numbers it’s crazy he was only an all star once
Really cool story about Wladimir Sutil, who was a career minor leaguer in the Astros system. He's currently a development coach/1B coach for Sugar Land and he finally made his big league debut as the temporary 1B coach during the Angels series.
Bielak was pulled after 2.2 scoreless innings. Was he hurt, or was it just a matter of not being stretched out anymore? I know we have a lot of outfielders, but I would love to see the following moves happen: Logan Cerny from Fayetteville to Asheville Colin Barber from Asheville to Corpus Justin Dirden from Corpus to Sugar Land I love Corey Julks, but I think it's best to trade him somewhere where he can get a shot (like we did with Papierski), as I don't see it happening here. Also, with the draft coming up in 2 weeks, some moves will have to be made. I hope all 3 moves I listed previously happen soon.
Agree completely but in order to make those moves some upper level OF prospects will need to be released, and I think that needs doing anyway. I would start with R Adolf, W Abreu, A McKenna, L Brinson, M Costes, & C Julks.
yes, let's release a guy with a .500 on-base percentage (and he did that playing virtually every day before landing on the injured list) and another guy with one just under .400 and is just discovering his power at 23 years old
Brinson could probably be traded for a complex-league lottery ticket. Costes and McKenna aren't terrible but they just can't stay healthy, so they're probably outta here. Julks needs to go somewhere else to get playing time.
I think Alex McKenna is the most likely release candidate. Or maybe a demotion back to Asheville. He turns 25 in two months, and was a 2018 draftee. I previously had high hopes for him very early on, but he has not progressed past the High-A level. He was actually demoted from AAA to AA, and still has not hit. As far as Julks and Abreu go, both strike me as throw-in players if we make a trade.
Brinson, Barreto, Edwin Diaz, and Scott Manea seem to be 4 pretty obvious release candidates if room is needed for promotions. Brinson might fetch some cash considerations from another team. Costes and Bryan Arias would be next in line. There’s enough non-prospects still in the system that nobody with any ceiling should be released and nobody is prevented from moving up when warranted. Guys like McKenna and Julks aren’t getting released this season. Julks probably has real trade value at this point.
