A.J. Reed just smacked a two-run homer, his 18th of the season. Myles Straw is 3-5 with an RBI, two stolen bases, and three runs scored. One of the stolen bases was of home; he's now got four stolen bases since joining the Grizzlies and 39 on the year.
2 Astros affiliates have already sewn up playoff spots, Fresno leads their division by 6.5 games, and Buies Creek is the third best team in the Carolina league. The Astros might not have the best farm system, but it's probably the best performing.
Josh James allowed a run on four hits, walked two, and struck out five in six innings for Fresno. He now has 96 strikeouts in 62 innings between Corpus and Fresno this season.
We have some guys absolutely killing it at the high levels right now. So many guys are playing well, other guys are having awesome years that are barely getting attention. Trent Thornton now has a 2.88 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, and 8.3 K/9. Drew Ferguson now has a .434 OBP Riley Ferrell after having some epic control issues to start the season has been completely untouchable over the last month.
Jamie Ritchie and Alex DeGoti have been playing really well the last few weeks. DeGoti has actually been a well above average hitter in AA for the season, which is pretty solid for a 23 year old SS.
Looking at the ranked prospects to begin the season, I don’t think many have regressed (except for Bukauskas). In fact a few guys have jumped to the next level, likely meaning they will bolt up higher. Albeit I’m not as keenly aware of other teams minor league systems as the Astros, but it will be interesting to see how high the prospects move, and which other Astros prospects crack the top 100. Oh one question, what happened to JB Bukauskas? He has only pitched 5.2 innings and had an ERA of almost 8... yikes. I just see he is on the 7- day DL.
Bukauskas and Paulino have lost quite a bit of value since the preseason. Otherwise everyone else in the preseason top 10 has helped themselves.
Brought around 60 folks affiliated with Rice alumni/friends/family to the game last night. Routine win. And it was PRINCESS NIGHT.
Geez. He made up for the 2 HR taken away from him very quickly. Tucker better establish himself in LF, or that will be an interesting battle in spring training.
Eh, DH and 1B are wide open, and I'm not so sure that Reddick's name is written in pen either. If they can upgrade him (for cheap money) they'd be open to that I imagine. If Tucker and Alvarez both mash (and Marwin walks as I assume he will) then Gurriel becomes a utility guy (remember- they talked about playing him all over the IF this year and maybe even a little in left field) that plays 70% of the time. There are plenty of AB's to go around for both of them, if and when they show up in spring training next year tearing the cover off the ball.
Replacing Marwin and Gattis with 2 MLB Top 30 prospects is pretty awesome. CF Springer 3B Bregman 2B Altuve SS Correa LF Tucker DH Alvarez 1B Gurriel RF Reddick C Stassi Bench: Kemp, Stubbs?, Marisnick
I would say the Astros have a decent shot at retaining Marwin at somewhat of a discount. Either way, the minors seam filled with ready and willing players to pick up the slack.
Marwin signed Boras. He doesn't do discount. That was not an accident that he signed with Boras. Marwin isn't a bonus baby. Marwin never made a ton of money in arbitration. Marwin is going to get every penny he can get out of his free agency, and I just don't see any way the astros "win" that auction. Also, I predict whoever "wins" that auction will feel like they've lost it down the road. Let him walk. Same as Keuchel. You will have literally extracted every last bit of value conceivable out of both of them, especially if they each receive QO and turn them down as I'd suspect they will.
Doesn't do discount? Altuve just took one with Boras as his agent so this isn't necessarily true. I wouldn't 100% decline the idea that these guys want to play their careers together.
Yep. Though I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them go after another catcher who has club control for a while and a higher floor than a Stassi/Stubbs pairing. That pairing is really really light on MLB experience for a team looking to win world titles. Also, wouldn't be surprised to see Marisnick gone. He's out of options and he's getting arbitration money and he's marginal on the roster anyway. If they think Straw is legit solid with glove and on the basepaths then this offseason is the one that makes sense to non-tender Jake- or see if he has a market anywhere for a couple low A type guys to come back.
