Jason Alexander looked pretty good today. Time to bring him back up. Can’t be worse than what we’ve been seeing.
Yeah the thing about Gordon and Alexander is it seems like they’d at least be able to give 4+ innings of fairly competitive each start. Astros desperately need 2014 Scott Feldman right now.
Yeah I went to the game today and immediately was confused why I was watching the Astros second best starting pitcher in sugar land. But in all seriousness we just need innings rn.
Nolan DeVos @ Greensboro: 4 IP, 2 H (solo HR allowed), 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K Everyone in Fayetteville's lineup recorded a hit in their 10-6 win over Charleston. Josh Wakefield went 3-4 with 3 stolen bases, while Xavier Neyens was one of five players with two hits on the day. Neyens also drew two walks (one with the bases loaded) and scored two runs.
I’m sure there would be a way to find it, but I can’t imagine there’s many guys who reached that exit velocity as a teenager (let alone in their first 15 professional games) that didn’t turn into a legit top 50 prospect at some point.
My opinion: If he maintains a k rate below 30% he is likely a top 100 guy, if he keeps it below 25% he will be top 50 or better. But there’s plenty of guys who could hit the ball that hard who never amounted to anything because they struck out too much.
2 prospects catching my attention in the early going are C/1B Will Bush and P Brett Gillis. Bush is carrying a 24% walk rate thru 29 pa, with a 185 wRC+. He also is still seeing some time behind the plate, which is meaningful because there are 3 other catchers on the roster who have better defensive reputations than Bush does. Bush walks a ton and hits for power, and while he strikes out quite a bit, it's because he's waiting for the right pitch and taking a high % of called strikes, rather than swinging and missing. That approach can go 1 of 2 ways as he faces better pitching: he will either start seeing more strikes and pitches he likes, and his power numbers will go up while his k rate and bb rate goes down, OR pitchers will find his weakness and throw pitches he can't hit for strikes, in which case his k rate will go up enough to make him not viable. I doubt he will be an everyday C, but if his offense peaks he could be an everyday 1B, or he could be a fringe regular playing between C and 1B. But based on what he's shown so far, he should at least be a bench player who can be a backup or 3rd catcher and who punishes mistakes on offense. It's also worth noting that Bush is only 22, which should give him a little longer runway to develop and reach his ceiling. Gillis has monster stuff and so far has a 35% k rate without allowing a walk. His sample is very small and with his injury history he will always carry increased risk in an inherently risky category, but his ceiling is high enough and he is close enough to the majors that he is worth watching his every appearance. Cole Hertzler is another pitcher worth watching. I'm hoping he gets to AA next month where he will be in a position to really break out.
Gillis is 26 so hopefully he does get a shot this year and stays healthy. Would love to see his stuff in the majors
Joey Mancini is getting bumped up to AAA to take Gordon’s start tonight. Mancini was off to a really good start to the season out of Corpus’ bullpen.
Walker Janek was 1-23 to start the season; tonight, he went 2-3 with a two-run single and an RBI ground-rule double in Corpus Christi's 8-4 win over Northwest Arkansas.
