Coming into this season I was worried what the farm would look like after this season, even more so once a few key guys struggled out of the gate and others were assigned conservatively. But now I feel pretty good about what I expect the end of year Top 30 to look like: Grade 60: 1. RHP Forrest Whitley Grade 50: 2. RHP JB Bukauskas 3. IF Freudis Nova 4. 1B Seth Beer 5. 3B Abraham Toro 6. RHP Tyler Ivey 7. RHP Bryan Abreu Grade 45+: 8. TBD 1st rd pick 9. RHP Jayson Schroeder 10. 2B Luis Santana 11. SS Jonathan Arauz 12. RHP Jose Urquidy 13. SS Jermey Pena 14. RHP Brandon Bielak 15. RHP Cristian Javier Grade 45: 16. TBD 2nd rd pick 17. RHP Manny Ramirez 18. RHP Peter Solomon 19. RHP Jairo Solis 20. OF Alex McKenna 21. TBD Intl signee (likely SS Dauri Lorenzo) Grade 40+: 22. RHP Brandon Bailey 23. RHP Willy Collado 24. RHP Brett Conine 25. 2B Enmanuel Valdez 26. OF Ronnie Dawson 27. SS Deury Carrasco 28. 1B JJ Matijevic 29. 3B Joe Perez 30. LHP Ryan Hartman Other grade 40: RHP Jojanse Torres, IF Josh Rojas, OF Jacob Meyers, IF MiguelAngel Sierra, OF Marty Costes, UT Austin Dennis, C Nathan Perry, SS Alex De Goti, LHP Parker Mushinski, RHP Nivaldo Rodriguez, RHP Luis Garcia, RHP Cody Deason, LHP Brett Adcock, RHP Austin Hansen, a couple 2019 draftees Graduated/Traded: Deetz, Guduan, F Valdez, Stubbs, C Perez, James, Martin, Tucker, Alvarez
If you think MLB umpires are bad, just be glad you don't have Class A umpires. This is probably partly the reason why Hansen had 4 BBs. This is from consecutive batters. ps What's the best way to add images to these posts (ie image hosting site to get the image URL from)?
Sure hope you are right to give Whitley a 60, but every time he pitches I can’t help but remember that Martes was “untouchable” in trades....not to mention Reed
I would still slap a 50 grade on Martes if he were prospect eligible. He’ll be found money when he comes back next year. Reed looks like a bust; it happens. I think I had a 65 on Whitley a month ago, if he keeps stinking it up, the grade will continue to fall, but for now I expect him to still end up as an elite major league pitcher.
The Myles Straw SS Experiment might get a big league audition if Correa has to go on the IL. Thank goodness for elite AAA depth.
Luis Santana’s assignment to Corpus is really strange considering he is not playing. He’s out of the lineup again tonight. Is there a coach there who they wanted him to work with?
Don't know why they do it, but they did the same with Celestino last year at about this time. He played in 3 games there. Somewhat notably, Santana is the only back up infielder on the squad with Sierra in AAA, so it wouldn't be a shock to see him get a few games in.
Probably gonna happen sooner rather than later given all the injuries. Also, I'm keeping a close eye on the RR game in case someone (namely Tucker) gets pulled early. Unlikely, but worth a look.
The Dominican Summer League starts this weekend, so this will be the first stop on the road to Houston for kids like Ricardo Balogh, Ayendy Ortiz, Tomas Ramirez, and Jesus Liranzo.
What happened to Tyler Ivey? He of the 0.72 ERA, 0.84 WHIP who last pitched on May 17 while the higher farm levels seem to be lacking in consistent quality starters this season.
That's unfortunate. He seemed like he had the best possibility of pulling a McCullers w/ jumping from AA to the majors given the lack of other options the Astros are being given. McHugh, Martin, Whitley, James, Bukauskas, Armenteros, Perez were all considered rotation options at the beginning of the year, and all are having off years/currently struggling). That leaves... Rodgers... my word. Hopefully I'm forgetting someone. Edit: Bielak. Had very good reports during spring training.
