Jose Urquidy is the type of guy missed by prospect guides. Good, but unspectaular results in low minors without a plus plus carrying card. Gets to high minors and dominates. I don't know anything about him other than he was supposedly a control guy in the low minors. If the Fringe Five didn't move to the Blue Jays, he would be replacing Josh James as the King of the Fringe Five.
Jojanse Torres may or may not have been promoted to Fayetteville Could be an error since he's still listed on Quad Cities' roster.
Hernandez-Urquidy mentioned that he lost 15 pounds while recovering from Tommy John surgery but he does look like he has the frame to eat up innings. Very much a pitchability-type. Baseball America ranked him as the #29 prospect in the system entering 2017, which he ended up losing due to Tommy John. He was described as having above-average control and outstanding feel for his secondary pitches, which include a changeup, slider, and curveball. BA also said that he also threw cutters and splitters.
Was always extremely nice to me and other employees. Really seemed to like younger people. Had a huge smile until one of his players were around and then he would turn into a really, really ill tempered and nasty man. It was always an especially pleasant experience when Jeff Kent and Jimy Williams would cross paths.
Maybe we're talking about two different things, but I'm referring to what this article is referring to. Anyway, I'd be totally supportive of a new Astros strategy to not trade away any fringe starters and develop them as relievers. Apparently Rodgers, Hernandez-Urquidy can hit 95, much easier to do as relievers, often a starting point to be a reliever in today's game.
The Tampa reliever strategy is to use a reliever to start a game. The reliever is known as an opener. They have used it twice this season.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/yordan-alvarez-has-figured-out-this-baseball-stuff/ Excerpt below... ZiPs currently projects Alvarez for 19 WAR over club control. ------- For 2019, which includes adjustments for the increased offense in the minor leagues, ZiPS translates Alvarez’s 40 games in 2019 at .342/.420/.626 with 11 home runs. That’s… uh… good. That’s not a projection, of course, but a translation of a small slice of past play. But good news, I’ve got one of those projection dealies! Updated ZiPS Projections – Yordan Alvarez Year BA OBP SLG AB R H 2B HR RBI BB SO SB OPS+ DR WAR Rest of 2019 .267 .333 .483 288 43 77 15 15 46 29 82 4 123 -2 1.7 2020 .272 .343 .508 445 74 121 25 26 87 49 117 5 133 -3 2.8 2021 .272 .348 .517 437 74 119 27 26 87 51 118 5 137 -3 2.9 2022 .269 .349 .518 438 75 118 26 27 88 54 121 5 138 -3 3.0 2023 .267 .348 .516 438 76 117 26 27 89 55 124 6 137 -4 2.9 2024 .267 .353 .524 431 77 115 25 28 90 58 124 6 140 -4 3.1 2025 .263 .351 .524 422 75 111 24 28 88 58 123 5 140 -4 3.0
2018 2nd round pick 19 year old RHP Jayson Schroeder has been assigned to Quad Cities. A fantastic sign for him. 100 good innings there will have him getting some Top 100 lists.
The article excerpt I shared stated they used it 13 times this year with better results than when they don’t, and that half the teams have tried it.
Only two 2018 draftees remain in xst: 24th rounder RHP Miguel Figueroa and 27th rounder C/1B Juan Paulino. Five 2017 draftees are in xst: 3B Joe Perez (2nd round), C Nate Perry (5th), RHP Kyle Serrano (10th), RHP Alex House (24th), OF Andres Santana (29th).
Josh Rojas has two consecutive multi-homer games. Entering this week, he had one home run all season.
They had Alvarez as the 7th or 8th best prospect in the Astros farm system coming into this season. Pretty ridiculous.
How many games do the Hooks play against the Sod Puddles? Seems like they play them every week. Just checked, they have had one week so far this season that they haven't played the Sod Puddles.
Urquidy’s history, stats and highlights make me think he is a classic type of pitching prospect that would be virtually unnoticed until he reaches the big leagues and has success. He’s not tall, he has kind of a funky delivery. He doesn’t have elite velocity. He hasn’t pitched steadily due to injuries. But he has excellent command and control and gets outs with movement and deception. I could see him being an excellent multi inning reliever or BoR SP.
All of a sudden the middle infield looks like a potential strength in the system: In AAA, Myles Straw has gotten positive reviews on his infield experiment; an elite baserunner with plus contact/on-base skills, he’s now also a potential plus defender at SS with his arm and range. Meanwhile, both Alex De Goti and Jack Mayfield have hit extremely well in AAA. Houston just assigned 19 year old Luis Santana to AA. Josh Rojas and Osvaldo Duarte have both hit at an above average clip so far this season. MiguelAngel Sierra boasts a 125 wRC+ in high A; he’s only 21. 20 year old Jonathan Arauz has also been an above average high A hitter so far this season. Enmanuel Valdez, another 20 year old, was promoted to High A after dominating A ball. 2018 3rd rd pick Jeremy Pena (projected to be a defensive only player) has gotten hot in A ball and boasts a 129 wRC+. It’s only 49 pa, but 18th rd pick Michael Wielansky has gotten off to a stellar full season debut in Quad Cities, sporting a 140 wRC+ so far. A lot of high ceiling prospects in there with promising results. Coming into 2019 2B/SS looked like a potential weakness in Houston’s farm, but it has played out the opposite so far.
