Astros notes from Fangraphs prospect guy chat yesterday: 12:22 SteveS: Eric: Love your work. If you had to invest in 3 prospects (not including Roki) that are likely to contribute this year, who would they be? 12:23 Eric A Longenhagen: Matt Shaw, Jacob Melton, AJ Smith-Shawver 12:40 sliptoad: It seems like you’ve been the high man on Melton for a while, the consensus on the Tucker trade was that Smith easily slotted in at the top of the farm, compared to other writers are you higher on Melton or just lower on Smith? 12:40 Eric A Longenhagen: Higher on Melton https://blogs.fangraphs.com/eric-longenhagen-prospects-chat-1-17-25/ I suspect Houston’s farm will be rated higher than the last few years when Fangraphs releases their updated Astros list. He’s very high on Melton.
couple of releases... 2B Jeremy Arocho was a minor league free agent signing before last season. He spent all last season with Corpus and while he got on base, he didn't do much of anything else, slashing .214/.334/.260 with a homer and 34 RBI in 109 games. 1B Mahki Backstrom was signed mid-season from independent ball. He went 3-34 in 11 games with Asheville.
Iirc, most teams preferred him as a pitcher going into his draft and Astros were one of the few that saw him as a position player.
https://www.mlb.com/milb/prospects/2025/3b/ Astros have 2 players on the Top 10 3B list. Cam Smith is #3 and Zach Dezenzo is #9.
And it is still at least 50/50 that neither ends up as a MLB 3b. There is a world, where Dezenzo is the starting LF and Smith the starting RF (and Matthews the starting CF) by 2027.
At the big league level the Astros have top 10 guys at C, 1B, 2B, 3B, and DH. All under control for at least 3 seasons. So yeah I think corner OF is where those guys end up if Houston keeps them. And yes I agree both Dezenzo and Melton could be in the everyday lineup by the end of this season with Smith coming up next season. Baez and Matthews would be my current top 2 picks for deadline trade chips this season.
Which would be awesome if they live up to their potential. At some point I could see Matthews taking over for Pena at SS.
Dezenzo seems a bit underrated in terms of prospect buzz. I think a pretty good comp for his reasonable outcome ceiling is Santander level bat/player in left.
Dezenzo is a much better athlete than Santander. He may or may not pan out as a good defensive outfielder, but he’s got plus speed and plus arm strength, and just as much power as Santander. I think looking for a ceiling comp, he could end up like Brent Rooker or Teoscar Hernandez but with more defensive value. His ceiling is really high.
He for sure flashed the in game pop and bat speed in his limited sample size, hope he earns mostly a full time job coming out of Spring. Seems like his talent is worth giving him time and at bats to figure out big league pitching.
I’ve seen Smith, Melton, Matthews, Dezenzo, Blubaugh on various Top 100 lists. Usually each list will only contain Smith and one of the other 4. Feels like that’s the most we’ve had in a while.
In terms of top end talent, the current farm system is the best it’s been since Yordan graduated in 2019. It’s probably a roughly average system which is a lot better than it was the last 2-3 years.
https://www.nbcsports.com/fantasy/b...ist-with-dylan-crews-roman-anthony-at-the-top Never seen Rotoworld put out a prospect list but here’s their top 100. Smith came in at 52 while Matthews was 99th.
Cam Smith (55) was the only Astros prospect on the Baseball America Top 100 prospects list that was released today. I don’t have access but I think Melton, Matthews, and Janek received honorable mention votes.
An OF of Dezenzo, Matthews, and Smith could be dynamic Throw in Baez and Whitcomb possibly being the best bets in AAA/AA to actually hit at the MLB level. If Melton or Cole don't hit, the team could be very right handed for the foreseeable future.
Switch and Lefty hitting outfielders in the upper minors. Cooper Hummel S Taylor Trammell L Quincy Hamilton L Colin Barber L Zach Cole L Kenni Gomez L Jacob Melton L Can you find a starter and a bench player on this list?