Carlos Espinosa followed 3 IP, 3H, 1R/ER, 1 BB, 4K 21 year old Cuban signed for 450K, and is arguably the Astros top pitching prospect still on the complex. Luis Baez went 2-4 with a walk. Kenni Gomez was 1-5 with a stolen base.
AA OF now has Gilbert, Barber, Loperfido, Corona, and Daniels with Jordan Brewer rehabbing in the FCL. Solid group.
No one on the Fayetteville active roster has a current batting average above .242. An absolutely brutal lack of talent. That will hopefully get fixed by the end of the year between the upcoming draft and complex guys moving up, but for now this is by far the weakest lineup i can ever remember seeing an Astros affiliate put on the field.
Zach Cole hit his 8th home run of the year for Fayetteville, but he might be trending toward becoming Logan Cerny 2.0
Not too concerning, although of course it’s not ideal. It’s a bi-product of injuries (Whitaker), disappointment (Gaston and Lorenzo), losing 4 top draft picks, and aggressively placing and quickly promoting some of their top prospects (Dezenzo, Gilbert, Melton, Clifford). The other rosters, including the complex league rosters, are pretty healthy, so even though Fayetteville’s position player roster pretty much sucks right now, the farm depth overall is still pretty good. Like I said, I am hopeful this is remedied by the end of the year and their lineup could look something like: CF Kenni Gomez SS 1st round 2023 draft pick LF Luis Baez 1B 3rd round 2023 draft pick 3B Tyler Whitaker DH 5th round 2023 draft pick C Sandro Gaston RF 7th round 2023 draft pick 2B Dauri Lorenzo Bench: Ricardo Balogh, Luis Encarnacion, Frank Perez, Hector Nieves That would be a LOT more talented than what they ran out today.
Miguel Ullola probably had one of his better outings of the year for Asheville: he allowed just one hit (RBI single), walked four, and struck out eight in four innings.
I could see Leon, Barber, Dirden, Whitcomb, Arrighetti and Ullola getting traded to add a difference making bat and pitching.
Actually the 22 draft class has moved up faster than in the recent past. In part because it was a pretty good draft and in part because there was not much resistance from above for them to have to work their way past. Between this years draft and promotions from Florida there could be space needed for a couple of dozen new faces in A and AA ball. Players will have to be moved up and a few will have to be released. There is no reason for concern in Fayetteville. I am concerned about Sugar Land like I have not been in years. I wish my memory was still good enough for more specifics but there was a time when prospects ended in AA and AAA was filled with tired, angry non prospects. The kind you really did not want to expose your hopeful youth to. Right now I could count the promising prospects in Sugar Land on one hand and have a couple of fingers left over. I am sure there could still be a surprise or two there but that well has been drained nearly dry.
There’s more than 5 “promising prospects” in AAA just on the AAA side. Lee, Leon, Dirden, Perez, Whitcomb, and Hamilton are all young for the league and have strong statistical track records prior to AAA. All 6 of those guys are in at least one major Org top 30 prospect list. Lee, Leon, and Perez were all major bonus amateurs. There’s guys who are taking longer to break into the majors than expected; a significant reason for that is the depth of the big league roster, but also because several of those prospects rose very (too?) quickly to AAA and so were ahead of the development curve. Every AAA team the Astros have had has fielded 2-3 older guys like Machado and Matijevic and Madris.
The Luhnow Astros were pretty resistant to signing minor league free agents. Players like Machado, Madris, and Bannon seem at least in part driven by a willingness to tinker with depth a little more. The shortened 2020 draft probably hurt as well, giving the Astros player development team fewer shots on goal. McCormick, Meyers, Bielak, France, and Myles Straw were all 10th round or later picks that helped shape the current roster.
I definitely agree that the 2020 draft hurt the depth. I would have to go back and look to see if the Luhnow era AAA teams had a lot fewer AAAA guys; I did look up CJ Hinojosa and he was a Click decision. edit: Luhnow-era AAAA guys in AAA (2015-2019): Tim Fedorowicz, Danny Worth, Juan Centeno, Alex Presley, Eduardo De Oleo, Eury Perez, Reid Brignac, Rico Noel, Austin Dennis, Luis Flores, then there were a boatload of internally developed AAAA guys who were in AAA in their late 20s.
The only pitcher I know of who came in was Casey Coleman in 2017, but he had his contract purchased from an independent league. Sugar Land currently has one of those: Kyle McGowin, who played with the Nationals from 2018-21 (48 appearances).
Well - memo to self, don't try to sneak anything inside and on the hands of Gomez.... Bat speed is not going to be an issue.
