They have very little pitching in their system, and outside of a few top heavy players I am not impressed with their system. I could be wrong though, and there is no way to tell what the future holds.... it wasnt long ago they had Willis, Prior, Wood and Zambrano in the minors and if you told me that they all would flame out I would have told you that you were crazy.
I wonder if any of the players acquired in the past year will be a decent 1st division regular. Not saying we gave up much to get any of them, but it makes you wonder.
I was trying to figure out who I was forgetting. I thought about Ben Heath, but at this point, his playing time isn't that important. Heineman, is someone I like a lot and want to have getting plenty of PT. I guess I'd put him in Quad Cities and have him as the primary catcher mixing in Morales about 40% or one game a series with the other getting time at DH. I remember a time when we didn't sweat playing time for our minor leaguers.
Assuming only players acquired via trade, the pitching is definitely the strong suit. The guys we got from Toronto and Peacock all have high ceilings. As for the regulars? I think Stassi has good potential to be an above average catcher (Mike Napoli with a better glove). Carlos Perez could be solid. Chris Carter definitely has the potential, since he basically was for Oakland in the 2nd half last year, though he struggled down the stretch. If you throw in Freiman from the Rule V, he has a decent shot. Anybody else would surprise me. A guy like Grossman could be good enough, but as an average role player. Heck the offensive players for the Giants the last few years haven't really seemed like 1st division regulars, and they've won 2 WS (albeit with different offensive players).
Here's how I think the catchers in the system will shape up in the full-season ranks: OKC: A journeyman, until/unless Stassi's performance warrants a midseason promotion Corpus: Stassi/Rene Garcia/Ben Heath, with Stassi getting about 80% of the playing time at C; Perez comes on board in July/August Lancaster: Perez/Pena Quad Cities: Heineman/Morales (though I think given Heineman's last half-season with Tri-City, Lancaster isn't out of the question)
OKC will be Wallace. I'm eager to see if he can regain the power we saw early on. He needs to hit if he wants to make it, since he's Mike Piazza behind the plate. Before Stassi, I figured Perez would be in CC and Heineman in Lancaster.
Last year was pretty disappointing, but he did skip Lancaster, and played much better 2nd half of the season. With Castro being in the Majors, and 2 catchers now in the system ranked ahead of him, it is easy for him to be an afterthought.
Baseball America: The 32nd Team A few Astros mentioned in this section, which is a supplement to the Prospect Handbook. This probably means that Mier and Ovando dropped out of the top 30, though.
Just ordered my copy. $20 on Amazon is definitely worth it. Do you subscribe to the magazine or premium content on their site? Always wondered if they were worth it.
Nah. I did sign up for some of their newsletters when I pre-ordered the Handbook through them, though.
Astros sign 2B Carlos Perdomo In a depth signing, the Astros signed 2B Carlos Perdomo to a minor league deal. A native of Venezuela, Perdomo, who will be 23 on April 25, was originally signed by the Phillies in 2007 and was in their organization up until his release at the end of last season. In 2012, he spent the year in Low-A, with Lakewood, and in 54 games, he hit .251/.304/.312 with 1 home run and 12 RBI. Perdomo also walked 13 times, struck out 12, and was 7-11 on stolen base attempts. I suppose that he'll fill the void left by Alex Todd's retirement.
This article is a week and a half old. But nonetheless, Appy Astros profiles some GCL and DSL players who could see time in Greeneville this upcoming season, depending on midseason roster movement and the draft.
MLB.com Top 20 20. Carlos Perez 19. Joe Musgrove 18. Robbie Grossman 17. Kevin Comer 16. Max Stassi 15. Asher Wojciechowski 14. Vince Velasquez 13. Domingo Santana 12. Jonathan Villar 11. Nolan Fontana 10. Brad Peacock 9. Nick Tropeano 8. Rio Ruiz 7. Mike Foltynewicz 6. Delino DeShields 5. Lance McCullers 4. Jarred Cosart 3. George Springer 2. Carlos Correa 1. Jonathan Singleton
Pretty standard list. It seems kinda lazy to put out his top 20 list so long after BA, Sickels, Law, etc. It's the usual combo of top 100 players and high draft picks. I think the top 9 players in some order has been agreed on by every ranking. The only ranking that stands out is Kevin Comer at 17. He's done almost nothing to live up to his supplemental first round draft status last year. It's true he was a cold-weather pitcher and needs longer to adjust, but he probably shouldn't be on the list then. He only put up 49.1 ip in his first full season.
This list gets updated on the fly. The last update took the Lowrie trade into consideration. See Brad Peacockat #10.
It does get updated after trades but wholesale re-rankings usually happen infrequently. When Dominguez joined the list in the Lee trade, he was in the top 10 based on his 2011 top 100 ranking not his at-the-time prospect status. Mayo's rankings are what they are. I don't think they add much to the conversation nor are they considered any good compared to Sickels and BA.
Assuming that Brian Smith's projected starting rotation (Norris, Harrell, Lyles, Humber, Bedard) ends up being accurate, what do y'all project as the rotations at AAA Oklahoma City and AA Corpus Christi? Lots of pretty decent to very good arms there. Seems like there's a plethora of No. 4/No. 5 MLB-caliber starters in the upper minors: Jared Cosart Brad Peacock Alex White Rudy Owens John Ely Kyle Weiland??? I'm missing many others Also, where are the younger top(ish) pitching prospects going to pitch?
Back of the napkin ... AAA Rudy Owens Wes Musick Brett Oberholtzer Asher Wojciechowski Matt Heidenreich Edgar Gonzalez Ross Seaton Bobby Doran Jarred Cosart Jose Cisnero Brad Peacock Alex White John Ely Kyle Weiland Dallas Keuchel AA Blair Walters Colton Cain Nick Tropeano David Martinez That's 19 pitchers for normally 10 slots. Obviously some of the pitchers I have in AAA will start in AA. Luhnow mentioned that the AAA and AA starting rotations will use "piggybacking", essentially making a 5 man starting rotation 10.
