Not heard anything new, but expect he'll get most of the time on the dirt at SS and 3rd early. If he starts to hit well, I expect he'll start to get more and more time in CF prepping him for a call up.
https://www.mlb.com/news/astros-top-prospects-prepare-for-spring-training ST for minor leaguers officially starts next week. Article mentions they’re trying Corey Julks at 3B and Colin Barber looks good.
Korey Lee will be on the fangraphs top 100 to be released this week. An article on catching prospects mentions him as a prospect who would benefit from robot umps (which will be used in Sugar Lands home games this season), as framing is one of his weaknesses, while the rest of his defense is plus. I am bullish on Lee as a future above average everyday catcher. I also think he may be underrated because of how deep the current crop of catching prospects is league-wide. It is excellent for Houston to have 3 near-ready up-the-middle prospects who profile as likely everyday players in Lee, Pena, and Leon.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2022-top-100-prospects/ Pena #30, grade 55 Brown #95, grade 50 Lee #97, grade 50 By that measure Houston’s system should be described as slightly below average by Fangraphs, depending on how they value their depth. They calculate Pena has >60% chance of being at least an average major leaguer with ~20% chance of being a star. The progression of his hit tool and ability to translate raw power into game power will be his keys. Brown is described as having elite stuff (high 90s velocity with plus slider and curve) but big command and efficiency issues. They give him a >50% chance of being a bust with ~15% chance of being a ToR SP. Lee’s write up says he has elite power and arm but a bad hit tool. That is not what I’ve seen as I would grade his hit tool as merely below average with potential to be average or even above average. His outcome odds from them are roughly 35% bust, 25% backup, 30% average starter, 10% star. I think his bust potential is lower than that.
Judging from their last farm rankings, this would increase the value by $18M if all else stays the same which would move them to 21st. Though, Astros being past trashcan punishment should help them a lot in improving the farm. I like the Pena writeup and ranking as it seems consistent unlike the Law writeup that described him similarly, but didn't have him in the Top 100. It is very unlikely that there are a lot of prospects better than a plus defender at SS with pop.
I would like to know how they define bust. Is a prospective starter who has a long career in the back of the bullpen a bust? Is a potential star at short stop who turns out to be league average player a bust?
I don't think he is good enough defensively to be a long term solution at SS. I know he surprised them with his athleticism and his feet, but he just isn't good enough to stay there when he can play CF at a high level. FWIW Goldstein doesn't think he will play SS this season for long, if at all.
Well the site has it split for FV tiers, with 40/45 being the lowest before bust. So no, an average player isn't a bust, no matter the expectation, but a player that can't find a viable role on a team is.
No, it is legitimate. He will be at least an above average defender and has a good chance of being a top 20% type defender at SS. He also has done an exceptional job of becoming stronger and adding muscle without losing flexibility or quickness. He added a decent amount of muscle and so far seems to be as good, if not better defensively. He has great instincts and positions himself well. The only way I see him not being above average is if he has injury issues.
Plus defender at SS is basically what Correa has been lately. That's a 3 WAR player with an average bat (roughly 150-160 games in a season) and still an average starter with a piss poor bat (e.g., Marisnick level hitter).
In the fangraphs Top 100 chat someone asked if Peyton Battenfield got any consideration for making that list. They answered that he did not, although they are really high on him and called sources to make sure he shouldn’t be on the list. Battenfield was who the Astros traded for Austin Pruitt, so it looks so far like Click will have lost that trade.
Our rotation was thin AF heading into 2020. Luhnow though Pruitt had the potential to eat some competent innings on the cheap. With Framber and Javier showing up big and covid washing away over half the season, it never ended up being a need. He pretty much immediately became a superfluous piece.
