That potential AAA lineup is insane now that they’ve added back Lee and Matijevic: C Lee 1B Jones 2B Hensley SS De Goti 3B Julks RF Brinson CF Leon LF Matijevic DH Diaz 8 out of those 9 are legit prospects with everyday big leaguer potential.
Not that it’s anything to write home about, but Tyler Whitaker has seen his ops improve 3 straight months, posting an almost-not-embarrassing .617 in July. If he were able to post a 700 ops with a k rate <35% for August, I think that would be progress to lean on and set him up for a chance to regain a lot of luster repeating A ball again next season.
My updated Astros prospect rankings for July/post-deadline/post-draft: Spoiler: July Prospect Rankings Rk Pos Name Grade Note 1. RHP Hunter Brown 55 Ready to help Houston now 2. OF Pedro Leon 55 Cutting K's is a huge positive sign; star potential and the one player I really didn't want them to trade 3. OF Drew Gilbert 55 Very high on him and anxious for him to get going 4. C Korey Lee 50 Kind of a meh season but didn't look totally overmatched in Houston 5. OF Jacob Melton 50 6. C/1B Yainer Diaz 50 so far so good in AAA, stock still trending up 7. RHP Forrest Whitley 50 I won't give up until he's dead or released 8. OF Colin Barber 50 Stock will drop dramatically if he doesn't get/stay healthy 9. RHP Jaime Melendez 50 I'm a believer, breakout candidate next season 10. OF/1B Ryan Clifford 45+ 11. RHP Alex Santos 45+ Too young for velo drop to be enough to tank his stock, next year will be big 12. RHP Andrew Taylor 45+ Upon further reflection I am high on him, high upside guy 13. 3B Joe Perez 45 Needs to stay healthy 14. OF/IF Tyler Whitaker 45 Showing steady if insufficient improvement; will repeat A ball with a chance to rebound 15. SS Cristian Gonzalez 45 I'm getting optimistic on him again; huge upside and he's progressed even if his slash line sucks 16. RHP Jayden Murray 45 Good pickup from the Rays and will make a great 6th/7th SP for the next 3 seasons 17. RHP Peter Solomon 45 I don't think he's been fully healthy, stock down 18. RHP Shawn Dubin 45 19. LHP Parker Mushinski 45 20. IF Grae Kessinger 45 still a believer, probably not an everyday guy but I do think he'll reach the majors 21. RHP Adrian Chaidez 40 bummed his dominance in High A didn't carry over to Corpus 22. RHP Michael Knorr 40 23. IF David Hensley 40 He is such an odd prospect that it's hard to dismiss the potential even tho he looks like a AAAA utility guy on paper 24. OF/3B Corey Julks 40 underrated 25. OF Justin Dirden 40 Needs to prove it in AAA, but stock is way up 26. RHP Spencer Arrighetti 40 Won't know anything until he gets to 40 ip in AA 27. RHP JP France 40 underrated; he will make somebody a good MR/SP6 28. C Miguel Palma 40 might be breaking out in Asheville; either way one to watch for next season 29. OF Kenni Gomez 40 check back in 4 years 30. OF Luis Baez 40 check back in 3 years Other grade 40: C: JC Correa, Luke Berryhill, Cesar Salazar, Nerio Rodriguez IF: Will Wagner, Shay Whitcomb, Dauri Lorenzo, Freudis Nova OF: Jordan Brewer, Logan Cerny, Kenedy Corona, Alex McKenna, Quincy Hamilton P: Miguel Ullola, Edinson Batista, Julio Robaina, Carlos Calderon, Angel Macuare, Jimmy Endersby, Jairo Solis, Ronel Blanco, Misael Tamarez Grade 35+: C: Juan Santander, Sandro Gaston, Collin Price, CJ Stubbs, Scott Manea IF: Alberto Hernandez, Yohander Martinez, Luis Santana, Darwin De Leon, Alex De Goti OF: Ross Adolph, Matthew Barefoot, Scott Schreiber, Joey Loperfido, Zach Daniels, Marty Costes, Luis Guerrero, Michael Sandle P: Colton Gordon, Ryan Gusto, AJ Blubaugh, Tyler Ivey, Carlos Espinosa, Trey Dombroski, Nolan DeVos, Alimber Santa, Rhett Kouba, Valente Bellozo, Alfredi Jimenez, Tyler Brown, Cody Deason, Austin Hansen, Jonathan Bermudez, Jacob Coats, Jojanse Torres, Diosmerky Taveras, Matt Ruppenthal, Jonathan Sprinkle, Blair Henley, Heitor Tokar, Ernesto Jaquez July was good month for Houston's farm. They didn't lose any major prospects in the deadline, had a few guys have really good months, and added 4 potential studs in the draft. They are probably still 1-2 elite prospects away from seeing their overall farm ranking fall more into the average range, but considering how good their big league team is and how their farm is stratified, they are in good shape.
