He’s not stretched out and with his previous injury I’m sure they didn’t want to push him that hard. All Whitley needs to do is stay healthy and be effective in AAA. He flamed out horribly in his first AAA stint so just being good at that level to end this year would be huge for him. This goes for Whitley and the other pitchers in SL, but imo, the jump from SL to the majors is bigger for the hitters than the pitchers. PCL is a tough league to pitch in.
Yeah I am assuming he was on a 40 pitch limit. My guess is he’ll ramp over his next 2 outings and then be fully stretched out from there. The goal for him at this point is just to stay healthy/effective over the next 7 weeks and set himself up to compete for a big league bullpen spot or be next in line for a rotation spot starting next spring. Whitley will benefit from the extended AAA schedule (this year starts the new normal of playing AAA games thru September).
For SL players, it is half the time extreme hitters park, half the time extreme pitchers park. Hitters against Hunter Brown in SL have an OPS of 0.507. Granted, they are only doing an OPS of 0.591 on the road against Brown. It is amazing that Brown has an opponents OPS less than Maldonado in while playing on the road. Dubin is extreme with a home opponents OPS of 0.389 and a road one of 1.077.
I’ve read SL is regarded as a pitcher’s park but haven’t seen any MiLB park factors corroborating that.
BA has runs at 78% of average. https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/minor-league-baseball-park-factors-2021/ The splits data on the SL hitters is huge. Meyers may have been only guy to be able to hit there so far. Diaz is rocking a 0.196/.274/.339 at home and a 0.322/.355/.0729 on the road. Leon is more normal, but he's still 0.213/0.348/0.338 vs 0.255/0.386/0.537. I think people would view Leon differently if his OPS was reported as 0.923 which is likely more comparable to OPS numbers of past Astros AAA players that are now Astros.
Fangraphs ranked the prospects the Astros traded away at the deadline 36, 41, and 49 of all prospects traded. Of course Siri was probably the most valuable asset they sent out and he is not represented on the list, but all in all consensus seems to be Houston addressed their needs without giving up much. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/ranking-the-prospects-traded-during-the-2022-deadline/
Interesting that Valdez was rated #36 as they had been holding out on calling him a prospect all season prior to this trade. Notable is that Murray is the 15th rated prospect on that list and worth ~ Valdez and McDermott combined using their FV rankings.
Really wished Astros could've kept Valdez. Really wanted him to make it to our roster next year or so. Ah well.
His bat may compare to Jose Abreu but at 5"9" he is limited to 2B manned by Jose Altuve for the next 2 years or 3B manned by Alex Bregman the next 2 years. And not as good defensively as either. He was VERY VERY expendable
I've heard this logic before (that he is blocked at 2B and 3B), but why could he not have been a DH for us? It just seems like we are trying to rationalize trading an offense-first prospect, which while I will agree have a higher probably to bust (as they cannot fall back on any other tools), we also can't ignore that in the realm of possibilities, this kid can end up being an offensive force at the big league level.
There is nothing wrong with your point. You are right. But the team can not trade for new players without giving up players. And the high potential ones are the ones other teams want. If a player is going to be traded, I prefer it is one that does not have a clear fit or role with the parent club in the near future. On the other hand, I can see someone arguing that the player acquired needs to play more to justify giving him up. Or someone saying he was too much to give up in return for Vazquez. Another thing to consider is he will need to be put on the 40 man roster to be protected from the rule 5 draft in December. After free agents, there will be 35 players on the roster leaving 5 spots. If the team decides to resign/extend Verlander, Montero, Brantley, Yuli, Mancini, Vazqyez, or Diaz reduce that 5 accordingly. Any other FA signings to replace those players will also come out of the 5 remaining spots With those 5 or fewer spots: Hunter Brown, Yanier Diaz, Jayden Murray, David Hensley, Jordan Brewer, Corey Julks, Luke Berryhill, and others must either be added or risked being drafted away. Of course guys like Josh James and Jon Bermudez, etc could be non tendered to open spots. But the point is there is a very good chance they could have lost Enmanuel for nothing if he wasn't traded
He may have been expendable but for a rental backup catcher? Why not let him play in the big leagues next year build his value and the leverage him into another big leaguer with years of control. A proven Valdez along with Whitley or Brown could have had a decent return. In regards to his defensive postion, yes it would have been a struggle especially considering Yordan will probably occupy DH and of course Bregman and Altuve. It would have been nice though to give a backup role with a target of 200-300 ABs to build value and to prove what he can do.
