Astros Minor League Recaps

Results for Saturday, April 30, 2016

Fresno 3, El Paso 0

W- Mike Hauschild (2-2)
L- Jeremy Guthrie (0-5)
S- James Hoyt (6)

Fresno home runs: None.

The Grizz got a fine outing from their hurlers as three of them combined to throw a 5-hit shutout.

Mike Hauschild breezed through 7 shutout innings, allowing 4 hits, walking 1, and striking out 1. Jandel Gustave struck out 1 in a 1-2-3 8th, and James Hoyt bounced back from a loss in his last appearance by working around a hit to shut the door, striking out 2 in the 9th to do so.

Danny Worth opened the scoring with an RBI single in the 1st. Fresno's other 2 runs came in the 5th on a Tony Kemp RBI triple and an RBI single from Jake Marisnick. Eury Perez went 2-3 with a triple and scored a run.

Tommy Shirley will start the series finale. He'll take on Daniel McCutchen at 1:05 Pacific.

Frisco 4, Corpus Christi 3

W- Adam Parks (1-0)
L- Brendan McCurry (0-1)

CC home runs: Chase McDonald (5, 2-run in 6th)

Teams from the Astros organization, from the Major League club on down, have won a grand total of 1 game against a team from the Rangers organization this season. It's getting a little absurd, really. This latest loss was a walk-off with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th.

Chase McDonald put Corpus on the board and in the lead by whacking a 2-run homer in the 6th, his 2nd home run in as many games. But again... to say that the Hooks offense is in a slump in the wake of Alex Bregman's injury is quite the understatement. McDonald's blast was one of just 3 hits that they could muster up. The other Hooks run came in the 9th when James Ramsay scored on an error that allowed Chan-Jong Moon to reach. Ramsay drew 3 walks in this one.

Edison Frias went 5 innings and allowed an unearned run on 4 hits, walked 2, and struck out 3. Cy Sneed tagged in and allowed 2 hits, walked 2, and struck out 4 over 3 scoreless. Brendan McCurry couldn't close it out as the Roughriders scored 3 in the bottom of the 9th to win. He allowed 3 hits, walked 2, and the 2 outs he recorded in the 9th were both strikeouts.

Keegan Yuhl gets the start for the Hooks today. First pitch is at 4:05.

Lake Elsinore 3, Lancaster 2

W- T.J. Weir (1-1)
L- Riley Ferrell (0-1)
S- Colby Blueberg (3)

Lancaster home runs: None.

The Storm took game 2 by scoring the game's final 3 runs.

Luis Reynoso finished 2-4; both of his hits were doubles, and he scored both of Lancaster's runs. He opened the scoring by stealing home in the 3rd and scored on a Jason Martin single in the 5th. Jason Martin and Alejandro Garcia (2B, SB [5]) also went 2-4.

Brock Dykxhoorn went 5.2 innings and had an inherited runner charged to him on 5 hits, walked 1, and fanned 1. Riley Ferrell had an uncharacteristically poor outing as he allowed a game-tying 2-run homer to Luis Tejada in the 6th. 1 of those runs was charged to Dykxhoorn. Ferrell allowed 2 runs on 3 hits and struck out 2. Angel Heredia struck out 2 in a 1-2-3 8th.

Scott Weathersby will start the series finale; he'll take on Chris Huffman at 1:00 Pacific.

Quad Cities and West Michigan was postponed

Due to rain. They'll play a doubleheader today starting at 12:15. Justin Ferrell will make his 2016 debut in game 1 against Beau Burrows, and Albert Abreu will face Eudis Idrogo in game 2.

Three Stars

3.

 

Luis Reynoso, IF, Lancaster, and Chase McDonald, 1B, Corpus Christi

Reynoso: 2-4, 2 2B, 2 R, SB (1)

McDonald: 2-R HR (5)

2.

Cy Sneed, RHP, Corpus Christi

3 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 4 K

1.

