Anybody been paying attention to this guy? He absolutely blew through single A, posting sick numbers, and is off to a great start at Corpus as well. http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=P&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=547568 For those of you who don't know (this move pretty much went under the radar in the offseason), he's a 22-year old that they pulled out of Taiwan, and from what I remember when we signed him, I didn't get the sense that he was a hyped-up player over there or anything. As far as I know, this was the first time the Stros have brought over a player from Asia, and it's early obviously, but it looks like they may have picked a gem. Pretty impressive. Props to Glenn Barker (former Astro and current Director of Scouting in Asia), and to anybody else who had a hand in this. Should be fun watching his progression and hopefully he pays big dividends for us down the road.
I read about his progress on Levine's blog this morning. I didn't realize he was only pitching in relief.
I remember hearing about it last offseason, but thinking little of it. The more you look at it, the more you realize Ed Wade and his staff had done a pretty damn good job in a short period of time rebuilding the farm system. It's far from fixed (are there any decent offensive prospects in the entire system that don't play catcher? Don't say Andrew Locke because he's already 26 and still in AA). But when you look at this kid, the staff at Lancaster. Bud Norris and Yorman Bazardo at RR. You have to have at least a little hope that the future won't be nearly as terrible as many have predicted.
yep, we have pitching at every level, which is what matters most. and we had nothing a year ago. granted, we still have virtually no sticks throughout the system, but a couple more years of drafting and trading will ideally remedy that before/if they are needed in the bigs. even though we won't be big sellers at the deadline, i think the smartest plan of action, and something all fans would be satisfied with, would be trading valverde and maybe moehler, and bringing back a prospect or two to file into the system. the fact that the bourn/lidge trade has turned heavily in our favor really puts into light what a great job wade and co. have done.
Lo had a rough outing tonight. He took the loss in relief. 0.1 IP, 1 H, 3 BB, 0 K, 4 R, 2 ER, 1 E (pickoff attempt) http://www.cchooks.com/statistics/default/g_box/2009_06_29_coraax_friaax_1/
I'm currently working in Taiwan, and saw him pitch a couple of times in the Olympic games. Assuming I'm not getting him mixed up with any of the other pitchers, he's definitely a fastball type pitcher, and was a reliever here as well. Looking at the stats that were posted, looks like he had 2 bad outings at the AA level, but otherwise everything looks good. Pretty good # of strikeouts, would like to see him get the walks down a bit though.
Lo warming up: <object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GCih3s_81Fs&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GCih3s_81Fs&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object> Striking out a batter: <object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VySlGfWemjw&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VySlGfWemjw&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>
Chan Ho Park #2. All these pitchers from Asia always flame out. One good year and then they are done. Dice K was supposed to be IT, the sox payed $50 mil just so they could negotiate with the guy. He's been a huge dissapointment IMO.
Dice K went 18-3 with a 2.90 era and 154 K's last season; he was also 4th in the Cy Young vote. He has a career winning percentage of .630 in 69 games. Excluding this season (in which he's been injured all year) he's been pretty damn good. I fail to see how that's a) a flame out or b) a huge dissappointment. You could say he's been a slight disappointment given that his "gyro" pitch was supposed to dominate baseball but no one is looking at him and thinking he's a bust. A guy who averages 16.5 wins, a 3.65 ERA and 177.5 K's in his first two years is a frontline starter. He may not be worth exactly the ~$17m/year the Red Sox are paying (salary+posting) but he's close. He's an ace on half of the teams in the league.
Bouncing from team to team and spent the last few years in the minors, before being brought back up last year.
