I am not very knowledgeable about pitching prospects in general but even less so about guys in the lower levels. Generally all the guys from the last draft have looked good and the quick promotion for Hicks is a good sign, but until we get 40 innings from him in AA I won’t know much.
Cesar Salazar is having a very good season. He has elite bb/k numbers and an insanely low 7% swinging strike %. He has a very good defensive reputation and enough experience in the minors to be a viable emergency option at 1B, 2B, and LF. His current AAA production would paint him as a somewhat similar hitter to Dubon, maybe a little less speed but a little more power. He also hits lefty. He is very unlikely to be any kind of major impact player in the big leagues, but he may have taken a step forward to be an excellent big league backup catcher or 13th position player.
He had a horrible babip last year in AAA and an exceptionally high one this year. I would say his truth would be somewhere in the middle. Around a .760 ops guy in AAA. His iso is over .200 on the road and under .075 at home this year.
I am not sure what’s up with Sugar Land’s or the other AAA stadiums but it seems like all those guys have wonky home/road splits. If Salazar is benefiting from some hitter friendly road stadium then he may project more like just Dubon with less speed, which for a defense-first backup catcher is still solid.
I noticed that w/ Leon and some other guys last year. Home/road splits that really stand out. Don't know enough about anything to form an opinion. Leon OPS 2024: home .726 / away .967 2023: home .657 / away .908 2022: home .653 / away .921 I don't have the OPS+/wRC+ splits so not sure how that works out for park adjusted but it stood out to me.
If I remember correctly Constellation Field might be the most extreme pitcher's park in all of baseball (majors or minors).
The Astros claimed RHP Alex Speas off waivers from the A's today. Speas is a former 2nd-round pick of the Rangers out of the Georgia high school ranks and made his debut with the Rangers last year, going 0-2 with a 13.50 ERA in three appearances. He started the season in the White Sox organization before he got DFAed and then was traded to the A's for cash on April 6. Big arm with the wild variance in his results to match. Corey Julks was DFAed in the corresponding move.
Very surprised Julks was the one to get DFA, he was doing decent in AAA this year and a nice depth guy to have. With Loperfido and maybe Leon coming up I guess we were getting a log jam of OFers on the 40 man.
I wouldn't be surprised if we sign him back on a minor league deal. The pitching side of the 40-man being decimated kind of forced this...
The best thing about DFAing Julks is that he is no longer in the way of giving guys who don't have to duck to keep from scraping their ceiling an opportunity if an OF is needed. One less obstacle in the way of Leon.
