On the other hand, Anthony Huezo is mired in an 0-19 slump. He has gone hitless in every game this month. Still plenty of May left, but his volatility has been on full display.
Tonight's homers Tommy Sacco (1 with Sugar Land; 6 season) Cavan Biggio (3) Daniel Johnson (1) C.J. Alexander (9) Joseph Sullivan (8) Jason Schiavone (14) Freuddy Batista (2)
Well, Jason Schiavone hit his 15th homer of the season today… as Asheville is getting bludgeoned 15-3. Don’t look at Nolan DeVos’s pitching line from this game.
There are several P in the upper levels who have been able to throw strikes and be effective. With Houston’s staff allowing more walks than any other team by far, help may be on the way: P bb%: Ethan Pecko 4.5% Colton Gordon 6.1% Josh Hendrickson 6.6% Brandon McPherson 7.4% Brett Gillis 7.5% James Hicks 8.2% Bryce Mayer 9% Alimber Santa 9.4% I really don’t understand why they haven’t had Gordon in the rotation in this stretch where they were so short on guys and needed innings.
Early game for Fayetteville today. Jagger Beck: 4.2 IP, 6 H, ER, 3 BB, 7 K; five of the six hits he allowed were singles. Sugar Land will also have an early start in Tacoma today at 1:35 (11:35 there).
Dodgers acquired Alek Thomas today after he was DFA by Arizona I was hoping we would put a claim in on him. He is another high upside low floor type that we have several of, but when you go in that direction you need as many of them as you can get
FCL Astros are 5-0. 19 yo P Angel Peralta is off to a brilliant start. Monday transactions were mild, Kenni Gomez sent down to FCL, Mason Lytle sent down to Asheville. Most notably, SP Brandon McPherson was promoted to AAA and SP Jose Guedez was promoted to AA.
Last year the Astros DSL teams played well (for once). Maybe this year's FCL team will continue that success. FCL is a long way from the MLB ... but ... the Astros may be doing a better job with their DSL prospects than previous years or perhaps the Astros got lucky with this set of DSL prospects. Hoping fo the former but can live with the latter
One underdiscussed difference between Luhnow and Click/Brown is that Luhnow placed a heavy emphasis on his minor league teams winning games. He hyped up when they won division and league championships and I believe he considered winning when he structured his rosters. I know Brown is dealing with a shallower system but it’s also pretty clear to me that he really isn’t concerned about whether teams on the farm are winning games. I think developing a culture where minor league players take pride in winning and get experience playing in “important” games is an underrated aspect of building a big league team. I wish Brown thought the same way, even if it meant assigning players to lower levels or promoting them more slowly.
Alimber Santa has played his way onto the roster; unless he gets hurt or melts down, he won’t pass through the Rule 5 draft again. He’s sitting at 17.2ip 1.53era 24k 6bb.
Jackson Nezuh allowed three hits and struck out three over five shutout innings for Corpus. Anthony Cruz, who entered tonight with a 12.08 ERA for Asheville, threw 5.1 scoreless in relief and allowed two hits, walked three, and struck out four. His ERA is now down to 8.50.
That was definitely a thing about the Luhnow regime but I also think it was a "place and time" type value system. Luhnow had the benefit of a long run way. He could build up/build out the farm in a particular way cuz there wasn't a driving need to get talent up to the big leagues. He pretty much got to draft high picks and more casually promote them. Even then, I'm not particularly convinced that the whole "learning to win at every level" truly means that much. The players that were difference makers from that era were top prospects anyway. They got to the bigs and still had to take their licks in learning how to win at the big league level. It's completely different for Dana Brown. He doesn't have that luxury of time. I'm fine with his strategy. It just more depends on his talent scouting and development skills, which thus far haven't particularly impressed me.
Option Cam Smith, Yainer Diaz, and Tatsuya Imai until they show they can play to their potential. That will also secure another year of control over Smith and Diaz. Trade Hunter Brown, Jeremy Pena, Jake Meyers, Peter Lambert, and any rental players for prospects. Sign Seiya Suzuki, Christian Vazquez, Sonny Gray, Kris Bubic, and David Bednar to 2-3 year free agent deals. 2026 post deadline roster: 2B Altuve DH Alvarez 3B Paredes LF Loperfido 1B Walker CF Cole/Matthews RF Dezenzo SS Shewmake C Salazar Bench: Allen, Price, Trammell, Alexander SP: Arrighetti, Burrows, Pecko, Teng, Gordon RP: Hader, King, Pearson, Blubaugh, Bolton, Santa, VanWey, Weiss 2027 roster: 2B Altuve DH Alvarez 3B Paredes LF Suzuki SS Correa 1B Walker RF Smith CF Cole/Matthews C Vazquez Bench: Shewmake, Diaz, Loperfido SP: Gray, Bubic, Arrighetti, Burrows, Imai, Pecko RP: Hader, Bednar, King, Blubaugh, Pearson, Teng, Blanco Astros basically have to try to be competitive thru 2028. But they can do that and rebuild if Crane is willing to pony up to replace traded players.
A big difference as well is that Luhnow would stand up to Crane at times and fight to not let Crane do what he wanted. There were numerous trades that Luhnow went to the mat with Crane to avoid from happening. Luhnow knew when to give in and when not to. From what I have been told, Brown views himself strictly as an employee. If Crane wants to sign someone or trade for someone, Brown does it without question unless Crane wants his input. That is a problem when you end up with guys like Abreu, Walker, Tatsuya and others. Brown is left with trying to build a minor league system with sub optimum draft picks. Brown also did not do himself any favors when he pushed out the women in the organization. He is supposedly defensive about that, is adamant that he didn't -- but they left, and did not really leave happy.
Adrian Ardines had a great game in the FCL, throwing 5 perfect innings with 7 strikeouts. He also got 6 ground outs.
Those 5 perfect innings from Ardines was part of a combined no-hitter... the only baserunner reached via a walk. Andrew Dunford struck out one in a 1-2-3 2nd inning in his first appearance with the Astros organization.