Mike Hauschild, RHP, Fresno

W (2-2), 7 IP, 4 H, BB, K

Honorable Mentions

Brock Dykxhoorn, RHP, Lancaster: 5.2 IP, 5 H, ER (inherited runner charged to him), BB, K
- He survived a month in possibly the toughest environment for pitchers in professional baseball. So far, so good.

James Hoyt, RHP, Fresno: Save (6), IP, H, 2 K
- Who gets to Houston first: James Hoyt, or Jandel Gustave?

Happy Birthday - 9/2

Happy Birthday to ~

IF Ronald Torreyes (22)
Originally signed by the Reds as a NDFA out of Venezuela, Torreyes came to the Astros system in a trade that sent two international bonus signing slots to the Cubs in July 2013. In 125 games with AAA Oklahoma City this season, he hit .298/.346/.377 with 20 doubles, five triples, and two home runs. He only walked 25 times, but then again, he only struck out 25 times over those 125 games as well!

IF Luis Reynoso (20)
Reynoso was signed as a non-drafted free agent out of the Dominican Republic in 2011 and first played for the DSL in 2012. Reynoso spent the 2014 season with the Greeneville Astros, hitting .233/.298/.310 in 36 games.

Astros Minor League Roster Moves

Oklahoma City
OF Chris Epps assigned from Lancaster to Oklahoma City

Quad Cities
2B Austin Elkins placed on the 7-day DL (effective 9/3)
SS Luis Reynoso assigned from Greeneville to Quad Cities

Happy Birthday - 9/2

Happy Birthday to ~

IF Ronald Torreyes (21)
Originally signed by the Reds as a NDFA out of Venezuela, Torreyes came to the Astros system in a trade that sent two international bonus signing slots to the Cubs back in July. In 37 games with Corpus Christi, he is hitting .270/.299/.338 (.462/.475/.667 over his last 10 games).

OF Austin Wates (25)
Drafted out of Virginia Tech by the Astros in the third round in 2010, Wates started off the season just as he left off the last one, spending only 23 games at Corpus Christi before getting promoted to AAA Oklahoma City in May. Unfortunately, Wates was hit by a pitch that fractured his forearm in late May and has missed the remainder of the season. In his 38 combined games between the two levels, he hit .309/.397/.412 with five doubles, three triples, one home run and 15 stolen bases.

SS Luis Reynoso (19)
Reynoso was signed as a non-drafted free agent out of the Dominican Republic in 2011 and first played for the DSL in 2012. He spent this season with the GCL, earning a promotion to Greeneville in time for the last game of the regular season. During the regular season, he hit .233/.322/.313 in 44 games.

Astros Minor League Depth - Shortstop

Over the next few weeks as we approach Spring Training, I'll be looking at the Astros minor league depth, position by position. Today, we look at the shortstops in the organization who had the best seasons in 2012.

The embedded chart shows shortstops in the organization ranked from high to low in terms of OBP. I have noted their current age, the last level at which they played and, if they spent significant time at multiple positions, that information is included as well. I am including Jake Elmore's minor league numbers since he is new to the system so that you can see how his 2012 minor league numbers compare.

Nolan Fontana leapfrogged rookie league and short season A ball in his first season and went directly to playing for the full season Lexington club where he led the organization in OBP thanks to 65 walks in only 49 games. He will ultimately have to show more aggressiveness at the plate, but it was a solid first season by any measure. Jake Elmore and Ben Orloff also showed very patient approaches at the plate. Both players drew walks more often than they struck out in 2012.

Carlos Correa had an uneven season thanks to a slow start with the GCL team. However, once he got to Greeneville, he turned on the afterburners and hit .371/.450/.600 in his final 11 games and exhibited stellar defensive capabilities. Another young player to watch is Luis Reynoso. Reynoso was one of the few bright spots offensively on the DSL team in 2012. He just turned 18 in September as did Correa.

