The DSL Orange team beat the Royals' Fortuna team 13-5 in the game from yesterday that was suspended. Anderson Arenaimo, an 18-year-old Venezuelan IF who signed at the start of the current IFA period, went 3-6 with an RBI single and his first professional home run. Edwilmin Matos went 3-5 with an RBI single in his pro debut; he is a 17-year-old outfielder from the Dominican Republic who signed last month.
Underrated prospect. Hes not a future ace or anything but he’s another pretty high floor pitcher who should able to help the big league team as a BoR SP or multi inning reliever at some point.
This attribute alone makes Janek intriguing. He also has a double thus far. Currently sitting at .293 BA and an .816 OPS. I expect him to be in Corpus relatively soon.
He should be there this week. There is an opening for a catcher in AAA and filling that should create an opening in AA for Janek to fill.
Will Bush hit his 9th home run of the year for Asheville. Jeron Williams has rejoined Corpus and hit his first home run of the season.
Wes Clarke Positions: First Baseman, Designated Hitter and Catcher Age: 25-247d drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 10th round of the 2021 MLB June Amateur Draft from University of South Carolina
Hopefully that means they DFA Rodgers. No need for him on a team w/ Altuve, Dubon, and Guillorme. Edit: He was just optioned 3 days ago. They can't recall him unless a position player goes on the I.L.
Only guess is that Caratini is hurt, unless Rodgers had off the field injury. Everybody else played last night. I have always wondered if players on the roster bubble are tempted to get “injured” to buy themselves a few weeks of big league pay.
Bush on full season pace for 30+ HR and 20+ SB with a 16% walk rate. His only questions are k rate (27% in high A) and defensive value. But his stock is climbing very quickly. If he gets up to AA and keeps his k rate under 30% he’s gonna be a real prospect, especially if he gets a good amount of time behind the plate. Hes only 21; it’s worth noting that since 2006 no catcher age 21 or younger has gotten more than 50 pa in AA for the Astros. Only 8 22 year olds have, and 5 of them reached the majors.
The catcher everyone was wanting to see in AA, Garret Guillemette, homered in his first game as a Hook. Other promotions this week included Julio Rodriguez (25 y/o minor league rule 5 pick) to AA, Patrick Halligan (Montero trade) to AAA. Edwin Diaz was pulled mid game for the Hooks and sent to AAA, presumably to replace Whitcomb.
Obviously depends on what happens at the trade deadline, but once the draft passes and pushes a wave of prospects promotions up the chains, I will feel really good about where this farm sits. June has been a really good month for player development so far. For as many players as Houston has on the IL, only 4 meaningful actual prospects are currently hurt (Melton, Forcucci, Dezenzo, and Nezuh). The pitching is very very deep throughout the system. The lower level rosters have plenty of talent on the position player side. The additions of Guillemette, Williams, and Baez dramatically improved the talent level on the position player side in Corpus. Post-draft additions of (hopefully) Sullivan, Nunez, and Janek will round out their roster nicely. The AAA lineup may be weak over the 2nd half, especially if the trade deadline takes from there and guys don’t get/stay healthy. But to me having a weak AAA roster is a lot better problem than having a weak AA roster, because AAA rosters can be so easily fortified with AAAA guys who have legitimate chances to contribute to the major league team. Things looked kind of bleak in early May but now I’m back to where I was in March: this farm is really only 1-2 elite prospects away from being an above average system.
If Melton wouldn’t have gotten hurt we might have been able to trade high on meyers for one decent one. If only.