Justin Dirden is 3-4 so far with 2 RBIs, and is a triple away from the cycle. Up to 20 homers on the season. It is more than time to call him up to AAA. Was hoping we'd make a move or two to help clear space for him in AAA.
I've seen enough. He needs to be heading north on 77/59 first thing tomorrow morning. Justin Dirden 2 homers tonight to give him 20 on the year.
Or you could just say North on Interstate 69. Anyway, thought it was 1 single, 1 double, and 1 homer. Turns out its 2 homers and a double. Very impressive. If I don't see him in AAA sometime this season I will be very angry.
Since 2006, here are the Astros prospects who posted >880 ops in AA (min 200 pa): Enmanuel Valdez Justin Dirden Jon Kemmer AJ Reed Alex Bregman JR Towles Seth Beer Taylor Jones George Springer Ben Zobrist Max Stassi Hunter Pence JD Martinez That’s 5 all-stars (Bregman, Pence, Martinez, Zobrist, Springer), 1 good everyday catcher (Stassi), 3 fringey big leaguers (Beer, Towles, Jones), 2 total busts (Reed, Kemmer), and 2 TBD (Valdez, Dirden). Bodes pretty well for those 2 TBD guys.
really wish we had kept Valdez. Oh well Altuve would be on that list but he was a beast in the minors
Went to the Space Cowboys game tonight. Really cool to watch McCullers and Keuchel duke it out. Couple of things: the stat line for McCullers doesn’t show well, the 3 runs/2 earned was honestly a lot of bad luck and poor decisions/almost errors by the defense. brinson has a ****ing cannon. leon reminds me of bregman/Peña in that he always seems to be trying to do too much. Big at bats came away with strikeouts reaching or swinging for the fence. korey Lee couldn’t get the ball all the way to second on 2 SB attempts. Overall, kinda a boring game. They got 3 runs in 1 inning off some weird singles and bad throws like i said, then we got 3 runs on zero hits, just walks and hit batters haha. the ovation for Keuchel when he got pulled was really cool to see.
What would be the cons of bringing Pedro Leon up and give him some time in CF? With Jake looking like he should be on the 60-day IL, Chas more of a 4th OF type and Dubon as a pure utility guy; would it really impact our long-term future to give Leon an opportunity? I'm a baseball amateur fan, but the clips I've seen he just looks so dynamic as a defender and hitter. Is it possible Click thinks he could have the guy we need already in the system?
The intricacy of MLB roster construction. Pedro Leon isn't rule 5 eligible until after 2024, but bringing him up starts his clock and sending him back down would start using options. Basically they're incentivized to make sure he is ready before bringing him up.
Bringing him up means using a 40-man roster spot (Rule 5 is out the door at this point), then once he's called up to the active MLB roster his service time clock starts, and runs for every day he's in MLB I'm not sure how much of any of this would matter to the Stros if they thought he could contribute right now. My guess is, they don't think so yet.
Leon might still get called up if he produces a .950+ OPS month with an even lower strikeout rate in August, especially if McCormick struggles. Options are far more an issue for fringe-y major leaguers, which Leon very well could be. If a guy never pans out, you could end up losing him via DFAing long before he hits free agency. Regardless, Meyers needs either a trip to the IL or to AAA. People fixate on the arm, but the man has zero power this year, after looking like a guy with some pop last year.
Meyers 1st 15 games vs last 15 (not including tonight, he’s now played 31 total games) .296 .328 .444 .772, 3BB 18K, 58PA .130 .200 .196 .396, 2BB 20K, 50PA He's either still hurt or re-hurt and hiding it (my guess) or the league has totally figured him out (this would suck). Either way he needs a break in SL to work on some things.
Leon is a high enough ceiling player with enough potential remaining development to justify keeping him down until he’s all the way ready. Between his defection, the pandemic, and the way they’ve moved him around so much defensively, I think there’s still untapped potential and a chance he could break out and reach an entirely new level. Don’t want to start his service time clock and potentially waste precious seasons having develop while trying to be the primary CF on a team focused solely on winning the WS.
