Happy Minor League Opening Day!!

Happy Minor League Opening Day!! Here's what you may have missed since the end of last season if you haven't been paying attention ...

TRANSACTIONS

First of all, Dustin has done a great job of keeping everyone up to date with all of the 2018-2019 Offseason Transactions, including all of the offseason trades, releases and other maneuvering. Of particular note is the January 2019 acquisition of three players traded from the Mets for J.D. Davis and Cody Bohanek:

OF Ross Adolph (2018 12th round draft pick out of the University of Toledo) hit .276/.348/.509/.857 in his first professional season at the short season A level. Adolph has been ranked by MLB Pipeline as the #30 prospect in the Astros system and is assigned to full season A Quad Cities to start the season.

2B Luis Santana (19-year old Dominican signed in July 2016) hit .348/.446/.471/.917 in his first season domestically (third season overall) in 2018 for the rookie level Appalachian League. He is currently ranked #21 in the Astros system by MLB Pipeline and is expected to start his season in June with the short season Tri-City team.

C Scott Manea (2014 40th round draft pick out of St. John's HS, Shrewsbury, MA) hit .261/.368/.432/.800 in his first season at the full season A level in 2018 and will start the season with Advanced A Fayetteville.

TOP PROSPECTS

And speaking of MLB Pipeline, here is the pre-season Top 30 Prospect list for the Astros. In addition to the inclusion of Luis Santana and Ross Adolph to the list, there are several other players who weren't on the list at all to end the 2018 season. They are #8 RHP Bryan Abreu (who was added to the 40-man roster in advance of the Rule 5 draft last fall), #12 RHP Peter Solomon, #13 OF Ronnie Dawson, #26 SS/2B Deury Carrasco and #28 RHP Enoli Paredes. Baseball America also included RHP Manny Ramirez (a 19-year old who ended 2018 with the short season A team) and a fully healthy RHP Brady Rodgers (May 2017 TJ surgery) in their 2019 Prospect Handbook. FanGraphs had a few more prospects on their list published last month, as they included 39 players rather than 30. Baseball Prospectus limited their list to 10 with no huge surprises emerging.

With several players poised to graduate from the list (such as current Astros players RHP Josh James and LHP Framber Valdez as well as others who are awaiting their return to Houston), there will likely be a great deal of movement on the list this season. Now that he has fully recovered from an ACL injury in late 2016 that sidelined his 2017 season, I look for 3B Nick Tanielu to be one of the first additions to the Top 30 list as he tries to build on a spectacular spring. I could also easily name 20 pitchers in the system who are on the cusp of really breaking through in a big way. There is a ton of depth in the system, but I think the pitching depth is really the greatest strength in the system right now.

OFFSEASON AND SPRING TRAINING PERFORMANCES

Here are a few players who performed particularly well in fall and winter leagues ...

Arizona Fall League
3B Abraham Toro: 19 G | .348/.463/.561/1.023 | 12 BB:12 K
OF Ronnie Dawson: 25 G | .291/.417/.468/.885 | 10 SB:3 CS
RHP Forrest Whitley: 8 G | 26 IP | 2.42 ERA | 0.96 WHIP | .189 BA | 7 BB:37 K

Dominican Winter League
RHP Rogelio Armenteros: 5 G | 23 IP | 1.17 ERA | 0.70 WHIP | .154 BA | 4 BB:22 K

Mexican Winter League
RHP Humberto Castellanos: 21 G | 22 IP | 2.86 ERA | 1.18 WHIP | .231 BA | 8 BB:15 K

Puerto Rican Winter League
RHP Colin McKee: 10 G | 10.1 IP | 0.00 ERA | 0.48 WHIP | .121 BA | 1 BB:13 K
(Converted 5 of 6 save opportunities)

Venezuelan Winter League
RHP Akeem Bostick: 8 G | 32 IP | 2.81 ERA | 1.06 WHIP | .205 BA | 10 BB:27 K

And a few Spring Training standouts ...

3B Nick Tanielu: 51 AB | .353/.411/.804/1.215
OF Myles Straw: 45 AB | .378/.417/.511/.928
3B Abraham Toro: 44 AB | .341/.396/.591/.987

RHP J.B. Bukauskas: 16 IP | 1.69 ERA | 1.13 WHIP | 9 BB:21 K
RHP Forrest Whitley: 15 IP | 3.00 ERA | 1.07 WHIP | 5 BB:17 K
RHP Corbin Martin: 16.1 IP | 3.86 ERA | 1.22 WHIP | 6 BB:16 K

ROSTERS

Dustin serves up a little history and context to go with the Opening Day rosters.