Jonathan Villar was having a good season offensively and appeared to be catching up to AA pitching when his fist came out on the losing side after an unfortunate encounter with a door. The tools are there, but he still has a ways to go, both offensively and defensively. But one thing he has a very good feel for is the stolen base. He swiped 39 bags in 86 games and was caught only eight times. Another player exhibiting some wheels was Joe Sclafani. In his first season in the organization he stole 16 bases in 70 games and was caught three times.

Jiovanni Mier was having a great comeback season when injury put a large dent in his season. He came back strong after the injury, though, and continued his progress with a very successful Arizona Fall League season. Alex Todd was one of the players to fill in for Mier; he put up good numbers at Lancaster after starting the season in Lexington. [UPDATE: After posting this, I found out that Alex Todd retired from baseball during the off-season.]

Monday: First Base
Tuesday: Second Base
Coming Thursday: Third Base

Happy Birthday - 9/2

OF Austin Wates (24)
Drafted out of Virginia Tech by the Astros in the third round in 2010, Wates has spent the 2012 season with the Hooks and, despite being somewhat hampered by injuries this season, has been his normal dependable self. In 96 games, he has hit .314/.382/.439 with 16 doubles, four triples, seven home runs and 16 stolen bases. Read this for more on Austin's philosophy of hitting.

SS Luis Reynoso (18)
Reynoso was signed as a non-drafted free agent out of the Dominican Republic in 2011 and first played for the DSL in 2012 with great success. In 50 games, he hit .281/.382/.363 with 11 doubles, one home run and eight stolen bases.

DSL Season Post-Mortem

The DSL season is mercifully over. It was not a good one. The DSL represents the one failure by the Astros farm system to improve their record from the prior year. (Heck, you were already in a bad mood because it's Monday -- why not pile on a bit?) With that said, here's how this season compared to last season.

2011 Win Percentage - .403
2012 Win Percentage - .319

2011 Runs Scored - Runs Allowed = Run Differential - 306 - 391 = (85)
2012 Runs Scored - Runs Allowed = Run Differential - 254 - 383 = (129)

2011 Team ERA & WHIP - 4.71 & 1.625
2012 Team ERA & WHIP - 4.19 & 1.494

2011 Team Batting Line - .245/.339/.337
2012 Team Batting Line - .215/.301/.285

Believe it or not, there were actually three teams with lower win percentages this season. The biggest difference between 2011 and 2012 was the total lack of offense. Pitching improved slightly while offensive categories went from above average to the bottom two or three in the league.

Were there any bright spots? Yes, there were a couple of players with good seasons that will bear watching.

SS/2B Luis Reynoso led the team in batting average with a .281 mark and in OBP at .382 while ranking third in SLG at .363. And he won't turn 18 until next week.

1B Mesac Laguna led the team in several offensive categories, but he did so as the only 20-year old position player on a team on which 12 of 17 position players were 17 or 18 during the season.

At 18, RHP Samil de los Santos compiled the second most innings on the team as he pitched in 12 games (nine starts) with a 2.50 ERA, 1.075 WHIP, 9.8 SO/9, 3.15 SO/BB ratio and a .197 batting average allowed.

The 17-year old LHP Edwin Villarroel led the team in innings pitched and in ERA (2.25), but needs serious improvement in his SO/BB ratio as he struck out only 2.9 per nine innings while walking 3.9 per nine. But since he just turned 17 in May, he definitely has time to develop.

In 17 appearances (one start), LHP Javier Saucedo was 5-4 with a 3.21 ERA and a 1.322 WHIP. He had 6.2 SO/9 but an even worse walk rate than Villarroel as he walked 4.7 per nine innings pitched. He will be turning 19 in a month.

A total of 24 out of 37 players who appeared for the DSL team in 2012 were either 17 or 18 which keeps me from being very hard on the team, but also keeps me from getting very excited about anyone either. But if even one player from this group eventually appears on a major league roster, the year and the team will be deemed a rousing success in hindsight.

The news all gets better from here on out. I will look at the GCL Astros later in the week.