Excited to see how Alvarez and Franco perform. Aggressive assignment for Alvarez especially. Not the path Duarte was hoping for this season. Good sign for Cesar to move up, although they also just really needed a 3B. There's a jam in the rotations AA/High A. Winkelman, Deemes, and Garza have nothing left to show in A ball, but there isn't really any place for them in Corpus, likely until the deadline. LaRue and Hartman could also probably stand to move up to High A.
This makes me a bit wary of Almonte since he and Duarte appear to have similar skill sets: good athletes who have shown some ability with the bat but haven't settled on a defensive position yet. Almonte does seem to avoid the strikeout a little better than Duarte does (16.2% career vs. Duarte's 28.2%), so I think I'd put him ahead in the hierarchy.
For now I'm much higher on Almonte (definitely wasn't the case last season), and not just because of their current trajectory. Duarte has more speed and is probably a more versatile and better defensive player, but Almonte has a chance to be a more well-rounded player. Almonte also has a little more size to work with. Moving up to high A will be a good indicator of how legit this breakout is. For the vast majority of prospects AA is the real proving ground, but for these younger international position players, I think A ball numbers have some good value. Middle infield is looking rather weak in Houston's farm, so a true breakout for a prospect like Almonte would be great. Anibal Sierra has busted so far, and the upper levels are manned by org guys (Brignac, Wolfe, Nunez, etc.). Of course there could be a big wave of talent en route, with a crop of big money international guys still in the DSL/EST (M Sierra, Arauz, Nova, Cueta). I suppose there's also a sliver of hope that Kristian Trompiz can get back on track, since he is now in AA, but last year was pretty ugly for him.
Framber Valdez allowed 2 hits, walked 1, and struck out 5 over 6 shutout innings in Buies Creek's 4-2 win over Myrtle Beach.
Bummer for him, but as a super late pick he can walk away knowing he exceeded all expectations and got as close as you can get.
This is sad, sad news for me, as he is at the core of my team name in the 3 team league. We will play the rest of this season in his honor. And will continue to dominate.
Not sure if I mentioned this before, but has anyone else noticed that Tucker is getting batted balls in the air at a much greater frequency? I know getting batted balls in the air is the trendy thing in the majors. Tucker has decreased his GB% from 43% to 32%. His HR/FB % isn't that much higher this season than last year in Lancaster. Hitting 33% more fly balls helps to hit 33% more home runs all else being equal.
Yeah, I remember people suggesting he could contribute next season, or maybe even that season. But my expert knowledge of sabermetrics extrapolates that when you walk more guys than you strike out,you may struggle to have good results.
Never really understood the hype around him. I think even the organization had high hopes for him going into last year.
It was thought he had one elite skill that immediately translated, getting lefties out. If you are a prospect and people think you have something that will help an MLB team very quickly, you get noticed. Apparently he didn't have that skill, or any others. We sure could uses a guy like him right now.
Hector Perez -- 6 innings, 5 hits, 0 walks, 0 runs, 7 Ks. He had struggled with walks in his other Hi-A appearances, so good to see him put up a zero in that column.
Looks like 2014 37th rounder RHP Eric Peterson was also released. He was a fast rising reliever who topped out at AA. With him and Yuhl being released, 20 players from the 2014 draft are still in the system; 3 in AAA, 12 in AA, 2 in High A, and 3 in extended spring training (assuming Ben Smith, Ruben Castro, and Robert Kahana are still in the system).
With Freeman's release, there are 19 players from the 2015 draft left in the system; 1 in MLB, 1 in AAA, 3 in AA, 10 in High A, 1 in A, and 3 in extended spring training (assuming Nestor Muriel, Scott Weathersby, and Brooks Marlow have not been released).
It's crazy to me how many people don't make the majors from a given draft. Would it really change the game if the draft were cut down from 40 rounds all the way down to 10 rounds and a few more minor league levels were cut out? I know there were times when there were more than 50% more rounds (classically Piazza being a 62nd rounder) but in this era is it necessary to have so many players in organized baseball? Whats the difference if you have 5 guys making it from 20 picks rather than 5 guys making it from 40 picks?
