You left out Baez who's probably the best bat they've got in the minors. Truth is like eery year the national media underrates the farm system. They've got 5 star level prospects in AA-AAA IMHO. That's enough to make trades and still have 2-3 guys that will be the future of the franchise. The Stros are still in a very good place when it comes to prospects, because from what I've read the minors have a lot of good pitching prospects lead by Brito.
Probably - but there are other players that the White Sox like. It is going to depend on who is making the decisions for the White Sox. They like the Astros young outfielders like Melton - but they also really like the Astros young pitchers. Their owner is very old, so it is possible their front office wants young proven pitching over someone like Melton. There are options.
I don't disagree with this, but also the overall strength of the Astros farm has been going down as the national media suggests. I doubt the farm will be able to keep the Astros as title contenders for more than 2-3 more years. The Astros do a great job of developing players. The way farm systems are ranked is a snap shot in time based on the players in a system. I think a big reason the Astros farm is rated down is that Astros prospects improve more than non-Astros prospects in general (more pitchers than hitters, but hitters as well as of a couple of years ago as I've not paid as much attention in the past 2 years). I'd say the same about the Dodgers. The Dodgers just don't have to trade as many of their prospects as they can sign more FAs than the Astros. As farm system rankings are based on the players and not the development staff, this value just isn't captured in national media rankings. Without any knowledge of the Top 5 farm systems right now, I'd trade everyone on the Astros farm for any one of those Top 5 farms. Probably Top 15. If I cared more for what's going on in the minors right now, I might even say Top 20. I do expect the Astros will get more value from prospects than some teams that have better talent as detemined by the national media when the national media lists take their snap shots. However, give the Astros Playee Development staff better talent to work with, and I expect even better results.
The Astros lack Tucker level players in their system - because of a lack of obvious stars, Houston is dinged. However - the difference is that Houston will based on recent history develop a lot of big leave and even starter level players. There are some guys just criminally under-rated like Yordan Alvarez, Yainer Diaz and Hunter Brown that are possible or currently are stars - but there are not top 5 draft picks or top international signing types.
Seth Beer, Korey Lee, and any number of pitching propsects traded away were ciminally over-rated. The Guardians and Dodgers would not have traded Alvarez and Diaz to the Astros if it was known at that time they would be who they are after being developed. Maybe they were rated way down the last season before they became MLB players, but that's probably just lag in the prospect lists. Diaz specifically was hitting MLB pitching better in 2023 than he was hitting A ball pitching (league adjusted) for the Guardians in 2021. Who else in a year and half went from A ball to the majors and hit better against MLB pitching?
I am not sure what this has to do with what I said? I agree with your general points though. I agree that Seth Beer and Korey Lee was over-rated, although Lee is probably about right for a tail end of a top 100 list. The Astros, clearly did not think he was the answer. As for Alvarez and Diaz - part of the issue was that a lot of scouts felt they were positionless and in the case of Alvarez they believed his bat was too slow. Diaz was seen as someone that lacked discipline and work ethic. I actually in 2022 said that I felt he could be a better big league hitter than minor league hitter because of his skill set. I didn't say that in 2021 though - and Diaz was someone that the advanced scouts liked so the Astros asked for and got him. Diaz always hit in the minors - he just didn't call games well, his glove was sloppy and he had no discipline.... so he took years to really get it together and there was the COVID year as well.
When your talking young pitching are you talking about guys like Blubaugh, Gordon, Brito. I wonder if Ullola could headline a deal like this. Ullola, Gordon, Fleury, Melton?
I really like these pitching prospects in the Astros system right now. and there is always one or two that seem to come out of nowhere to go with them. Our rotation should be very good for a long time to come. Brito Beck Pena Pecko Forcucci
The Low A Level. The Astros Starting Pitching are Throwing Heat. Luis Rodriguez - is really similar to Luis Castillo of the Mariners Sidearm Hard Thrower.
Brice Matthews can hit a Home Run in AAA National Championship Game. Now he has 2 Championship Rings. PCL and National.
