Sunday, June 11, 2017

Buies Creek Astros: Two Month Report Card

Two months plus into the minor league seasons, let's see how the Astros full season affiliates are shaping up. Today, we'll look at the High A Buies Creek Astros ...

Yoanys Quiala - May 2016
Photo by Jayne Hansen

STANDINGS

33-29 (16-8 in April; 14-15 in May; 3-6 in June)
Third Place (out of five teams in the division; elimination number for winning first half at 6)
3 Games Behind
27-19 within the Division
11-12 at Home
22-17 on the Road
3-7 in Last 10 Games

TEAM BATTING

.250 AVG: 6th out of 10 teams
.337 OBP: 3rd
.386 SLG: 4th
.723 OPS: 3rd
112 Doubles: 3rd
24 Triples: 2nd
40 Home Runs: 9th
255 Walks: 1st
537 Strikeouts: T-2nd
63 Stolen Bases: 3rd

TEAM PITCHING

3.99 ERA: 6th out of 10 teams
1.248 WHIP: 2nd
49 Home Runs Allowed: 3rd
212 Walks: 3rd
573 Strikeouts: 1st

INDIVIDUAL LEAGUE LEADERS
.311 AVG: 8th in the Carolina League
.420 OBP: 1st
33 Runs: T-12th
5 Triples: 5th
39 Walks: 3rd
15 Stolen Bases: T-4th (3 Caught Stealing)

OF Kyle Tucker (since promoted to Corpus Christi)
.288 AVG: 20th
.379 OBP: 10th
.554 SLG: 5th
.932 OPS: 3rd
31 Runs: T-17th
12 Doubles: T-14th
4 Triples: T-6th
9 Home Runs: T-6th
43 RBI: 4th
24 Walks: T-19th
13 Stolen Bases: T-9th (5 Caught Stealing)

OF Jason Martin (since promoted to Corpus Christi)
.454 SLG: 9th
.848 OPS: 12th
34 Runs: T-8th
7 Home Runs: T-11th
29 RBI: T-18th
9 Stolen Bases: 18th (5 Caught Stealing)

4 Triples: T-6th
29 RBI: T-18th

1B Dex McCall
32 Walks: T-6th

RHP Yoanys Quiala
2.68 ERA: 5th
0.974 WHIP: 3rd
53 Strikeouts: T-16th

LHP Framber Valdez (promoted to Corpus Christi 6/10)
53 Stikeouts: T-16th

RHP Nick Hernandez
7 Saves: 4th (1.46 ERA/0.811 WHIP)

With eight games left before the All-Star break, Buies Creeks' elimination number for the first half stands at six. It's not impossible for them to win the first half but it's not likely if they have any more four-game losing streaks as they recently did in early June.

The BC Astros had been extremely dominant to start the season and only recently tailed off (and fell out of first place), going 3-7 since the promotions of Kyle Tucker and Jason Martin to Corpus Christi. The good news is that the mid-May promotions of C Jake Rogers (.347/.440/.613) and 3B Randy Cesar (.273/.324/.318) are starting to pay off and the more recent addition of OF Stephen Wrenn and IF Alex De Goti should help as well.

Similarly, the contributions of RHP Akeem Bostick and LHP Alex Winkelman have been missed since their promotions to Corpus Christi. RHP Hector Perez has had decent success since his late April promotion to Buies Creek, but LHP Brett Adcock and LHP Ryan Hartman have yet to replicate their success at the lower level at this point (although I expect both of the lefties to start catching up to their competition soon). And top prospect RHP Franklin Perez (3.00 ERA/0.750 WHIP), who has only made six appearances so far this season, will leave his stamp on the team as he presumably gets more playing time.

The BC Astros should continue to stabilize and improve as some of the newer players get their feet under them so I fully expect them to remain in contention for the foreseeable future. However, the Astros will likely continue to challenge players to higher levels of competition and Buies Creek will see a lot of movement later this summer as the newly drafted players start to push their elders up or out.

1 comment:

  1. The tailing off should hardly be unexpected given their schedule to date has them playing two-thirds of their games on the road

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