WISHING A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO
J.D. Davis - April 2016
Photo by Jayne Hansen
4/26: OF Franklin Pinto (17)
4/27: 3B/1B J.D. Davis (25)
4/28: IF Jonathan Matute (21)
TWEET OF THE WEEK
My uncle and cousins cheering me on back home 💕 pic.twitter.com/6ZqSZbG18I— Joshua Rojas (@JoshRojass) April 21, 2018
ROSTER MOVES/TRANSACTIONS
Note that some of these moves to and from the GCL and Tri-City (teams which are not yet playing) are likely moves on paper only for the purposes of roster management. In addition, several Quad Cities pitchers were moved to give the team enough fresh arms for two double-headers over the weekend.
4/23: C/1B Kelvin Perez (Dominican Summer League) released
4/22: RHP Brendan Feldmann assigned to the GCL from Corpus Christi
4/21: RHP Humberto Castellanos assigned to Quad Cities from extended spring training
4/22: RHP Dariel Aquino assigned to Quad Cities from extended spring training
4/21: RHP Tanner Duncan assigned to Quad Cities from extended spring training
4/21: RHP Carlos Sanabria assigned to Tri-City from Quad Cities
4/21: RHP Robert Corniel assigned to Tri-City from Quad Cities
4/21: LHP Cole Watts assigned to Tri-City from Quad Cities
4/21: LHP Patrick Sandoval assigned to Tri-City from Quad Cities
4/20: RHP J.B. Bukauskas assigned to Tri-City from Quad Cities
4/20: IF Alfredo Angarita assigned to Buies Creek from extended spring training
4/20: RHP Cesar Rosado assigned to Quad Cities from Tri-City
4/17: RHP Brendan Feldmann assigned to Corpus Christi from Buies Creek
4/18: RHP James Hoyt optioned from Houston to Fresno
ASTROS MILB DISABLED LIST
4/17: LHP Chris Nunn (Fresno) placed on the 7-day DL
4/7: C Eduardo de Oleo (Fresno) placed on the 7-day DL
4/5: RHP David Paulino (Fresno) placed on the 7-day DL
4/5: RHP Ryan Thompson assigned to Fresno (starting the season on the 7-day DL)
4/5: DH Randy Vasquez (Quad Cities) placed on the 7-day DL
4/5: RHP Edgardo Sandoval (Quad Cities) placed on the 7-day DL
4/5: RHP Matt Ruppenthal assigned to Quad Cities (starting the season on the 7-day DL)
4/5: RHP Ángel Heredia (Corpus Christi) placed on the 7-day DL
4/5: RHP Nick Hernandez (Corpus Christi) placed on the 7-day DL
4/5: RHP Jose Luis Hernández (Buies Creek) placed on the 7-day DL
ASTROS MILB STANDINGS
FRESNO (Pacific Coast League)
1st 13-5 .722 -.-GB L1
CORPUS CHRISTI (Texas League)
🠉T1st 10-6 .625 -.-GB W4
BUIES CREEK (Carolina League)
🠉1st 12-6 .667 -.-GB W1
QUAD CITIES (Midwest League)
🠉7th 5-9 .357 5.5GB W1
ASTROS MILB STANDOUTS FOR THE WEEK
For the week of 4/16 through 4/23, here are just a few of the players whose work has really stood out ...
FRESNO
3B/1B J.D. Davis: 7G .448/.500/.724 2-2B 2HR 8RBI 3BB:5K
RHP Mike Hauschild: 2 starts/2 wins 12.2IP 2.13 ERA/0.868 WHIP 0BB:15K
RHP Matt Ramsey: 3 games/1 win 3.1IP 0.00 ERA/0.000 WHIP 0BB:8K
Plus, the catching duo at Fresno is on 🔥🔥🔥!
C Garrett Stubbs: 4G .444/.474/.611
C Tim Federowicz: 3G .500/.538/.583
And Tony Kemp had a great week as well, collecting 9 RBI!
CORPUS CHRISTI
OF Myles Straw: 6G .520/.581/.680 2-3B 4RBI 4BB:4SO 3SB:1CS
RHP Josh James: 1 start 5.0IP 0.00 ERA/0.800 WHIP 0BB:7K
RHP Ralph Garza: 1 relief outing 4.0IP 2H 0BB:6K
Also, IF Nick Tanielu slugged 1.000 in only four games (3HR 6RBI) while 1B Taylor Jones had a .950 SLG% in his five games (4-2B 2HR 8RBI).
