Astros Farm Report: 9-16

One final regularly scheduled Astros farm report to wrap up the season ...

Two teams (Fayetteville and Round Rock) made it to their respective League Championship Series, but ultimately neither team was able to bring home the hardware. The Astros minor league season officially ended on Saturday with Fayetteville's loss to Wilmington in Game 5. Despite a brilliant outing from MLB Pipeline 29th ranked Astro prospect Luis Garcia (6.1 IP 3H 1R 0BB 11K), Garcia was charged with the loss as the solo home run he allowed in the fourth inning proved to be all the run support Wilmington needed.

There will be one final minor league game on Tuesday as the Pacific Coast League Champion Sacramento River Cats will face the International League Champion Columbus Clippers for a one-game winner-take-all AAA Championship game on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. CT at the Memphis Redbirds Autozone Park. The game will be televised on FS1.

ROSTER MOVES/TRANSACTIONS

Here are the final roster moves for the minor league season. An ongoing list of all of the 2019 season transactions and roster moves can be found here.

9-14: IF Jack Mayfield recalled to Houston
9-13: SS Carlos Correa sent to Round Rock on a rehab assignment
9-7: SS/2B Anibal Sierra assigned to Round Rock from Corpus Christi
9-7: RHP Bryan Abreu recalled to Houston
9-7: RHP Colin McKee assigned to Round Rock from Corpus Christi
9-5: LHP Reymin Guduan released
9-5: OF/SS Myles Straw recalled to Houston
9-5: IF Osvaldo Duarte assigned to Round Rock from Corpus Christi
9-4: RHP Bryan Abreu assigned to Round Rock from Corpus Christi
9-4: RHP Forrest Whitley assigned to Round Rock from Corpus Christi
9-4: OF Ramiro Rodriguez (Quad Cities) activated from the IL
9-4: IF Michael Wielansky (Quad Cities) activated from the IL
9-4: 1B Zach Biermann assigned to Tri-City from Quad Cities
9-4: SS AJ Lee assigned to Tri-City from Quad Cities
9-4: RHP Jairo Lopez assigned to Quad Cities from Tri-City
9-3: LHP Reymin Guduan activated from the restricted list and designated for assignment
9-3: RHP Francis Martes assigned to Corpus Christi from Round Rock
9-2: LHP Cionel Perez recalled to Houston
9-2: C Garrett Stubbs recalled to Houston
9-2: OF Kyle Tucker recalled to Houston
9-2: OF Granden Goetzman (Corpus Christi) activated from the IL
9-2: OF Stephen Wrenn assigned to Round Rock from Corpus Christi
9-2: 2B/3B Enmanuel Valdez (Fayetteville) placed on the 7-day IL
9-2: RHP Francis Martes (Round Rock) activated from the IL
9-2: RHP Yeremi Ceballos assigned to Fayetteville from Tri-City
9-2: LHP Juan Pablo Lopez assigned to Quad Cities from Tri-City
9-1: RHP Francis Martes (Round Rock) sent to Quad Cities on a rehab assignment

2019 FINAL SEASON STANDINGS

AAA ROUND ROCK (Pacific Coast League/American Southern Division)
Division Winner
Won over Iowa in Semifinals 3-2
Lost to Sacramento in LCS 0-3

1st 84-56 .600 -.-GB L1

AA CORPUS CHRISTI (Texas League/South Division)

4th 66-73 .475 7.0GB L3

ADV A FAYETTEVILLE (Carolina League/Southern Division)
2nd half Division Winner
Won over Down East in the Semifinals 3-2
Lost to Wilmington in LCS 2-3

3rd 72-67 .518 15.0GB W2

LOW A QUAD CITIES (Midwest League/Western Division)
1st half Division Winner
Lost to Cedar Rapids in MWL Quarterfinals 1-2

2nd 79-57 .581 0.5GB W1

SHORT SEASON A TRI-CITY (New York-Penn League/Stedler Division)
4th 32-42 .432 9.0GB W3

ROOKIE LEVEL GULF COAST LEAGUE (East Division)
4th 25-26 .490 3.5GB W1

ROOKIE LEVEL DOMINICAN SUMMER LEAGUE (Northwest Division)
2nd 38-31 .551 2.5GB W2

INTERVIEWS

The following links are to the interviews I conducted during the 2019 season. Here is a full list of links to all of the interviews I've done since December 2011.

Colin McKee
Enoli Paredes and Cristian Javier
Cesar Salazar
Brett Daniels
Felipe Tejada
AJ Lee
Peyton Battenfield
Franny Cobos and Juan Pablo Lopez
Austin Hansen
Jake Adams
Nivaldo Rodriguez and Enmanuel Valdez
Colton Shaver
Brett Conine
Bryan Abreu and Ronel Blanco
Granden Goetzman
Osvaldo Duarte and Jose Urquidy
Stephen Wrenn

WATCH THIS SPACE

If you are a regular reader, you know that I have regularly featured players who I felt were flying below the radar this season, in other words, players who weren't considered top prospects. Two of those players (Nivaldo Rodriguez and Taylor Jones) have since been included on MLB Pipeline's Top Prospect List for the Astros at #26 and #28 respectively and I wouldn't be surprised to see others added to the list as some of the current top prospects graduate over time.

But one of the biggest impacts this season has been the emergence of several Latin pitchers who seemingly came out of nowhere. Coming into the season, Cristian Javier (#10), Jose Urquidy (#12), Nivaldo Rodriguez (#26), Luis Garcia (#29) and Jose Alberto Rivera (#30) were not ranked at all by MLB Pipeline. But some of us have been paying attention all along. I would advise against getting wrapped up in the MLB June Draft as the be-all and end-all of player acquisition. The Astros have done an excellent job on the international front and the fruits of those labors are really starting to show.

So my final Watch This Space of the 2019 season is to remind you not to forget about the Latin players in the system. This group below from Corpus Christi represented 188 appearances (61 starts), a 32-26 record with 23 saves, and a 3.06 ERA and 1.169 WHIP over 558.2 innings. They combined for 708 strikeouts (11.4 SO/9). Watch this space ...

(L-R) Enoli Paredes, Erasmo Pinales, Bryan Abreu,

Yohan Ramirez, Carlos Sanabria, Willy Collado,

and Cristian Javier