https://theathletic.com/3142037/202...them-who-i-am-after-consecutive-lost-seasons/ Spoiler WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — In the immediate aftermath of the 2019 MLB Draft, the Astros showed their affinity for Colin Barber. They lured the high school outfielder away from his University of Oregon commitment with a $1 million signing bonus, nearly $600,000 more than the fourth-rounder’s slot value as the 136th pick. His power potential from the left side and the possibility he could stick as a center fielder made the choice feel like a potential steal. More than 2 1/2 years later, opportunities to evaluate the now-21-year-old have been few and far between. What would have been his first full professional season in 2020 was wiped out by the pandemic, and his 2021 campaign was lost to an early-season right shoulder injury and subsequent labrum surgery. All of the missed development time gives this the feel of a crucial season for Barber, who’s healthy again and hoping for a boatload of at-bats in 2022. “I definitely see this as a year I need to make a stand, show them who I am,” he said this week. “I feel like I just haven’t had the time to show them who I am. I haven’t had the at-bats, haven’t had the game reps. So I’m excited to see what happens.” Barber is one of about 45 Astros minor leaguers participating in a mini-development camp at the team’s spring training complex that began last week and will run until the more comprehensive minor-league spring training gets underway in March. The Northern California native said he feels great after completing his six-to-eight-month rehab during the offseason and arrived in Florida “really confident with where my body was at.” Said Astros minor-league field coordinator Jason Bell, who’s running the camp: “He looks very impressive so far. His swing looks good. He’s kind of ready to go and anxious to get out there.” All of the reasons the Astros liked Barber in the first place still apply. Since joining their system, he has gotten stronger and faster and has improved his swing. They’ve been impressed by his focus and work ethic, too, with his level of determination reminding assistant general manager Pete Putila of Alex Bregman. When he has played, Barber has performed. In The Athletic’s Keith Law’s preseason rankings, Barber was pegged as the Astros’ ninth-best prospect and second-best outfielder prospect behind Pedro Leon. As a high school draftee, Barber has age on his side. He turns 22 in December. The Astros have this season and next before facing a decision about Rule 5 protection. But Barber’s limited track record makes it a lot more difficult to project him as a prospect with any certainty. He just needs to play. Barber played 28 games in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League in 2019, his first partial professional season. In 2020, when there was no minor-league season, he played in 20 games in an independent league and got in a few weeks of work at the Astros’ alternate training site and about a month more at a team-run development camp in the fall. Last year, he participated in his first major-league camp and later got an assignment to High-A Asheville. But May 26, in the first inning of his 16th game of the year, his season ended. Barber was playing right field that day when he dived (and caught) a line drive to his left but landed awkwardly on his right shoulder. The pain was instant. After surgery in San Francisco — orthopedic surgeon Dr. Ken Akizuki, the Giants’ team doctor, performed the operation — Barber returned home to Chico, Calif., to begin his rehab. He later spent a few months in West Palm Beach, where he worked with the Astros’ Florida-based medical staff, before returning home again for the offseason. He progressed to swinging in his rehab earlier than expected and was able to work on his swing in the offseason with his dad, Brian, his longtime hitting coach. “Not having the competition for a while has been kind of tough,” said Barber, who had an .818 OPS in his 53 plate appearances at High-A before the injury. “But I’m excited. I’m excited to see what happens this year. I really think I’m in a great spot. The staff has gotten me in a great spot. They’ve been really supportive of everything. I’m ready to go.” Another High-A assignment to begin the season with a chance of playing his way up to Double A seems like a reasonable 2022 trajectory for Barber. The Astros have played him at all three outfield positions since drafting him, and that’s not expected to change this year. “A lot of times in the minor leagues, especially with the younger guys, (we) move them around a lot because you just never know how they’re going to mature over the years, what their bodies are going to be like, what their speed is going to be like,” said Bell, who’s entering his fourth season as one of the Astros’ minor-league coordinators. “I also think perceptually it helps you read balls a little bit better if you can see them in right, center, left, understand the hook, the slice, the spin a little bit. … The way that we do some of the playing time, everybody (in the outfield group) kind of ends up playing all of the positions.” Whether Barber can remain in center is more of a topic for when he’s in the upper minors. First, he has to play his way there. One way or another, a full, healthy season could tell us a lot about what caliber of prospect he is and if and how he might fit into the Astros’ future. “I want to come into this year and just learn as much as I can,” Barber said, “learn as much as possible and kind of see where that takes me.”
https://theathletic.com/3144446/202...er-whitaker-stand-early-in-their-development/ Spoiler WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — As the Astros’ top choices in the two drafts in which they were without their first- and second-round selections as punishment for the sign-stealing scandal, Alex Santos and Tyler Whitaker tend to get more attention than your usual Nos. 72 (2020) and 87 overall (2021) picks. Both were big-money high school draftees who are generally regarded as among the Astros’ 10 best prospects. (The Athletic’s Keith Law recently ranked Santos and Whitaker as the sixth- and 10th-best prospects in Houston’s system.) Santos, 20, and taken with the compensatory pick the Astros got for losing Gerrit Cole to free agency, is a right-handed pitcher who signed for a $1.25 million bonus. Whitaker, 19, and a traditional third-rounder, is a right-handed hitting outfielder/infielder who signed for $1.5 million. Both are years away from being in the major-league conversation, if they get there. Santos has pitched in only Low A and Whitaker has played in only