Highest remaining draft pick in the system by year: 2017: Jake Meyers (13th round) 2018: Jeremy Pena (3rd) 2019: Hunter Brown (5th) 2020: Alex Santos II (2nd) 2021: Spencer Arrighetti (6th) 2022: Andrew Taylor (2nd) 2023: Brice Matthews (1st) 2024: Walker Janek (1st) 2025: Xavier Neyens (1st)
Powell is the type of prospect who could come out with an absolute monster first half in Asheville and look like a future superstar (like Jon Gaston’s 2009 season) then immediately completely flame out in AA.
I’d put huge money on that not happening. They already moved him off of SS and into the corner OF.this spring.
https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/kevin-alvarez-ethan-frey-xavier-neyens-astros-prospects-to-watch A few throw away quotes from the farm director. It’ll be very interesting to see if they send Neyens and Alvarez to Fayetteville to start the season. Holy being sent to Corpus would be a really good sign for him.
In hindsight, Click was a worst GM than we originally thought. No wonder why he hasn’t gotten another GM job. the best thing he did was to get Diaz. The worst thing he did was trade Abreu for a half season of rental catcher that Dusty seldom played.
The best thing Click did was not trade what would become the core of the 22 WS. A lot of GM's would have ego traded to shape the team more in their image, but people don't get credit for moves they don't make. The only part of the team that was clearly his was the dominant bullpen. He did whiff on Abreu, but I don't remember anybody here caring much about him when that trade was made. A lot of people missed the boat on him. The stupidest thing he did was go shooting his mouth off with other front offices.
I didn’t like the Vasquez trade but I thought Enmanuel Valdez was the better prospect they gave up. Abreu had a near 30% k rate in high A the season he was traded. Surface level and 2nd level stats didn’t paint him as a future quality big leaguer. I worry the Jesus Sanchez trade where they gave up to higher ceiling young prospects in Jaworsky and Valencia could come back to bite them in a similar way. I think Click would be a GM if he hadn’t talked **** about his boss.
obviously Boston saw something. Maybe it was just luck on their side. I think Crane and Dusty saved the team from Click based on stuff Nook and others have said. Click did not want to resign Verlander and Brantley. He wanted to bench Gurriel for the playoffs. He is the one that started the Montero and Abreu in motion. Click obviously did a good enough job to win a World Series and be offered another year despite Crane being pissed at him. I was just pointing out that his draft and international signings were not good now that we have had time to evaluate them.
James Click is a bright man - but he isn't a smart man. He alienated his boss (Crane) by not listening to him. Crane told Click that he wanted someone to come in and let the existing structure do their job and not meddle. Crane did the opposite, and he alienated those that he worked with and that caused issues with his boss. So, Click has some serious issues when it comes to relationships in a professional setting. Maybe that would be less of an issue in a different culture or organization, but the reputation is there regardless. He also developed a reputation of not being as hard a worker as some others, and that matters to a lot owners. They want their top employee leading by example. I think that was part of it, as was him alienating current and former players and their views on the game. Then the complaining at the Winter Meetings was what really did him in. It came out that he regularly called other guys in the game and complained, and owners became really skittish about him running their ball club. The Abreu trade was a bad one, in fact a terrible one. Abreu was getting attention as a prospect by the time that he dealt - but he wasn't a top 50 guy or anything like that. He also failed to pull of a number of deadline deals that upset ownership. I agree that the best thing he did was not trade away the Astros host of young pitchers coming up, when a lot of other people would have. That is a huge deal and really his lasting positive legacy. I don't think he would do well running the Dodgers or Yankees or even Cards - but I do think that he would be solid running a smaller budget ball club, where he would have less money to spend but more autonomy. He was sharp, and he listened well to other sharp people. James is pretty high in the Jays front office, and is in charge of development of young players. With time he may get another shot if that is what he wants. He has two little girls and a wife, and supposedly spends a lot of time with them - so he may not want the extra work of running a team. At the end of the day, some of the big league teams are led by people that are very old school and traditional - and James just doesn't fit that, and did not make any accommodations for that, and that will harm his career to some degree.
