He is the poster child for "there is no such thing as a pitching prospect" He and AJ Reed are the 2 guys I've completely been the mostest-wrongest about.
I agree. Something seems to have changed - hard to improve your walk rate, K rate, and power all at the same time through dumb luck. A very fortuitous development for Brown.
It's Whitley, Reed and Frankie Tuesday in that order. Maybe Tim Redding going back a couple decades. But yeah- Reed is my biggest miss on the prospect side. Stuff I was right about- I was adamant Yordan was going to be an all star, mvp caliber potential HOF type guy when he was coming up- just beside myself. Maybe I was wrong on Correa too- I thought he'd be a HOF type. If you'd have offered me Jeter's career for him (numbers wise- not RINGZ!!!!) I'd have said no thanks- I think he's got more in him. Correa, instead, has merely been very good and not a HOF'er. I think the guy I was surprised the most by in a positive direction was Springer. I just didn't believe in him being a consistent all star b/c I thought he had too much swing and miss. He did. But he fixed it. At the big league level. That's rare. If Loperfido can do the same I think he can have a Springer like career but I'm betting against. Bregman 17 and 18 surprised me. If you take that away which looks like anomolies related to juicy ball this is about what I'd have expected from him. Lots of wonderful surprises with unheralded Astros pitchers during the Luhnow era. What a gift that guy was. And still giving with Blanco this year basically as a rookie and looking like a legit Cy Young contender.
I assumed Reed was going to be a quasi-lite Thome/Ortiz: BB/K/Power with a decent to good average. Oops. I was on (so was Nolan!) the Whitley bandwagon before we drafted him (and I called that draft pick, btw). He's the best HS pitcher i've ever seen. It just seemed to all crater at once for him.
I've given up on pitching prospects and 1B prospects. LMJ is the one top prospect pitcher we've had that has actually had success with us. Thankfully guys with lower expectations have developed into legit players.
His velo was down from his previous outing and he had no command. But he did not give up any hard contact, all the hits were on softly hit balls, so likely some bad luck there.
I didn't think we should consider trading him for Freddie Freeman because I thought he was basically the same player at a fraction of the cost. Freeman's only hit .311/.401/.542 since.
Thanks for doing this- I was thinking about doing it and just didn't have enough knowledge of a lot of those guys. I think about it like this- at any time in the org you need the following: 2 guys hit ace level 3 guys that hit solid 3/4 level, 5 or 6 guys that are BOR/long relief types. As stands right now: Blanco (can't believe I typed that but he's an allstar right now and if this keeps up he will be top 5 in cy young), Framber Solid 3/4 type- JV 3/4 type because they go out and either pitch like an ace or sort of suck- Arrighetti, Brown, Luis Garcia (when healthy), LMJ (when healthy) Brown is one more month away from me graduating him to the Ace level. I have always believed in the talent. He's right on schedule for what I thought he'd be BOR type- none healthy right now. Future wish casting for guys I have an opinion on: Ullola- potential ace- big upside- potential flameout. Bloss- I like him a lot- I don't see ace upside- I see him a lot like I see Arrigehtti- I bet he maximizes and becomes a fine 3rd starter in the majors. Blububaugh & Gusto- I think between those 3 guys you will likely get 2 guys that will be fine in the rotation and 1 guy who doesn't make it- France- BOR if he's healthy. So- that's it- really you need Brown to graduate to ace and 1 guy from the minors to hit ace level and you are fine- then you don't have to spend $40M a year in the open market or make a painful trade to make it happen. We are in better shape, I think, than many think we are as an overall organization. Signing Tucker or Framber and trading the other for a boatload this trade deadline would do a lot to raise the floor of the future. We are missing studs. But maybe a couple develop. I just don't see a Yordan or Tucker or Bregman or Correa in the minors. I see some guys that could have a Springer like career if they can make the leap he did in cutting out strikeouts and that would be helpful (Loperfido & Leon to name a couple). This org develops well. I think we will be able to mint Meyers and Chas and Pena types somewhat regularly.
This does not totally apply anymore, but I'll never forget Gerry The Hun's maxim: develop pitching and trade the surplus for hitting
You'd know much better than me: what's his pitch arsenal now? Has he dropped maybe 2 of the 7 pitches he was using last we saw him?
Savant shows he has thrown 5 different pitches his last 2 outings. https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/player-scroll/game?gamePk=751485&player_id=666215#power_sets
I think it's actually almost backwards now- draft and develop up the middle studs- trade them for pitching when your window starts to open. If what The Hun was really saying was get out of a pitching prospect when their value is high and go instead with a hitter I agree completely now.
I guess it's too early to know, but what's getting hit? With his frame and angle, he strikes me as a 4S way up or way down, cutter down (or sinker, don't know what his grip is, don't need both and there's not totally much difference, but that should be his #1 pitch), curve, changeup to the LHB. Hell if I know, I haven't seen him pitch in 3 years or so.
He gave up hits on 3 different pitch types last night but that was all soft contact. Until Whitley has several months of staying healthy and consistently pitching, it’s really hard to judge him. Right now we’re talking about 2 short outings after a(nother) lengthy injury layoff. Other than showing he is still throwing upper 90s consistently, there nothing to take away from it. He needs to stay healthy and pitch.
Whitcomb seems like he could be similar to some of the Cardinals players a decade or two ago. Four years college, four years minors, come up at age 25 or 26 and give you a good four years of solid major league play. Guys like David Freese and Allen Craig come to mind.
Looks like the Astros signed Keoni Cavaco, who was the 13th overall pick in 2019 and was released by the Twins last week. He is still only 23. He was drafted as a SS but is currently labeled a 1B.
