Surprised you haven’t ventured out to Whataburger Field before. It’s a nice park nestled in a fairly industrial area. Corpus on a whole is a strange city, IMO. Very different from Houston, SA, or even the RGV. I did enjoy the Gold Fish though in the few times I have visited.
I have no doubt he can be a CFer for a long time. He's got a strong arm and is fast. Almost looks like a little running back moving around. SS... no idea if he can get good enough quick enough
What's going on with our pitching prospects this year? A majority of them are doing downright terrible.
Whitley and Solis had TJS and won't pitch this year. Tyler Ivey and Jojanse Torres are also now hurt and out for the year. Blair Henley got hurt early and looks like he's out for the year too. Tyler Brown and Jose Alberto Rivera have been genuinely terrible, but they are pitching in a big time hitters' park in Asheville. Hunter Brown has bee unlucky and had some walk issues, but overall he's been good (14.6k/9, 3.20 xFIP). Alex Santos has only thrown 6 innings, so way too early to judge there. Austin Hansen and Nivaldo Rodriguez haven't thrown much in AAA so hard to judge them either. Peter Solomon has been disappointing due to walks and HR but has at least been striking guys out. Shawn Dubin and Brett Conine have been about as expected. Neither were expected to contribute in Houston or be dominant in AAA, so their stock is flat. The Astros have had 4 guys who are in the middle of breakout seasons: Jaime Melendez, Angel Macuare, Parker Mushinski, and Jonathan Bermudez. Bermudez and Mushinski probably profile as BoR/MR ceilings but have definitely put themselves on the radar. Melendez and Macuare are still pretty young but have higher ceilings, especially Melendez. I think that just about covers Houstons notable pitching prospects. So yeah, a good group of them have been injured or sucked, but its been somewhat offset by other guys emerging. I will agree that overall it looks like Houston's pitching farm has taken a step back but pitching prospects are pretty much impossible to accurately project and the Astros have earned the benefit of the doubt with their ability to develop unheralded guys into effective MLB pitchers. Another thing to note is the huge class of Astros pitchers who have graduated from prospect status but are still under 27: Garcia, Bielak, Javier, Abreu, Taylor, Scrubb, and Paredes all should really be considered as prospects who still have some development in front of them.
Astros pitching prospects (including those that have graduated this year) have accumulated 150 innings of 3.35 ERA ball in the majors.
Good breakdown. One guy I was excited about was Cody Deason. Sleeper draft pick from Arizona a few years ago. Had TJ but might be able to come back later this year, most likely out for the year though.
Astros Mock ahead of the draft that starts Sunday: 3.87. SS Peyton Wilson, Alabama; other options: 1B Kyle Manzardo, C Hunter Goodman, OF Isaiah Thomas 4.117. OF Robbie Martin, FSU; other options: P Hagen Smith, OF Justice Thompson 4.132. C Nathan Hickey, Florida; other options: p Mason Black 5. CF/2B Cooper Bowman, Louisville 6. RHP Christian McGowan, JUCO 7. OF Brady Allen, South Carolina 8. 3B Jake Rucker, Tennessee 9. RHP Christian Scott, Florida 10. 2B/OF Nick Biddison, Virginia Tech
Ronaldo Urdaneta hit two homers (2-run and 3-run) for Fayetteville today; he's got three homers this year. Nathan Perry and Sean Mendoza also hit their first home runs of the year as the Woodpeckers beat Down East 10-3.
Do you like Kavadas?? He's really only a one-tool guy with the power but I'd love to take a shot on him.
I like him but I expect him to get taken too high. He’d make a great 5th or 6th rounder but my guess is he gets picked in the 3rd. I think he has similar value to a guy like Jake Adams.
Elian Rodriguez, who signed for $1.9 million in 2017, pitched 4 innings in the GCL today. His line was 4IP, 1H, 5K, 0BB Previously he had walked 83 and struck out 65 in 70.2 innings.
Hunter Brown with another overall good performance in Corpus Christi. 5IP, 5H, 8K. He took the loss by way of 2 solo home runs, but the important thing is he again showed improved control with only 1 walk.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/pre-draft-farm-system-rankings-2/ fangraphs ranks Houston’s farm 25th heading into the draft. I think that’s a little too low. But with all the other teams about to add 1st and 2nd round picks to their farm, and the Astros buyers at the deadline, Houston may rightly be ranked in the bottom 1/3 of the league at the end of the season, especially if they don’t see good things from their top 5-10 prospects over the next 2 months.
Putting the AL West FanGraphs Farm Rankings in terms of FV50 Prospects (i.e., lower half Top 100 prospects): Seattle 10 ($280M) Texas 5.5 ($158M) LAA 5.5 ($151M) Hou 4 ($113M) Oak 4 ($112M) I expect Texas will get a nice bump in the draft. Difference between Seattle and rest of the division right now is basically Kelenic, Rodriguez, and Gilbert. Note: MLB median Farm Ranking equates to 7 FV50 Prospects. FV50 prospects produce 2.3 WAR on average in the majors prior to free agency.
The way I see it and I dont know near as much about these prospects as most on here do. if these guys are able to perform at the expected levela and, or continue to improve the Stros farm system will be fine. In no particular order. 1. Lee 2. Leon 3. Brown 4. Whitley 5. Perez 6. Barber 7. Brewer 8. Santos 9. Lorenzo 10. Pena
Yeah, when projecting future wins, I’d rather have a middle of the pack farm and a stacked big league roster than a top ranked farm and horrible major league team. Having proven major league assets is a huge advantage.
Skeeters are giving out replicas of the 2019 ALCS rings to the first 1500 fans Saturday night. My wife and I are totally planning on being there.
