Happy Birthday - 9/14

No future Astros with birthdays today, but two former Astros celebrate the day ~

C Cody Clark (33)
Originally drafted by the Rangers in the 11th round in 2003, the journeyman catcher finally made his MLB debut on August 23, 2013 after spending 11 years in the minor leagues. In 16 games with Houston, he hit .105/.128/.132.

LHP Frank Carpin (76)
After pitching for Pittsburgh in 1965 (3-1, 4 saves and a 3.18 ERA), Carpin was picked up by the Astros in the Rule 5 draft. He only appeared in 10 games for the Astros in 1966, compiling a 7.50 ERA and a 2.500 WHIP, and he played his last major league game on September 3, 1966.

Happy Birthday - 9/14

Happy Birthday to ~

C Cody Clark (32)
Originally drafted by the Rangers in the 11th round in 2003, the journeyman catcher finally made his MLB debut on August 23rd after spending 11 years in the minor leagues. In 44 games at Oklahoma City this season, he hit .217/.258/.273. And on the final day of his 31st year, Cody Clark got his first major league hit last night.

One former Astro with a birthday today:

LHP Frank Carpin (75)
After pitching for Pittsburgh in 1965 (3-1, 4 saves and a 3.18 ERA), Carpin was picked up by the Astros in the Rule 5 draft. He only appeared in 10 games for the Astros in 1966, compiling a 7.50 ERA and a 2.500 WHIP, and he played his last major league game on September 3, 1966.

Astros Minor League Roster Moves

In addition to the much discussed call-ups to Houston of RHP David Martinez (from Oklahoma City) and C Max Stassi (from Corpus Christi), there were a couple of other moves in the Astros minor league ranks yesterday.

Corpus Christi
C Cody Clark assigned from Oklahoma City to Corpus Christi

Tri-City
RHP Zachary Dando assigned from the GCL to Tri-City
RHP Tanner Bushue placed on the 7-day DL

Appy Astros - Catcher Development - Throwing Out More Runners

The other day I saw this tweet:

#qctimes @QCRiverBandits Roberto Pena throws out 3 LumberKings attempting to steal. He's denied 30 of 53. In '02 here, Joe Mauer 46-of-107
— Steve Batterson (@sbatt79) July 3, 2013

That is an impressive stat and puts him in impressive company.  It got me thinking about how well Roberto Pena has been throwing out runners this season and it made me curious about how much growth this showed. The growth with Pena was significant and I wondered if it was just him or were other catchers in the Astros organization showing similar growth. So I went back and looked across the system at each catcher who had caught in at least 20 games this season and compared their 2012 stolen base percentage (SB%) to their 2013 SB%. Click here to find out what I learned.

Roster Moves

According to Baseball America, the Astros signed 31-year old catcher Cody Clark. Clark spent the last few seasons in the Royals minor leagues and played for Brisbane in he Australian Baseball League over the winter. Since Chris Wallace is the only catcher currently in the organization who has spent any time at AAA, it makes sense to pick up a seasoned minor league veteran until some of the younger catchers are ready for the level.