Minor league position players with full season experience who still have not gotten to sit or play with the big league team this spring: C Freuddy Batista C Fernando Caldera IF Narbe Cruz IF Anthony Sherwin IF Jeron Williams OF Luis Baez IF Max Holy (on the prospect breakout team) IF Wilton Lara IF Hector Salas C Carlos Cauro C Arturo Flores (on the prospect breakout team) C Yosweld Vasquez IF Camilo Diaz IF Waner Luciano OF Cesar Hernandez OF Nehomar Ochoa Jr. C Hemmanuel Rosario I think most of those guys are hurt. I don’t expect any more releases before opening day, so if they’re not hurt it’s odd that the OF and IF didn’t get called up this spring (not out of the ordinary for lower level catchers not to get a chance).
Great post This is kinda how I've always looked at Click. I'm thankful he brought a championship to this city, but the way Click thought about the game and the way Dusty thought about the game were totally different. Crane wanted things done a certain way, Click thought differently and wouldn't listen. He paid for not listening with his job and his arrogance at the Winter Meetings cost him a chance at another GM job. BTW, I would consider hiring Click for another GM job, but would more likely hire a former Luhnow guy like Putila.
Fangraphs thinks the Astros have "one of the worst farm systems in baseball, lacking in depth and devoid of any 50-FV prospects." Felt overly pessimistic, but at least seemed to write up more of the system in other prospects of note section. Frey at 9 seems super low. It's probably fair to not go overboard based on the low A perfromance of an SEC player who primarily DH'd in college, but I'm also not sure that average COF defense isn't a reasonable projection. I don't think I heard that Caden Powell broke his hamate last season. Looking at the splits in almost the same amount of games, his HR power (7 vs 3) was down coming back from injury, but he more than doubled (7.2 vs 18.9) his walk rate. He also stole more bases and was more efficient. While the strikeout rate is still high, it didn't significantly increase with the walk rate. I'm cautiously optimistic that the progressive improvement in walk rate is a sign of an improving approach. How much the hamate injury masked his power, how much he walks going forward, and how he takes to the OF are key questions this year. He can live with a 30 bat if he can be a legit CF or can get to 70 power. If he can do both, he's a potential impact player. I didn't know Juan Bello had TJS. Bummer. Hopefully he comes back throwing harder. Some blurbs on players for whom I haven't seen prospect reports for previously: Leomar Rosario: Well built and can hit 101, but messy delivery gives him no command. Kellan Oakes: hit 98 before, but mostly low 90s with a good sweeper. Francisco Frias: stocky low slot 92-95 with a good slider and below average control. Dylan Howard: 'hoppy' low 90s FB from vertical slot, throws strikes despite violence in delivery, with no standout secondary. Landon Arrroyos: small but twitchy, speedy, makes a lot of contact. Adrian Ardines: High slot sits 91 with downer breaking ball crushed the DSL. Jesus Carera: 70 command of 30 stuff.
Fangraphs has gone downhill the last few years. Not sure if it’s the new editor or Longenhagen getting burned out or something to do with them going behind a paywall or what. They used to have the best prospect coverage by far. But the last 2 years their Astros list has been terrible and lazy writing. This years list looks like an AI was prompted with “write generic blurbs on the minimal amount of prospects in Houston’s system; use words like ‘precocious’ and ‘drop and drive’ a lot.” It’s pretty clear that guy hasn’t seen hardly any of those prospects in person and doesn’t have any good sources inside the Astros system. It’s a bummer because their list used to be one of the things I looked forward to the most n this hobby.
I'm kinda bummed that Longenhagen or Gawlowski didn't write up the Astros list. As far as I can tell Fegan is a White Sox fan site writer; I'm not sure if he's ever been a scout for a team. He's only written a few things for fangraphs, but two of them have been Astros prospect lists. It kind of felt like he wanted to write about how the Astros era is over. Oh well.