rookie-level Florida complex ball. They, like many of the other members of the 2020 and 2021 draft classes, are among the non-40-man roster minor leaguers the Astros brought to Florida early for a mini development camp ahead of minor-league spring training, which will be held in March. With the minor leaguer workouts underway while MLB’s lockout continues, here’s a look at where Santos and Whitaker stand in their development: Alex Santos When the Astros drafted Santos out of Mount Saint Michael High School in the Bronx, N.Y., he was known for his high-spin four-seam fastball and his ability to spin a breaking ball. He threw both a slider and a curveball at the time. Since he turned pro, the Astros have worked with him to change the shape of both breaking balls. In 2021, Santos’s focus was on his new slider, so much so that he didn’t even throw his curveball. The curve is now a priority for this year. Gaining the type of consistency with his breaking balls that he has with his rise-and-run, low-to-mid-90s fastball (his best pitch) and his changeup (still the same as the one he threw in high school) is a goal for him. “I think we’ve come a long way developing the slider,” said Eric Niesen, who’s entering his first season as the Astros’ minor-league pitching coordinator after spending last season as the pitching coach at High-A Asheville. “He’s gotten a better feel for it. He kind of has an idea and a process, and now it’s kind of moving toward that curveball as well and trying to get him to feel the differences between the two and how to apply those. He’s come a long way in being able to determine that feel and to feel those changes and differences and work on those on a daily basis.” Santos, 6-foot-3 and about 205 pounds, still has a lot of room to fill out physically. “This offseason, I hit the gym pretty hard,” he said. “I focused a lot on legs and focused on shoulders and getting all the little muscles strong.” His father, Alex Sr., runs a baseball facility back home that Santos said he trains out of about six days a week during the offseason. Conveniently, he can do both baseball work and lifting at his dad’s complex. It’s unclear at which level Santos will begin the minor-league season, but it figures to be Low-A Fayetteville or High-A Asheville. He made his pro debut last June in Fayetteville, where he spent the rest of his first professional season. In 41 2/3 innings across 12 outings, he had a 3.46 ERA and a .670 opponent OPS. Walks were a problem; he issued 30 of them, which equated to a 16.4 walk percentage. His .205 opponent batting average and .331 opponent slugging percentage reflect his success in limiting the damage. “From a personal level, I really enjoyed it,” Santos said of his first season in the minors. “It was a really good experience. From the baseball aspect of it, I felt like I went out there and gave it my all and I did pretty good.” Tyler Whitaker Whitaker is so new to pro ball that not a ton has changed since the draft in July. He has an advanced swing for his age and has big raw power but needs to cut down on his swings-and-misses. The most interesting element of Whitaker’s pro career so far is where he’s trained defensively. The book on him coming out of Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas was that he profiled as a right fielder, though the Astros want to exhaust the possibility of him sticking in center. In addition to working at all three outfield spots, the Astros are also experimenting with Whitaker on the left side of the infield, where he said he last played regularly when he was 15 or 16. He played four games at third base in rookie ball last year and has been taking groundballs at shortstop during minicamp when he’s not working with the outfielders. “I’ve been working out a ton at shortstop in the offseason and then even when I’ve been here. I love it,” said Whitaker, who also said he loves center field. “I had played infield before and at (instructional league) I was in the infield every day. They like it, I like it.” The project means Whitaker could see time at as many as five defensive positions during the minor-league season: center field, right field, left field, third base and shortstop. From Myles Straw in 2019 to Pedro Leon in 2021, these outfielder-to-infielder experiments have become an annual occurrence in the Astros’ minor-league system in recent years. Roilan Machandy, who has the fastest sprint speed in the system (a 3.4 30-yard dash), is another young outfielder the Astros are trying out at shortstop. “I think with certain guys who show the athleticism and the desire to do it, it can’t really hurt,” Astros minor-league field coordinator Jason Bell said. “I think it also helps some of them really understand the game more. They have to think about some of the little things about the game — covering bases, cuts and relays, some of the little parts of the game that are kind of overlooked at times. I think when it’s a younger player, you have a lot more time, you’re not as much in a rush to see it through. So I’m excited about it for Tyler Whitaker. He seems to have some pretty good actions. “One thing I try to focus on with these guys is that it’s an addition and not like a conversion. Because you just never know. If you’re a Triple-A player and you have some prime-time big-league players ahead of you, you never really know how the roster is going to shake out. If you’re just confined to that one position and you’re hitting well but the person in front of you also is, it’s sometimes difficult. I also think it raises the floor for a lot of players, too. As long as we feel like we’re not sacrificing too much with the tradeoffs — because there are tradeoffs in everything — I definitely feel like it’s worth trying it out. You can always just say, ‘You know what, it didn’t work. Let’s now focus back on (your natural position) solely.’ ” Whether he’s back in rookie ball or at Low-A, it will be interesting to see how the Astros divvy up Whitaker’s starts this season between the outfield and infield. His offensive numbers will be more meaningful than last year’s, too. He had only a .590 OPS last season behind a 35.1 strikeout percentage, but the sample was also only 114 plate appearances. “The first half of the year, it was an introduction to pro ball,” Whitaker said. “I hadn’t played in two months, since my high school year. Getting used to playing every day was a big change for me. But the second half, I felt good. I was hitting the ball hard consistently and that’s all I can really control.”
Are there any updates on Whitley? Wasn't able to locate any reports of where he stands since one in September when he was throwing off of flat ground.
