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Villar is a man on fire right now. Hopefully around the ASB we start hearing some scouting reports from OKC. The Villar numbers are so encouraging, and I'd love to know if his approach at the plate has matured. If that's changed and his defense has progressed, then we have a serious prospect on our hands.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Jonathan Villar is on fire tonight. He's 3-3 with a HR, 2B, SB and 3 RBIs for AAA OKC. He's up to a .308 AVG. <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23Astros">#Astros</a></p>— Sean Feist (@native_astro) <a href="https://twitter.com/native_astro/status/330141511616430080">May 3, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Saw another that said he was up to 4-4
In Villar's last 17 games he has a line of .437/.4521/.704 with 8 steals and 1 caught stealing. Pretty solid
That is more than solid. Anyway, Cedeno's time is limited here. With Mier looking miserable, Orloff being more than qualified to fill the SS position at OKC, and Fontana banging on the door to AA, would seem natural that Villar is our starting SS by the All-Star break if not sooner. Of course, assuming he keeps his healthy #s up. His fielding still looks shaky. BTW, Villar's b-day is today. 22 years old.
Because he's still only 22, I don't see a need to rush him. He's started slowly at every level and it just wouldn't be productive to bring him up and let him get chewed up by MLB pitching. Better to let him dominate AAA for a lot of ABs while working on his defense.
Thursday Stories Jonathan Villar is just in a different realm at the plate right now. The recently-disbanded team of Asher Wojciechowski and David Martinez continue their dominance individually. Warmly welcome, Max Stassi! Recap Oklahoma City 9, Nashville 1 7 in a row, and the Redhawks sweep the Sounds out of Bricktown behind the bat of the birthday boy, Jonathan Villar. After Nashville took a 1-0 lead in the 4th, OKC ran off with 9 unanswered for the victory, beginning with 3 in the bottom of the inning. Villar, who is celebrating his 22nd birthday, has been on an absolute rampage over the past couple of weeks, and tonight, he was 4-4, finishing a triple shy of the cycle, with 5 RBI, 3 runs scored, and a steal (8). He put the Redhawks on the board with a 2-run double in the 4th, and he would score on a balk. In the 6th, he sent out his 2nd home run of the season, and finished off his night with a 2-run single in the 7th. He got support from Jimmy Paredes, who went 3-4 with an RBI triple in the 5th, and Carlos Perez, who was 2-3 with a 2-run single in the 7th that brought Villar and Brett Wallace home for the Redhawks' final runs. Marc Krauss was 0-2, but walked 3 times and scored twice. Asher Wojciechowski, on 3 days of rest, went 4 innings in his AAA debut, allowing a run on 3 hits, walking 1, and fanning 5. He threw 69 pitches (40 strikes). C.J. Fick (2 H, BB in the 5th), Jason Stoffel (1-2-3 6th), Josh Zeid (perfect 7th and 8th with 3 whiffs), and Jose Valdez (1-2-3 9th) silenced the Sounds. Oklahoma City will be on a weekend getaway as they begin a 4-game series in.... Iowa. Brett Oberholtzer will take the mound in game 1, which will start at 7:05. The Cubs will send out Drew Carpenter to oppose him. Corpus Christi 6, Midland 1 On a frigid evening at Whataburger Field, the Hooks jumped on the Rockhounds early with 4 in the 1st and tacked on 2 more in the 4th for the win. They fired the first shot with a double steal; George Springer (5) took 2nd, and Austin Wates (10) stole home to put Corpus on the board first. Springer came home on an RBI single from Domingo Santana, and then Max Stassi, in his first at-bat as a member of the Astros organization, took Arnold Leon deep. Springer added an RBI single in the 6th, and one batter later, J.D. Martinez hit a groundout that scored Wates. Austin Wates finished 2-3 with those 2 runs scored. David Martinez was without his buddy Wojo, but he fared pretty well, throwing another 5 shutout innings, allowing 5 hits and striking out 2. He still has yet to allow a run of any kind as a starter this season. Jorge De Leon finished the game, allowing a run on 3 hits, walking 2, and striking out 2. Corpus looks for the sweep, and they'll call on R.J. Alaniz and Matt Heidenreich to get it for them. The two of them will face Josh Bowman at 7:05. Lancaster 5, Inland Empire 4 The Jethawks evened up the home-and-home at 3 apiece. They looked as if they'd get the win handily, as they held a 5-1 lead, holding the 66ers to an unearned run on 1 hit through the 7th. But then, Inland Empire sprang to life to in the 8th. After Chris Devenski got the 1st out of the inning, he started to come undone, as he served up back-to-back solo shots to Zach Borenstein and Andy Workman. The situation would then snowball as he walked Zach Wright, allowed a single to Joel Capote, and walked Eric Stamets to load the bases. Travis Ballew came on allowed a sac fly to Alberto Callaspo, which brought IE to 5-4. He got out of it by punching out Alex Yarbrough to end it. The 9th was a little less hairy for Ballew, although