Meet the 2019 Round Rock Express

Meet the 2019 Corpus Christi Hooks

Meet the 2019 Fayetteville Woodpeckers

Meet the 2019 Quad Cities River Bandits

COACHING STAFF

Dustin also put together this great post on the minor league coaching staff for each of the Astros minor league teams in 2019. Notably absent from the 2019 staff are Rodney Linares, Josh Bonifay, Chris Holt and Morgan Ensberg. A long-time MiLB Manager in the Astros system, Linares is now the third base coach for the Rays. Bonifay, MiLB Field Coordinator for the Astros in 2018, is now the Director of Player Development for the Phillies. Chris Holt went from MiLB Pitching Coordinator for the Astros in 2018 to fill that same position for the Orioles in 2019. Ensberg managed the Buies Creek Astros to a league championship in 2018; he will now be helming the Rays AA affiliate, the Montgomery Biscuits. Also missing from the 2019 staff is Cesar Cedeno who has been a hitting coach in the Astros system for several years.

2018 FINAL STANDINGS

As a reminder, this is how the various Astros minor league teams finished in 2018 (including postseason results). The AAA team has moved from Fresno to Round Rock in 2019 and the Advanced A team has moved from Buies Creek into their new home in Fayetteville in 2019. They remain in the same leagues; however, the AAA team will be in a new division of the Pacific Coast League now that they are in Round Rock.

AAA FRESNO (Pacific Coast League) - Won the PCL Pacific Northern Division

1st 82-57 .590 -.-GB W1

POSTSEASON
Won the Pacific Conference Championship 3-2 over El Paso
Lost the Pacific Coast League Championship series to Memphis 3-1

AA CORPUS CHRISTI (Texas League) - Won both 1st and 2nd halves in South Division

1st 82-56 .594 -.-GB W2 (overall)
1st 39-30 .565 -.-GB W2 (second half)
1st 43-26 .623 -.-GB W5 (first half division winner)

POSTSEASON
Lost the South Division Championship Series to San Antonio 3-2
San Antonio went on to lose to Tulsa in the Texas League Championship Series 3-0

Adv A BUIES CREEK (Carolina League) - Won the 2nd half in the Southern Division

2nd 80-57 .584 3.5GB W2 (overall)
1st 43-25 .632 -.-GB W2 (second half)
2nd 37-32 .536 3.5GB L1 (first half)

POSTSEASON 🏆
Won the Southern Division Championship 3-0 over Winston-Salem
Won the one-game* League Championship Series 1-0 over Potomac 1-0

*Originally to be a five game series until Hurricane Florence crashed the party.

Low A QUAD CITIES (Midwest League) - Won the 1st half in the Western Division

1st 81-59 .579 -.-GB W5 (overall)
2nd 41-29 .586 4.0GB W5 (second half)
1st 40-30 .571 -.-GB W6 (first half division winner)

POSTSEASON
Lost the Western Division Quarterfinal 2-0 to Peoria
(Peoria went on to win the Western Division Championship series 2-0 over Cedar Rapids, but lost to Bowling Green 3-1 in the best-of-five League Championship Series.)

SSA TRI-CITY (New York-Penn League) - Won the Stedler Division
1st 42-33 .560 -.-GB L2

POSTSEASON 🏆
Won the Semi-Final Championship Series 2-0 over Mahoning Valley
Won the New York-Penn League Championship Series 2-0 over Hudson Valley

Rk GCL ASTROS (Gulf Coast League)
2nd 27-28 .491 12.5 L2

Rk DSL ASTROS (Dominican Summer League Northwest)
6th 30-41 .423 21.0GB L3

OPENING DAY SCHEDULE

Round Rock at New Orleans 7:00 CT
Amarillo at Corpus Christi 6:15 CT
Fayetteville at Potomac 6:05 CT
Quad Cities at Burlington 6:00 CT

OTHER POSTS

In case you missed these, I did a series on 20 years of the MLB draft on all 30 systems. A summary plus links to all the individual team posts can be found here. I also looked at the early results of the 2018 draft and the summary of that info can be found here.

And, finally, I combed through the rosters to find former Astros farmhands who are still playing in affiliated baseball. That post is here. I will do my annual post looking at former Astros playing in independent ball later this month.

And with that said, I think the only thing left to say is good luck to all the players out there and ...

PLAY BALL!!!