Monday, July 16, 2018

Astros Farm Report: 7/16

Catching you up on the latest Astros MiLB news ...

WISHING A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO

Ángel Heredia - July 2014
Photo by Jayne Hansen

7/22: RHP Ángel Heredia (26)

ROSTER MOVES/TRANSACTIONS

According to the transaction info posted on the Astros website, 30 of the 40 draft picks for 2018 signed (all of the top 20 and 30 of the top 32).

7/16: IF Tyler White optioned to Fresno
7/14: OF Jake Marisnick optioned to Fresno
7/14: RHP Jose Luis Hernandez (Buies Creek) activated from the DL (had been on a rehab assignment with Tri-City)
7/13: RHP Brady Rodgers activated from the DL and optioned to Fresno (had been sent to Fresno 7/12 on rehab assignment)
7/12: RHP Matt Ramsey (Fresno) sent to the GCL on a rehab assignment (on the DL since 5-29)
7/12: RHP Tommy DeJuneas assigned to Buies Creek from Quad Cities
7/11: RHP Ken Giles optioned to Fresno
7/11: LHP Cionel Perez (Corpus Christi) recalled to Houston
7/11: RHP Hector Perez assigned to Corpus Christi from Buies Creek
7/11: OF Carmen Benedetti activated from the Corpus Christi DL
7/11: RHP J.P. France (14th round pick) assigned to Tri-City
7/10: OF Jake Marisnick (Fresno) recalled to Houston
7/10: RHP Carlos Sanabria assigned to Buies Creek from Quad Cities
7/10: LHP Adam Bleday (Buies Creek) released (2017 27th round draft pick out of the University of Pennsylvania)
7/10: RHP Edgardo Sandoval (Quad Cities) sent from GCL to Tri-City on a rehab assignment
7/10: RHP Luis Garcia assigned to Quad Cities from Tri-City
7/10: RHP Bryan Abreu assigned to Quad Cities from Tri-City
7/10: RHP Dariel Aquino (Quad Cities) released (signed out of the Dominican Republic in March 2013)
7/10: RHP Ian Hardman (Tri-City) released (2016 36th round draft pick out of Seminole State College)
7/10: RHP Jacob Billingsley (32nd round pick) assigned to Tri-City
7/9: SS Ricardo Balogh signed (16 year old from the Dominican Republic)

ASTROS MILB DISABLED LIST

7/11: RHP Forrest Whitley (Corpus Christi) placed on the 7-day DL
7/11: RHP Carlos Sierra (Corpus Christi) placed on the 7-day DL
6/19: OF Drew Ferguson (Fresno) placed on the 7-day DL (hand)
6/1: LHP Yeremi Ceballos (DSL) placed on the 60-day DL
6/1: RHP Carlos Quintero (DSL) placed on the 60-day DL
5/26: RHP David Paulino (Fresno) placed on the 7-day DL (retroactive to the 25th)
5/4: RHP Francis Martes (Fresno) placed on the 7-day DL
5/3+/-: RHP Gerardo Bojorquez had TJ surgery per Instagram post
4/5: RHP Ryan Thompson assigned to Fresno (starting the season on the 7-day DL); according to Instagram Ryan has had surgery, but I don't know whether or not it was TJ
4/5: RHP Matt Ruppenthal assigned to Quad Cities (starting the season on the 7-day DL; according to Instagram, Ruppenthal had elbow surgery to transpose the ulnar nerve in early April and started to throw mid-June)
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 (Tommy John)
No date: RHP Alex House (Tri-City) appears to be on the DL per his Instagram account but working his way back (end of June)

ASTROS MILB RESTRICTED LIST

6/22: RHP Yoanys Quiala placed on the restricted list (80 game suspension for performance-enhancing substance); Quiala won't be eligible to play again until approximately mid-April of 2019.

MISSING IN ACTION

Now that all of the short season teams have started playing, I've gone through my records and the following players all show as "active" on MiLB, but they haven't played yet this season. If anyone has any info on the following players, please let me know.

