Happy Birthday - 6/7

Wishing a Very Happy Birthday to ...

C/1B Oliver Toribio (19)

Toribio was born June 7, 1996 in Tamboril, Dominican Republic, and was signed by the Astros as an international free agent in December 2012. He is currently playing for the Astros Orange Team in the Dominican Summer League.

RHP Vince Velasquez (23)

Velasquez was born June 7, 1992 in Montclair, California, and was drafted by Houston in the second round in 2010. He is currently playing for the AA Corpus Christi Hooks team.

Vince Velasquez - September 2014

Photo by Jayne Hansen

Happy Birthday - 6/7

Happy Birthday to ~

RHP Vincent Velasquez (22)
Velasquez was drafted by Houston in the second round in 2010 out of high school in California. In his first eight appearances (four starts) for Lancaster in 2014, Velasquez is 4-1 with a 2.89 ERA and a 0.929 WHIP. He suffered a groin injury last month and is currently on the DL.

C Jobduan Morales (23)
Obtained in a trade with the Marlins for Justin Ruggiano in May 2012, Morales excelled with Quad Cities in the Midwest Legaue in his first 20 games, hitting .310/.390/.451 leading to his promotion to Lancaster in mid-May where he has gotten off to a bit of a slow start.

C Oliver Toribio (18)
Toribio was signed out of the Dominican Republic in late 2012. He just started his professional career last week with the DSL Astros Blue team and has yet to collect his first hit. Here is some additional information on Toribio from when he signed.

One former Astro celebrates today as well ~

1B Roberto Petagine (43)
Originally signed as a NDFA out of Venezuela by the Astros in 1990, Petagine only played in eight games for Houston in 1994 (eight plate appearances and no hits), but he went on to play in a sporadic 242 games in the major leagues with a six season gap between 1998 and 2005, and had a career major league batting average of .227. In addition to his major league stints, Petagine played 20 seasons of minor league and foreign league ball, hitting .309/.418/.522.

I would also like to wish Astros radio announcer Robert Ford a Very Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday - 6/7

RHP Vincent Velasquez (21)
Velasquez was drafted by Houston in the second round in 2010 out of high school in California. Velasquez made nine starts in Tri-City in 2012 after coming back from Tommy John surgery, going 4-1 with a 3.35 ERA and a 1.182 WHIP. This season Velasquez has made 14 appearances at Quad Cities with a 4-2 record, a 4.50 ERA and a 1.321 WHIP.

C Jobduan Morales (22)
Obtained in a trade with the Marlins for Justin Ruggiano in May 2012, Morales has hit .207.309./293 in his first 26 games for Tri-City this season and has a 30% caught stealing percentage during that time frame.

C Oliver Toribio (17)
Toribio was signed out of the Dominican Republic in late 2012. He has been assigned to the DSL Astros but has not played yet. Here is some additional information on Toribio from when he signed.

One former Astro with a birthday today ~

1B Roberto Petagine (42)
Originally signed as a NDFA out of Venezuela by the Astros in 1990, Petagine only played in eight games for Houston in 1994 (eight plate appearances and no hits), but he went on to play in a sporadic 242 games in the major leagues with a six season gap between 1998 and 2005, and had a career major league batting average of .227. In addition to his major league stints, Petagine played 20 seasons of minor league and foreign league ball, hitting .309/.418/.522. He appears to have finally hung up the spikes after one final season in the Japanese Pacific League in 2010.

More Dominican Signings

According to Baseball America, the Astros have signed Dominican LHP Junior Garcia for a $200,000 signing bonus. This is in addition to two other Dominican Republic signings announced by the DPL Baseball website earlier this week.

According to the DPL Baseball site, the Astros signed Joselo Pinales, a 6'1" 180 lb. right-handed pitcher from La Romana in the Dominican Republic (h/t to Brian Stevenson for catching this one) as well as Catcher Oliver Toribio this week as well.

When I talked to Jeff Luhnow late last month, he indicated that he would be headed to the Dominican Republic after the winter meetings to look at a few prospects. It appears that is precisely what he's been doing this week.

The Off-Season Transaction List has been updated with these signings.

Some News from the Dominican

There was no winter league action to report from Monday, but there is some news from the Dominican Republic. DPL Baseball announced that the Astros signed C Oliver Toribio. The DPL website was down this morning but here is a cached version of the story along with a short video of Toribio.