More fun with small sample stat filters: Astros SS prospects with wRC+ >170, AA, age 22 or younger, since 2006 (min 30 pa): 2015 Carlos Correa 226 2024 Pascanel Ferreras 195 2016 Alex Bregman 179
First time hearing about this guy, but seems like a great scouting win to have the last pick in the draft putting up good numbers in AA less than a calendar year after he was drafted.
It’s too early to really buy into him too heavily. He’s got a very high babip but we don’t know if that’s luck or him making hard contact (he’s not maintaining it with speed based on how few steals he has). He isn’t hitting HR; so either he’s just been getting lucky all season, or he’s crushing line drives and is a launch angle adjustment away from a big jump in value (I am skeptical since he has very few doubles). Regardless, he’s gonna get 200+ pa in AA this season, so we will find out if he’s a real prospect in the next 3-4 months; guys who post >130 wRC+ in AA at age 22 over 200+ pa usually pan out in mlb, especially if they’re viable in the middle infield. For now he’s just a guy who has himself on the radar.
Luis Rives hit his first pro homer in this morning's FCL game. Esmil Valencia also hit his first home run of the season.
I saw a couple clips of him earlier this year, and was a little worried that a lot of the strikeouts were watching either the FB or CB rather than guys looking foolish on low breaking balls. That he seems to have the command to make it to AA less than a year after being drafted seems promising, but I wonder if he needs a true out pitch before he's ready for the majors. Fortunately the Astros are pretty good at developing pitches.
For all the talk about Leon potentially turning a corner, Shay Whitcomb looks like something has changed as well. His strikeout and walk rates are the best of his career, while still playing short and showing plenty of raw power. He's had a monster May so far with a 191 wRC+ and 13 XBH.
Valencia and Rives had two hits apiece and Darwin De Leon went 3-5 with a couple of doubles, one of which was a ground-rule that drove in a run, and scored twice in his season debut. Don't look up how the FCL squad's pitchers did today.
Whitcomb is most likely not a regular SS but he can handle it. That's a step up from last year, where he was "Marwin Gonzalez if Marwin Gonzalez couldn't play defense"
https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/jer...-impressing-in-high-a?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage Praise for Jeron Williams, Miguel Ullola, and Chase Jaworsky.
Both North Carolina teams found themselves in doubleheaders after their games on Saturday got suspended and the results were mixed. Fayetteville was swept in Kannapolis, losing the resumed game 8-2 and the regularly scheduled game 2-0. Alain Pena allowed two runs on five hits and struck out six after coming in for the restart of the Saturday game. Nehomar Ochoa (3B) and Alejandro Nunez (2 2B) both finished with two hits. Logan Cerny hit a walk-off three-run homer (6) to give Asheville a 7-6 win over Rome in the first game. Jeron Williams had two hits in both games. Luis Baez also had two hits in each game and he is now on a seven-game hitting streak; in the last three, he's put up two hits in each of them. On the mound for the Tourists, Joey Mancini came on for the restart of the Saturday game and allowed an unearned run that scored on an error, a hit, walked four, and struck out six in four innings. Edinson Batista was the winning pitcher in the regularly scheduled game as he allowed two runs (on a sac fly and a groundout), a hit, walked four, and struck out five in five innings.
Michael Knorr @ San Antonio: 5 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 6 K Some poor defense doomed Tyler Guilfoil in the end... all three runs he allowed were unearned. Guilfoil allowed two hits, walked two, and struck out three in three innings. Don't think he's in any of the Astros' future plans, but by making it to AAA, Logan VanWey has definitely exceeded all expectations for an undrafted free agent from a Division II school. He allowed a hit and struck out two in a scoreless 7th inning for Sugar Land tonight. Luis Bastidas doubled twice and led off the game with a homer, his 11th of the season.
I wouldn’t go that far but both of those guys seem to have broken out. Never want to read too much into AAA guys having a stat surge during a series in Albuquerque but Whitcomb is looking like an incredibly well rounded prospect.
Whitcomb's 90%EV this season is about equal to Bastidas' Max EV this year. Whitcomb has definitely made some improvements in his plate discipline but i'm surprised his barrel rate this year is less than 10% considering his impressive topline numbers.
Wow, he almost broke the opening day roster after that nuclear Spring he had before last season, now retired. Baseball is such a tough game.