RHP Hunter Martin
LHP Javier Navas
RHP Kyle Serrano - made his first appearance of the season for the GCL team 7/6

I will be keeping track of all the releases, retirements, trades and signings for the 2018 season here.

FEATURED PLAYER

You can be forgiven if you don't know who Andy Piñeda is. Although he is in his fifth season with the Astros organization, he had not progressed beyond short season Tri-City until his June 29th promotion to Corpus Christi. His 2017 season with Tri-City was rather uneven, but the Astros front office must have seen marked improvement in the 21-year old Dominican in his time at extended Spring Training this year since Piñeda played only four games with Tri-City before leapfrogging the two full season A-level teams and landing directly with the AA Hooks. Part of the reasoning for this move is likely that the Astros have been, for the most part, moving players much more aggressively over the past couple of years, particularly those that have been in the system for four or five years. But it is unlikely that they would have moved Piñeda all the way to AA unless they felt he was up to the challenge. And he certainly has proven that he is in the early going. In 11 games with the Hooks, he is hitting .364/.417/.591 with two doubles, a triple and two home runs. Yes, it is a small sample size, but with Piñeda's speed, defensive capabilities and developing power, he will be a fun player to watch.

Andy Piñeda - July 2018
Photo by Jayne Hansen

ASTROS MILB STANDINGS
Up and down arrows represent increase/decrease in win percentage over the prior week.

FRESNO (Pacific Coast League)
🠋1st 54-39 .581 -.-GB W2

CORPUS CHRISTI (Texas League)
🠋1st 60-32 .652 -.-GB L1 (overall)
1st 17-6 .739 -.-GB L1 (second half)
1st 43-26 .623 -.-GB W5 (first half division winner)

The Hooks have made the playoffs as the first half winners of the Texas League South Division.

BUIES CREEK (Carolina League)
🠋2nd 53-41 .564 4.0GB L1 (overall)
2nd 16-9 .640 0.5GB L1 (second half)
2nd 37-32 .536 3.5GB L1 (first half)

QUAD CITIES (Midwest League)
🠉2nd 52-41 .559 0.5GB W1 (overall)
T4th 12-11 .522 3.5GB W1 (second half)
1st 40-30 .571 -.-GB W6 (first half division winner)

The River Bandits have made the playoffs as the first half winners of the Midwest League Western Division.

TRI-CITY (New York-Penn League)
🠉1st 17-12 .586 -.-GB W2

GCL ASTROS (Gulf Coast League)
🠉3rd 12-11 .522 4.0GB W6

DSL ASTROS (Dominican Summer League Northwest)
🠉6th 15-21 .417 10.0GB L1

NEWS AND LINKS

Hooks 3B Abraham Toro (see below for my interview with him) made FanGraphs Fringe Five. h/t to Astros County

Astros 2017 1st round pick J.B. Bukauskas is making his way back.

A cold, nasty Spring did not help MiLB attendance numbers.

FanGraphs updated their Top 10 Astros prospects. Notably, Hooks RHP Corbin Martin's stock is on the rise. Look for my interview with him coming out later this week.

The social media post for the new draft picks has been updated to denote those players who have officially signed.

And in case you missed any of these, here are my recent interviews:

RHP Corbin Martin (Corpus Christi) - coming soon
3B Abraham Toro (Corpus Christi)
RHP Trent Thornton (Fresno)
OF Chas McCormick (Buies Creek, since promoted to Corpus Christi)
OF J.J. Matijevic (Buies Creek)
RHP Brandon Bielak (Buies Creek, since promoted to Corpus Christi)
LHP Brett Adcock (Buies Creek)
SS Alex De Goti (Corpus Christi)
1B Taylor Jones (Corpus Christi, since promoted to Fresno)
RHP Brock Dykxhoorn (Corpus Christi, since promoted to Fresno)
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 16, 2018 at 11:24 AM

    Missed 07/11/2018 Retired Fresno Grizzlies Trent Woodward 3B Trent Woodward retired.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dustin NguyenJuly 17, 2018 at 6:50 AM

      We've known about that for a while, that's why it wasn't listed. I guess it was made official on that day

      Delete

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