Chris Clegg talking about Luis Baez and his statcast numbers last year in the DSL. He notes that Baez's 90th percentile exit velo was 103.5 which is major league average. Roughly a week ago Baseball Prospectus released their midseason top 50 and it looks like both Drew Gilbert and Zach Dezenzo made the cut. I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere, but it's possible I missed it. I do not have a BP account so I can't say where they placed, but both are listed as names in the article. Baseball Propectus Midseason Top 50
Good list. Cris Gonzalez is a really weird prospect. His body is really odd, really short and quick arms for someone his height… hard to get anything past him inside. They have talked about him at CF, C and 1st. I haven’t seen a lot of him - but he has certainly impressed his coaches.
Keep in mind the situation that Alvarez was when he was 18-19 years old. He has talked about that when he was 16-18 years old that he had already blown out at least one knee and it wasn’t repaired- he had very poor food. At 18 Yordan defected from Cuba with the help of “handlers” and lived in Haiti for a year keeping a low profile and was not able to adequately workout. He then was taken in the draft by the Dodgers and was out of baseball shape - hadn’t played for over a year, had handlers trying to control what he did, had bad knees and was learning English… and was away from his family. My point being that the numbers Yordan put up were certainly lower than they would have been if he had the same route Baez has been able to take. Having said that, Baez is an excellent prospect with an exceptional upside. He hits balls very hard, lots of exit velocity (Gomez had the same EV), solid athlete for his size. He has value and isn’t skyrocketing.
Waner Luciano has hit his 4th HR in the last 5 games this morning, but the game is in a delay. His 7 on the season ties Baez for the FCL Astros lead. Nice walk and strikeout rates on the season as well. Really solid season for the 18 year old.
The last teenager to play for the Astros was Cesar Cedeno in 1970, though there were several throughout the 60s.
Don't look now !! Pedro Leon continues to lower his K rate. 22.1% the last 30 days with a .914 ops. It may be too late for him in Houston but some team may be paying attention heading into the deadline
Looking back at prior years I think it might just seem like there’s a lot of teenage talent because 2020 killed a year for teenagers; there were way fewer taken in the draft and there was no DSL/FCL season. Before that the Astros had consistently maintained a very good group of teenage position player prospects in their system at least since the beginning of the Luhnow era: 2012: Correa, Domingo Santana, DeShields, Rio Ruiz, Brett Phillips, Ariel Ovando, Teoscar 2014: Correa, Ramon Laureano, Bryan De La Cruz, Jake Nottingham, Jason Martin 2016: Tucker, Yordan, Miguelangel Sierra, Enmanuel Valdez, Gilberto Celestino, Daz Cameron, Bryan De La Cruz, Jonathan Arauz, Ronny Rafael, Abraham Toro, Nestor Muriel 2018: Joe Perez, Celestino, Arauz, Freudis Nova, Valdez, Nathan Perry, Wilyer Abreu, Yorbin Cueta That 2016 group was especially stacked.
Zach Cole hit 2 HR today in his High A debut. Ryan Clifford also hit a HR. Logan Cerny has a .996 ops in July. It has come in spite of a 40% k rate, but it is by far his most productive month.
Gordon looks like he’s turned the corner in AA. Wonder if he gets a look in Houston in September if he keeps it up?
I would be really surprised. They have depth guys performing well and they’re about to trade for another SP. Plus Arrighetti is ahead of him. But between Gordon, Arrighetti, Kouba, and Macuare the Astros have a really good start on their 2024 AAA rotation.
Macuare is the only of the group that is rule 5 eligible this offseason, so he might have a leg up if he's playing well and the Astros need some innings.
He hasn’t played since July 1, so I’m assuming he’s hurt, but he’s not on the IL. My conspiracy theory is that they are holding him out to prevent other teams from scouting him leading up to the deadline.
Looking at prospect values a lot leading up to the trade deadline, while Houston only has one prospect (Gilbert) on most top 100 lists, I think that could/should change by next year; Loperfido, Barber, Clifford, Dezenzo, Baez, and Espinosa should get at least some consideration assuming they keep performing at the level they’re at. None of those guys are likely to graduate this season. Looking further out, there’s a solid group who won’t be on offseason lists but will enter 2024 with a big chance to move into Top 100 consideration: Jacob Melton, Brice Matthews, Chase Jaworsky, Nehomar Ochoa, Kenni Gomez, Jose Fleury, Michael Knorr, Nolan DeVos, Andrew Taylor, Abel Mercedes, Alimber Santa, and Miguel Ullola.
Waner Luciano has hit his 8th HR on the season, and 5th in the last 6 games. The only FCL player who has more HRs is a 6'3" 245 lb 23 year old 1B for the Phillies.
Jairo Lopez was released yesterday. The 22-year-old Venezuelan had a promising US debut as an 18-year-old in 2019, but injuries and the pandemic pretty much wrecked him. His last appearance was September 17, 2021 for Fayetteville.