he did issue a walk and hit a batter. But, he got Zach Wright to ground out for the victory. Tyler Heineman was 1-3 with a double in the 8th and a sac fly in the 2nd. Nolan Fontana was 2-5 with an RBI single in the 5th, and came home on a Matt Duffy groundout later in the inning. After Heineman's double, M.P. Cokinos drove him in. Of the 10 games that Cokinos has played, he has a hit in all 10, and in 8 of them, he had 2 hits. Preston Tucker was 2-3 with a double and a run scored. Brady Rodgers was excellent in his 5 innings, as he gave up an unearned run on 1 hit, walked 1, and struck out 2. Chris Devenski sailed through the 6th and 7th, but as mentioned earlier, he hit the wall in the 8th, as he allowed 3 runs (1 inherited) on 3 hits (2 solo homers), walked 3, and fanned 2. Travis Ballew was called on to save the day. He got a 5-out save, allowing one of Devenski's runners to score, walking 1, and striking out 1. Sigh of relief. Also: For every run they score, Inland Empire blasts a train horn as if they scored a goal. It is the absolute worst. Drowns out everything. At least the Jethawks won't have to come back until the 4th of July. Lancaster will now drive 55 miles to begin the 2nd leg of their roadtrip: 4 with High Desert. From listening to Jethawks games, they're allowed to drive there and back. If the distance between two teams is greater than 100 miles, then they have to stay in whichever town they're in. Tyson Perez and David Rollins will take on TBA. South Bend 6, Quad Cities 4 The Silver Hawks got 2 in the 8th to condemn the River Bandits to a series loss. Jesse Wierzbicki went 2-3 with a solo homer (3) in the 3rd and scored twice. Ryan Dineen pulled a Fontana, as he hit an RBI single in the 7th and drew a walk with the bases loaded in the 1st. That walk was one of 4 on the evening for him. Jobduan Morales also had an RBI single in the 7th. Joe Sclafani and Roberto Peña drew 2 walks apiece. Mike Hauschild allowed 4 runs (3 earned) on 6 hits, walked 1, and struck out 1 in 4 innings. Mitch Lambson struck out 1 in a 1-2-3 5th. Colton Cain took the loss in his 2+ innings of work, allowing 2 runs (both in the 8th, 1 inherited) on 4 hits and striking out 2. John Neely finished out the 8th, striking out 1. The 1 run came off a groundout. The River Bandits will look to avoid the sweep, as they play the series finale at 7:35 Eastern. Jordan Jankowski and Brian Holmes will be the pairing; South Bend will counter with Brandon Sinnery. Three Stars 3. Brady Rodgers, P, Lancaster W(2-1), 5 IP, H, R (unearned), BB, 2 K He's had the worst luck ever. Entering this start, he had a .423 BABIP. That's 100 points above the California League average. On the other hand, he also came in with a strand rate of almost 80%, according to FanGraphs. Seriously. I hope this outing signals the start of some better days for him. 2. David Martinez, P, Corpus Christi W(3-0), 5 IP, 5 H, 2 K This guy's untouchable! As a starter, at least. He ain't too shabby as a reliever, either. Martinez survived Lancaster and all of a sudden he's pitching as if he's the top prospect in the system. But like I've said, if he can survive Lancaster, then pitching everywhere else seems rather pedestrian. 1. Jonathan Villar, SS, Oklahoma City 4-4, solo HR (2), 5 RBI, 3 R, SB (8) Happy birthday. I'd like to see him in Houston at some point this year... just not by June 15 or something like that. A realistic ETA would probably be closer towards the end of the season, depending on whether OKC is in the playoff hunt at that point. But... if Marwin (who's regressing; he'll always be a pretty marginal hitter) and Ronny Cedeño (whose presence on the Astros still perplexes me) continue to stink up the joint, then there might be some clamoring for new blood at shortstop. Honorable Mentions Max Stassi, C, Corpus Christi: Warmly welcome! Asher Wojciechowski, P, Oklahoma City: Handled himself very well in his first exposure to AAA. Now, if he continues to pitch like he did in Corpus, does he see Houston in September? Jimmy Paredes, wherever they're putting him these days, Oklahoma City: Well, he doesn't seem to need more AAA seasoning... unfortunately, there's no place for him in Houston at the moment. Ryan Dineen, 3B, Quad Cities: Doing the Fontana earns you a spot here. Nolan Fontana, SS, Lancaster: So when's a good time to move him to Corpus? Carlos Perez, C, Oklahoma City: I imagine that we could see Perez in Houston for a cup of coffee in September. Goat It appears no one's being fooled by Colton Cain. At this point, I'd rather see him work out his problems in extended spring training and move someone like Luis Ordosgoitti or Lance Day up to Quad Cities.
No. I'd rather stick with Dominguez. Villar is mistake prone defensively, and I don't expect moving to 3rd to be helpful.
Carlos is still 3-4 years away. I'm thinking that Fontana is about a year behind Villar though. Glad we now have a DH option.
I don't care how bad his reads are, you will never be able to convince me that somebody as fast as Villar can't be a competent outfielder if he can't become a more reliable infielder. Certainly better than J.D. and Carter.
