Lincecum had hip issues. I’m not aware of it, but with that delivery my assumption is he dealt with shoulder problems which can be traced to his Velo dip. There’s a fine line between mid 90’s and low 90’s. You go from Tor to jag pretty quick. Health will be a factor. What makes Jaime special so young is also something I imagine will come with DL stints.
A pair of Cuban infielders, Alejandro Nunez and Alberto Hernandez, hit their first career homers down in the DSL. Jose Fleury allowed two hits and struck out six in three scoreless innings of relief for the DSL Orange team. Fleury is a 20-year-old Dominican who signed just before Christmas and in his first 22 innings as a pro (6 appearances, 2 starts), he's walked just 2 while striking out 34. Opponents are hitting .202 against him so far.
Colton Gordon allowed a run on two hits, walked one, and struck out five in three innings for the FCL Orange team. Gordon, who was the Astros' 8th-round pick last year out of UCF, should be ready to head to an affiliate once the new arrivals from this year's draft get their assignments.
Still think Brown should be our de-facto bullpen deadline acquisition. Man's turning 24 in a month, and is still tearing apart AAA hitting in the PCL of all places.
J.P. France vs. Reno: 7 IP, H, BB, 7 K Justin Dirden (15) and Grae Kessinger (8) have homered for Corpus so far. The Hooks lead Northwest Arkansas 11-7 in the 6th. Diosmerky Taveras with a nice outing for Asheville: 5 IP, 3 H, 6 K
France won't make it as an Astro, but really glad to see him get the ERA back below 4 after his rough start to the season.
Thought it was a Baseball Reference thing where they update the stats the next day, so I added in the extra 7 innings to get his era to 3.90.
Just saw a couple former Astros prospects signed with other teams. C Colton Shaver (2017 39th rounder) with the Blue Jays and C Nathan Perry (2017 5th rounder) with the Rays. Perry was a prospect I was high on for a couple years and I was really surprised he was released; it’s scary that an org like the Rays picked him up, although he has not hit well so far this season (wRC+ 66 in 85 pa in a hall) despite a low k rate.
I’d like to see Valdez before him. Dude has raked across 2 leagues this year, don’t think he’ll ever be considered a prospect at this point. But I would love to see if the bat translates to the bigs.
France probably has a major league future. He’s apparently homer prone but has proven he can strike guys out in AAA; he has the same k/bb ratio as Hunter Brown. They’ve kept him as a starter but to me he could at least be a Ronel Blanco caliber RP.
Bring in Hunter as the 27th player for the Yankees series. Would be a good experience for him to be at the stadium for that atmosphere.
