Brett Gillis allowed two hits and struck out five over four scoreless for Corpus. Gillis has hit triple digits with his fastball in the past. He's only pitched 54 innings since turning pro, so whatever faint chance he has to get to the MLB level hinges on his health.
On Clutch City Podcast, they asked one of the main minor league front office guys and he said Neyens will split time between SS and 3B this season. And Alvarez is a very young 18, birthday 1/13/2008.
I feel like he's gotten surprisingly little fanfare for a guy who apparently throws hard and limits walks. Great debut for him.
For a team whose MLB window is closed and minor league system is historically bad, this has been a very fun year so far! In all seriousness, through all the regime changes, the Astros continue to prove they are smarter than the consensus. Is it really Crane and whatever culture he has set up that deserves the credit?
I think one very underrated aspect of Houston’s last decade has been the benefit they’ve gotten from front office turnover. Every time they’ve gotten a new GM or AGM they get a trove of new information. When they hired Luhnow they got all the best of the Cardinals institutional knowledge, then Click brought in the Rays to add to it, then Brown brought in the Braves and Jays. Keeping fresh perspectives and preventing complacency is huge, and Crane deserves a lot of credit for Houston being able to do that this long.
Miguel Ullola @ Jacksonville: 4 IP, 2 H (both singles), ER, 3 BB, 8 K The run was an inherited runner that was charged to him.
This might shape up to be a crucial year for the catchers, especially if Yainer is starting to plateau. *looking in Walker Janek's general direction*
Juan Sierra homered again for Fayetteville. He's the first person in the system to hit more than one home run this year.
Asheville is playing an early game today and Andrew Taylor is the SP. So it looks like their piggyback rotation is: Hertzler/Taylor Smith/Pena Howard/DeVos Rodriguez/Cruz Fayetteville looks to be doing a 10 man piggypack: Pentecost/Perez Carrera/Wells Aguilar/Smith Verdugo/Beck Potter/Oakes Corpus and Sugar Land are doing more traditional 5-6 men rotations. Sugar Land: Alexander, Gordon, Arrighetti, Ullola, Lambert; Pecko will likely take Arrighetti's spot. Corpus: Hicks, McPherson, Gillis, Nezuh, Mayer; my guess is Tredwell takes McPherson's spot when he gets healthy. C Jason Schiavone and OF Chase Call have homered in today's game so far.
Justin Thomas also homered for Asheville. He and Schiavone both finished with two hits as the Tourists won 8-7. Eurys Martich led off the 9th by walking the bases loaded, then walked in a run. He then recorded three straight outs with a strikeout and a game-ending double play to get the save.
Nick Potter went 3 IP 2H 2R/ER 0 BB 4K 1 HR in his profile debut yesterday. He gave up a couple of hard hit balls, but 72% strikes is a pretty encouraging sign for a guy who has basically no track record of throwing strikes.
Jason Schiavone and Josh Wakefield both hit their second home runs of the season for Asheville and Fayetteville, respectively. Cole Hertzler @ Greensboro: 5 IP, 3 H (2 solo homers), 2 ER, 3 BB, 8 K Javier Perez vs. Charleston: 4 IP, 3 H (all solo homers), 3 ER, BB, 5 K OK, maybe the development team was on to something when they kept name-dropping Schiavone for much of this offseason. He showed great on-base skills, even though the other aspects of offense were largely absent last year. Maybe the cameo in Asheville unlocked something with him.
More roster moves came thru today OF Tyler Whitaker was activated in AA, OF/3B James Nelson was promoted to AAA. P Michael Knorr, IF Jeron Williams, and P Nico Zeglin were placed on the 7 day IL. P Alonzo Tredwell was placed on the 60 day IL, so he will be out until at least early June. P Roddery Munoz was outrighted to AAA. Only 4 players in the system are still in roster limbo: P Glenn Otto, C Carlos Cauro, OF Edwin Sanchez, and OF DJ Newman.
The Astros will have a fairly strong Rule 5 class on the pitching side: Lock: Ethan Pecko High risk: Hudson Leach James Hicks Brett Gillis Moderate risk: Jackson Nezuh Alonzo Tredwell Low risk: Andrew Taylor Nic Swanson Joey Mancini Trey Dombroski Alimber Santa Michael Knorr Logan VanWey Alex Santos II Jose Fleury Amilcar Chirinos Nolan DeVos Wilmy Sanchez Derek True Railin Perez Colby Langford Trey McLaughlin Luis Rodriguez Anthony Cruz Alain Pena Yeriel Sanchez Eurys Martich Luis Aguilar Pecko is almost sure to be called up this year if he is healthy. Gillis and Leach could also be called up if Houston has a need later in the season and they’re pitching well. Gillis has very good stuff. I imagine any of those guys in High A will be pushed to AA fairly early in the season if they show promise so Houston can get a better idea of if they need to be protected. There really aren’t any position players who project as Rule 5 risks to any meaningful degree.
