I don't understand 2B but not 3B. If you've got the feet and hands for 2B, and the arm for RF, why couldn't you play some 3B?
I was wondering yesterday if he could replace Kessinger. His versatility and his bat would a be valuable if he was not overwhelmed by skipping AAA.
Pedro Leon is tearing it up in AAA right now. For the month of June, he has a 323/443/646/1.089 slash line, good for a 155 wRC+. He has a 12.7 BB rate and a 27.8 K rate These stats do not include his 3 for 4 (12 HR) performance tonight
His issue is the strike out rate. I still see them calling him up this year just to see what he has. Plus power and the very strong arm.
That is awesome. I have been very hopeful he’d start taking serious strides to getting to what everyone thought he could produce. This is some really good news, even if the Astros have cooled off on him, this makes him a much more valuable trade chip.
Exactly. I know pitchers all want the notoriety and prestige of being a rotation starter. But strong bullpens win World Series! Nevertheless I can understand why so many pitchers reluctantly accept relief roles, and it’s because the way they are used so very sporadically and on a dime, well the history of relief pitchers can show they can decline like falling rocks. Few relief pitchers can command high dollars and have long careers.
I don’t think this is an issue of the player rejecting the role, I think it’s the org being overly stubborn about continuing to develop their best pitching prospects as starters. On the one hand I can understand, both because of the difference in value between SP and RP and Houston’s current (and disappointing) lack of quality AAA SP. But on the other hand, it seems pretty clear to me that guys like Tamarez and Dubin and Diosmerky Taveras (among others) have extremely high value/ceilings as RP and extremely low odds of being effective SP. Jairo Solis is another one. Get those dudes in relief and extract some real value from them before they get hurt (again).
The Astros moved Raimy Rodriguez from the DSL to the FCL today. He was one of the youngest players the Astros signed in the Jan 22 class, and has played decently over the past season and a half. He's listed at 6'1" 185, and turns 18 next month. IIRC Nook has mentioned him before as a guy the Astros were high on. It's been pretty rare for the Astros to bring a player stateside mid season. The only ones i remember off the top of my head were Miguel Ullola and Jairo Solis, though they both were in their first professional season. Either way, it's a pretty encouraging sign for an interesting young arm.
Valencia finished 4-4; he added an RBI single and a two-run double that was the go-ahead hit in the Orange team's 9-8 win over the Rays.
Oh I get it, been there done that and it's ****ing rough, but it's a strange that he's never even been given much of a chance there, going back to college. Does not give me happy feelings about his abilities at 2B, as well.
Tyler Whitaker and Kenni Gomez have homered for the FCL squad in the early game. Whitaker led off the game with his homer (1; 2 season) and Gomez added a three-run blast (2) later in the 1st inning.
I just saw that Jon Singleton in playing for the space cowboys. Wow! Hopefully he can touch some of that once promising potential.
He’s been awesome so far in aaa in a very small sample size. I can’t imagine that matters as it appears pretty obvious that the bigs are too tough for him. I thought he was gonna be awesome.
Any pitching prospects who could possibly come up and be successful right away? At any level I know it’s rare but didn’t Garcia. One straight from A ball?
Ryan Clifford hit a grand slam for Asheville that broke a 3-3 tie in the Tourists' favor. Clifford now has 11 home runs on the year between the A clubs. Meanwhile in Fayetteville, Andrew Taylor dominated Kannapolis: 4 IP, 2 H, 9 K
Zach Dezenzo hit his 2nd homer for Corpus, a three-run blast in the 1st. He now has 6 home runs on the year.
