Well, it is about time to move Troy Patton to the AAA level. He has figured out AA and has a 2.60 ERA. If he can go up to AAA, and perform well, we may be able to bring him up towards the end of the year.
Pence has just been named co -winner of the NL player of the week award with the Dbacks Valverde. link Houston Astros outfielder Hunter Pence, whose .591 (13-22) batting average led the Majors, and Arizona Diamondbacks righthander Jose Valverde, who led the Majors with four saves, have been named Bank of America Presents the National League Co-Players of the Week for May 14-20, 2007. Bank of America, the Official Bank of Major League Baseball, is the presenting sponsor of the American League and National League Player of the Week Awards, which reflect the company's long-standing tradition of recognizing achievements that inspire us all to seize opportunities to perform at our very best. Pence, 24, led the National League with a 1.091 slugging percentage and a .625 on-base percentage. Over the six-game span, Hunter hit two home runs, scored five runs and drove in five runs. On May 15th vs. San Francisco, Pence was 3-for-3 with a home run and three RBI. The following day, also against the Giants, the Texas native went 4-for-4 with a home run. Valverde did not allow an earned run in four innings pitched. Jose struck out four batters and allowed only two hits. After recording his 16th save in yesterday's game against the Pirates, the 27-year-old righthander now ranks second in the Majors behind only Milwaukee's Francisco Cordero (17)
How is it a dumb comment when Tim purpura has said it many times that they are watching his pitch count and want to make sure that he is ready before moving him to the majors? IMO if he is dominating AA he should be moved to AAA already and maybe come up when the roster is expanded in September.
Lane was promoted slow, but he was also a slow developing player. But when he was brought up he wasn't a prospect when he is in his late 20's. Hunter Pence has been brought along slowly. He was ready to come up last year and could've been a good shot in the armful for the woeful offense. Pence showed he was ready in ST and they still sent him back down to the farm. Troy Patton is doing great in CC, but the Astros will most likely wait until next season to promote him to Round Rock and let him pitch there the year and then let him challenge for a roster spot in 2009. Lance Berkman was ready to come up in 1999 and still didn't get his real shot until late 2000 and even then he had to platoon with Daryle Ward in the outfield.
So, out of all the prospects that you've seen in the big leagues that you didn't think was brought up fast enough, you only name a 23 year old Lance Berkman, who still had about 100 AB's in 1999? Lane has proven he wasn't worth the early call-up... the concerns the organization had about him have come true. Do you think he wouldn't be batting .200 right now had he been playing in the majors earlier? There really isn't much of a case for that, nor is there precedence of players who were ruined because they WEREN'T called up earlier. As for pitchers, there is PLENTY of evidence that stressing a young arm will cause early injury. Patton has been in the organization since HS... he's been developing as a pitcher just as much as he's been maturing as a person/physically. I have no problem with the path he's on... very similiar to Oswalt (who hasn't had arm trouble yet... knock on wood). Once again... guys like Carlos Hernandez, Wade Miller, Willy T, Oswalt, Berkman... all were fast-tracked, and they all had shining moments in the big leagues. The guys who they've taken their time with have had mixed success. Pence could be the exception... but its not like he's a Lane-ish 26 or 27. The Guy just turned 24 last month.
Yep, Lee and Pence are the heart and sole of the current Astros. (on offense). I'm going to go get a Lee jersey.....man crush.
Lane is a perfect example. He was brought up slowly and it apparently was justified - he just was never that good. He never developed the way they needed him to. Same with Ensberg. Patton and Pence - it's too early to say. After looking at Luke Scott last year, people thought he was ready - but from the looks of it now, that's not real clear. Berkman - what exactly did you want? He played one season of A ball, one of AA, and one at AAA and then took over at the ripe old age of 23. You say he had to split time with Ward - now do you think they shouldn't have given Ward a chance? Then you'd be complaining about him too - he took a long time to come up, and now we see why that was. Everyone was clamoring for him in 1999/2000. (BTW, in their platoon year, he performed similarly to Berkman). Or should they have benched Alou on the other side (despite a 1.000+ OPS in 2000)? or Bagwell?
C'mon Major, this one's easy. You teach Bagwell to throw left handed and move him to 3rd...even though lefties never play 3rd. Patton may not even be the The guy who's dealing even better than him right now in Corpus is Paulino -- he was hurt early, but has an ERA of 0.96 in 5 games (4 starts), and opponents are hitting .179 off of him. Looking at Patton's numbers, his K rate could be bumped up and his walk rate could be bumped down (38 Ks and 15 BBs in 55 innings). More alarming, right handers are hitting .298 off of him (lefties are hitting .104). Apparently he needs to develop a pitch that gets righties out.
If we are making a playoff push towards the end of the year we should bring him up and have him take over for Trever Miller.
What? You don't like the logic of taking a guy you see as a front of the rotation starter out of AA and making him a lefty specialist? It's not like there's a lefty reliever in AAA with a 0.66 WHIP and a 33/4 K/BB ratio. Sheesh.
Shady, my point was that Patton is still working on things. The changeup is the last pitch that the Stros minor leaguers master. Their development progression goes something like: A-ball - build arm strength, work on locating fastball on the corners, begin work on breaking ball; AA - consistency with fastball & breaking ball, begin work on changeup; AAA - mastery of all 3 Left handed pitchers generally need one of two things to be successful against RHB: either a changeup they can paint down & away (Lowry, Glavine) or a cutter/slider they can get in on the hands (Unit, Pettitte, Hampton). So the fact that Patton's getting beat up by AA righties tells me something about how his changeup is progressing. But I haven't seen him pitch, so I don't know this for a fact. Just a well-educated guess.
My guess on Patton is similar to what others have said. I think the only reasons his numbers aren't excellent is because the coaches have him working on particular pitches right now. He's probably not pitching his style. I haven't watched, so can say for sure but it's most likely the case. The fact still remains, if we don't have the prospects and the ones we have to "develop" slower make us an opposing pitchers dream like we have been, we have to go out and get other talent. Instead, we seem to let talent go when we have it. I know we're not the RedSox, Mets, or Yankees and can just spend money like nothing. However, if we can't have great pitching and hitting, we have to maintain at least have one. We had the great offenses in the late 90's and on that succeeded, then turned to great pitching which was obvious the better in the playoffs. Now we have neither. We can only be so lucky that the NL Central is like the NBA Eastern Conference. Probably 2 good moves, better now than later, could get us to the playoffs and then it's a crap shoot.
