Well, if McCullers can not make it out of the third inning, that will blow up the bullpen for the next couple of days.
Kenni Gomez has his OBP up to .450 now.... he turned 17 years old a couple months ago. He is playing for the Astros Blue in the DOSL. He has a 1:1 walk to strikeout rate and a .996 OPS. There is some talk of playing him some at SS next year, but he has mostly played CF so far. Considered a smart hitter with exceptional hand/eye coordination ...... but a poor base runner, has been picked off first a couple of times already.
Yup. He is a Cuban and turned 17 in May or June. Was not higher sought after because he was short during the recruiting process and lacked power. Well his body has changed a lot and he is around 6’0” and is already adding power. Lowest swing and miss percentage in his league and will walk and work the count. He needs to hit lefties better, get stronger and keep focus on the bases…. But he has the hand/eye coordination and patience part of hitting down. Quietly the Astros are really happy with their bats from their last international draft class. A lot of upside.
Sounds like he’ll be stateside next year. How much did we sign him for? For all the praise heaped on Luhnow, it seems like the team wiffed in every big name Latin American bat we signed. Much more success in the pitching department of course, but an area where Click was justified in adding/replacing scouts IMO.
Gomez at 16 ended up costing the Astros in total around a million dollars. That includes a signing bonus. He was going to sign in the $250,000 range before a couple teams started sniffing around. Was almost signed for $700,000 and Astros made sure they got him. He wasn’t their biggest expensive, they signed Luis Baez for either $1.25 million or $1.5 million (I don’t remember). He is 18 but with a lot of power and a very strong build. He is a solid athlete and will likely play the corner. He has been okay so far, has hit for power and like an .850 OPS. Carlos Espinosa is the top pitcher from their signings. Had a deal with the Pirates or Angels that fell apart and the Astros think he is very projectable to be a middle rotation starter if he keeps healthy and works hard. He has a little hot dog in him. He is supposedly hitting 96-97 on the fastball. The other guy I can think of is Alberto Hernandez from Cuba too. Slick fielding, tall shortstop that is 17ish. They paid a million for him. He has struggled so far but I think they anticipated he might.
Martinez going 3 in mop up duty, if it comes to that, isn’t the biggest problem around. We have 6 starters and off days coming up. Bullpen can fade a 4 inning start or two OOC it goes that way. If need be and Martinez has to wear 3 or 4 innings they can send him down and bring up Bielak or some such.
Lots of movement in the lower levels lately... (moves between FCL/DSL teams, like one player going from the Orange team to the Blue team, are not listed here) Draft picks assigned to Fayetteville Collin Price Zach Dezenzo Ryan Wrobleski Garrett McGowan FCL to Fayetteville Everyone except Loftin was on the Orange team. Drew Gilbert Zach Cole Tommy Sacco Jackson Loftin Draft picks assigned to FCL Blue Basically, all the drafted pitchers went to the Blue team. Jacob Melton Jackson Loftin (now going to Fayetteville) To FCL Orange Logan VanWey - UDFA signed a few weeks ago Released RHP Chandler Casey - was with Corpus when he was released RHP Danny Cody - was with Asheville when he was released SS A.J. Lee - Asheville RHP Kyle Gruller - Asheville IF Yeuris Ramirez - Fayetteville; signed for $500K in 2016 UTIL Cody Orr - Fayetteville OF Rainier Rivas - Fayetteville; acquired from Angels for Max Stassi at 2019 trade deadline OF/1B Victor Mascai - Fayetteville RHP Carlos Hiraldo - FCL Blue IF Josue Payano - FCL Blue RHP Kevin Holcomb - FCL Orange RHP Mark Moclair - FCL Orange OF Everette Cooper - FCL Orange; international free agent signing from the Bahamas IF Ronaldo Urdaneta - FCL Orange; spent most of his time in the system bouncing around as injury filler RHP Freilyn De Pena - DSL Orange RHP Marcos Eusebio - DSL Blue
I had a few ideas as to who were cut candidates, so as someone who follows the Minor League box scores nightly, many of the names were not surprising. I look forward to seeing the new guys show up in the box scores starting this week, and it'll be exciting to watch how they perform.
I am right on the edge of betting on Forest after reading this article. There is a chance (maybe 1 in 3) that he works all summer, keeps his head about him and comes to Spring training pitching like the Ace we all hoped he could be. His history says there is an equal chance he blows up completely and in the Spring looks as if he will never pitch again. I suppose there is always the possibility that he simply stays the course but what fun would that be? No matter how the Winter unfolds any 24 year old that could be your next Ace is untouchable for another few months.
That's actually a pretty positive interview from Forrest after he's given some in the past that left you wondering about him. Seems to be bought in to the coaching in SL.
His “new pitch”…. LOL… you can’t make this **** up. The guy is changing his grips and release angle while taking a dump. Just stop it and pitch… he has so far wasted 6 years changing stuff that didn’t need to be changed. Had he kept the course he would be entering his final seasons of team control and would be a free agent.
Maybe I’m reading too much into it but that article makes him seem pompous and conceited. No reference to all the coaching and advice he’s gotten over the years. No, the problem was he had never “realized” what was holding himself back.
I get your point and agree in principal, but that's a bit of an exaggeration He was drafted 6 years ago out of high school. But he should definitely be entering arbitration.
Damn they got me to shell out the 99c, catch is you can’t cancel online, have to call customer support. Also renews automatically at 4.99 a week, pissing scam.
