Joe Musgrove and Keegan Yuhl joined forces to throw a 2-hit shutout as Corpus beat Tulsa 2-0. They faced one batter over the minimum. Mott Hyde drove in both Hooks runs with a solo homer in the 3rd and an RBI single in the 7th. Evan Gattis was the DH and he had a double in 4 ABs. Musgrove: 5 IP, H, 4 K Yuhl: 4 IP, H, 3 K
The way the starting rotation is pitching, with exception to Dallas Keuchel, Joe Musgrove will be up eighths Astros sooner than later. I would live him in the Minors for another month then bring him up. Hopefully McCullers comes back soon also.
I haven't kept up closely with McCullers injury, I hope it is not serious, but I have doubts since his name came up in the off-season during trade rumors for a closer. Maybe concidence, but a Keuchel McCullers Musgrove Front 3, sounds appealing without any trade included. Maybe throw in Daulton Jefferies if he is drafted in June, for the stretch run lol (joking). In another note, Astros need to start finding an offensive catcher, especially playing in the AL. Someone like Zack Collins from Miami sounds intriguing. Only question is his game calling skills. I've heard he has gotten better defensively though.
Musgrove only has 12 starts above low A. No need to rush anything, if he's still beasting a few months from now and a spot is open, then you can call him up. I put Francis Martes in the same boat, although I think Musgrove would be ahead n the pecking order. As is, I don't see a pressing need to replace any of our 6 starters at the MLB level. All of them are MLB proven, and worth giving a long look before throwing a wild card into the rotation.
Keegan Yuhl impressed at Lancaster last year where pitchers usually struggle to put up good #'s. Will be interesting to see if it carries over to AA this year. Another low pick 35th round gem?
Great to see him off to a good start in AA. Probably a reliever but if he does well this season he will definitely have a future in the bigs.
The strikeouts are what is so impressive to me about Musgrove. He always profiled as a MoR/workhorse ceiling, but sitting people down like he has been doing is raising that ceiling.
Musgrove has been clock around 95-97 now. He was a guy that was raw at Toronto and hadn't mature yet velocity wise & strength. You could say that the Astros might gave gotten lucky as far as Musgrove becoming this good of a prospect if he keeps it up. Crossing my fingers he can become that 3rd starter for the Astros.
Nice to see Kyle Smith back on the mound. David Paulino: 5 IP, 3 H, unearned run, BB, 4 K, 64 pitches (45 strikes)
Albert Abreu struck out 7 in 2.2 innings for Quad Cities. The downside was that he threw 4 wild pitches, which resulted in 2 unearned runs.
Not the best opening week all around. That Corpus staff is going to be sick if guys like Yuhl and Smith keep that up. Wojo is done. I wish they'd DFAd him over Reynolds. QC and Lancaster could be in for long seasons.