BUIES CREEK
SS Anibal Sierra: 7G .391/.462/.652 3-2B HR 5RBI 2BB:7K 0SB:3CS
OF Ronnie Dawson: 7G .333/.500/.583 2B 3B HR 3RBI 8BB:7K 7SB:0CS
RHP Abdiel Saldaña - 2 starts/1 win 10.2IP 0.00 ERA/0.656 WHIP 2BB:5K
RHP Ronel Blanco - 2 relief outings/1 win 4.2IP 0H 0R 1BB:6K 0-5IRS
Ronnie Dawson wasn't the only BC Astro who was scampering around the bases last week. IF Josh Rojas stole 6 bags for the week and is currently leading the system with 12 total.
QUAD CITIES
Honestly, Quad Cities has gotten off to a very slow start with the bats this season. OF J.J. Matijevic had the best week at the plate, but only played in four games. He was .417/.563/.750 in those games. And C Michael Papierski managed a .600 OBP in his four games, drawing seven walks.
And it wasn't a very good week for starting pitching either with LHP Parker Mushinski arguably having the best week of the bunch. He made one start, allowing one unearned run on one hit and three walks while striking out eight over four innings.
However, the one bright spot for the week was the relief pitching. A number of pitchers did a great job, but I was most impressed with RHP Humberto Castellanos who was pressed into service with bases loaded in his Low A Quad Cities debut. Not only did he strand all three inherited runners, he allowed only two hits (no walks and no runs) while striking out five over 5.1 innings.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Jonathan Arauz - August 2016
Photo by Jayne Hansen
I plan to feature one player each week who bears watching (we'll see how long this lasts when I get super busy with travel and interviews this season). Today's player is SS Jonathan Arauz. Here is what I wrote about Arauz in my Beyond the Top 30 series ...
Arauz is currently ranked by Baseball Prospectus at number 6 and by MLB Pipeline at number 23. After missing the first 50 games of the 2017 season on the restricted list (tested positive for a methamphetamine), Arauz was sent to Quad Cities where he hit a less than robust .220/.331/.276 in 36 games and was subsequently demoted to Tri-City for the remainder of the season. He hit .264/.341/.364 at the lower level. But keep in mind that he is a solid defender who only turned 19 toward the end of the 2017 season. Look for Arauz to start the 2018 season back with Quad Cities where he will try to catch up with full season A pitching.
The biggest key to Arauz's continued development as a top prospect is any improvement he can show with his hit tool at the higher levels. Through his first 13 games (tiny sample size alert!), he is hitting .283/.377/.326 with Quad Cities and has drawn seven walks to only six strikeouts. Although this is a very small sample size, it is a good sign for the 19-year old as he plays against players who are two to three years older than him.
NEWS AND LINKS
Some sports actually pay their lower level players a livable wage. Hmmm, imagine that.
Some of the Quad Cities staff members helped restore a famous Iowa landmark.
MiLB.com shows Corpus Christi's OF Myles Straw and 2B Ryne Birk a little love.
In case you missed this post on the Astros Cuban Contingent, I've updated it with the players stats through Saturday's games.
Checking in on the former Astros playing in Independent and International Leagues.
FORMER ASTROS UPDATE
Teoscar Hernández - April 2013
Photo by Jayne Hansen
As you probably recall, Hernández was included (along with OF Nori Aoki) in a July 2017 trade with the Blue Jays for LHP Francisco Liriano. He played 26 games with the Blue Jays as a September callup last fall, but did not break major league camp with an assignment to the big league club out of Spring Training this season. However, it didn't take long for the Blue Jays to recall him on April 13th. Since then, Hernández has been on a tear, hitting .343/.395/.743 (3 doubles, 1 triple, 3 homeruns and 10 RBI in his first 8 games). We at WTHB are happy to see him flourishing in Toronto and wish him nothing but the best!
WE'RE COMING TO TAKE YOUR JOBS (WOMEN IN BASEBALL)
Yeah, you're not going to keep girls and women out of baseball by threatening them with physical harm.
And, yes, the Tri-City ValleyCats will be seeing a female umpire this season.
I provided links last week to some of Alyson Footer's great work covering The Trailblazer series. Here is the final installment.
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