My updated Top 30 Astros prospects list after April: Spoiler: Snake Diggit's April Top 30 OF Jacob Melton 50 Got hot the last 2 weeks to make for a decent month. Potential star; needs to walk more. OF Joey Loperfido 50 P AJ Blubaugh 50 Pitching like a ToR prospect; blew thru AA and is excelling in AAA, could help Houston soon. P Spencer Arrighetti 50 3B Zach Dezenzo 45+ Injury was very bad timing for the Astros SS Brice Matthews 45+ Stock down; striking out a lot, not playing much, and not hitting for power; could be hurt OF Luis Baez 45+ Stock down; not hitting well in early going in High A and is pretty much an all bat prospect P Alonzo Tredwell 45+ OF Pedro Leon 45+ Looking pretty good, stock up a bit as he is playing well, can help the big league team in multiple ways P Jake Bloss 45+ Stock up; big opportunity in AA OF Kenedy Corona 45+ Stock down; partially bad luck but should be dominating in repeat of AA IF Chase Jaworsky 45+ Stock way up, he could be breaking out and he is doing a lot of good things, the power will come later OF Nehomar Ochoa Jr. 45 Stock way up, really young but looks like a monster and is producing against guys 2-3 years older OF Kenni Gomez 45 Good slash line but high k rate and low power P Julio Robaina 45 Underrated prospect; he has dominated AA and is very likely to help a big league team eventually P Colton Gordon 45 Just got back from injury P Andrew Taylor 45 Still too many walks but I like what I've seen so far, won't know much until he gets to Corpus OF Cesar Hernandez 45 Great start and could be a fast riser P Forrest Whitley 45 Debuted in the big leagues, hurt yet again, but he looked pretty good those last 2-3 outings P Alex Santos 45 If you take away the 2 HR he gave up he has been extremely good, he's young and could break out IF Will Wagner 45 Lack of extra base hits brings down his slash line but gotta love the bb/k numbers, he will be at least a AAAA guy P Trey Dombroski 40 Homer prone in High A but that could be where he's pitching, still time OF/1B Cam Fisher 40 Hitting for monster power but that 37% k rate is ugly especially for a guy limited defensively OF Colin Barber 40 Proof that I do not know jack **** about prospects, he was my #1 prospect in the system in Feb; not sure what's going on but he's fallen apart. P Jose Fleury 40 P Aaron Brown 40 C Miguel Palma 40 won't hit for power but he will play in the majors if his defense is there; currently hurt IF Camilo Diaz 40 P James Hicks 40 IF Jeron Williams 40 Off to an amazing start but only 38 pa so far Other grade 40: C: Juan Santander, Luke Berryhill, Collin Price; Price and Santander are crushing the ball but both are limited defensively so need to get into the upper levels to see what they are IF: Jacob Amaya, Jesus Bastidas, Shay Whitcomb, Waner Luciano, Tommy Sacco Jr.: I like what I've seen from Amaya, and Bastidas has come out of nowhere to look like a guy who might make a good AAAA IF, Whitcomb is what he is but he has value OF: Zach Cole, Quincy Hamilton, Tyler Whitaker, Esmil Valencia: Hamilton has taken a big step back, Whitaker has a fatal strikeout flaw, Cole is hurt P: Alain Pena, Derek True, Miguel Ullola, Misael Tamarez, Ryan Gusto, Rhett Kouba, Raimy Rodriguez, Sandy Mejia, Blair Henley, Jose Guedez, Drew Strotman, Jaime Melendez: A mix of guys with falling stock and sleeper types Other prospects of note: C: Will Bush, John Garcia, Garret Guillemette, Luis Encarnacion, Jancel Villarroel, Carlos Cauro, Kedaur Trujillo IF: Jeremy Arocho, Alberto Hernandez, Pascanel Ferreras, Ryan Johnson, German Ramirez, Rafael Ramirez, Cristopfer Gonzalez, Cristian Gonzalez, Bryan Arias, Alejandro Nunez: I will play close attention to Ferreras when he gets to AA OF: Zach Daniels, Logan Cerny, Oliver Carrillo, Anthony Huezo, Karniel Pratt, Luis Rives, Eduardo Perez P: All of them There will be a lot of variance as guys are being processed faster than in previous years. Aside from Corpus' current infield and rotation, I really like this system and still think it's only 2-3 elite prospects away from being well above average.
Oh wow… thank you for the cliff notes. That was very informative. Always appreciate your hard work and especially that you share with the rest of us.
I am not too worried, he will likely figure it out, he is still very young. But he had a chance to REALLY breakout and get to AA this season, so far it looks like he will take a full year in High A.
Alain Pena and Yeriel Santos both turned in nice performances for Fayetteville. Pena: 4.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R (1 ER), 2 BB, 6 K Santos: 4 IP, H, 2 ER (1 on RBI single, 1 on groundout), BB, 4 K
Alex Santos and Jose Fleury both stumbled out of the gate to start the year in Corpus but they both had solid starts to their May. Santos: 5 IP, 2 H (solo HR allowed), 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K Fleury: 4 IP, 2 H, ER, BB, 2 K
Yup - he has had a bad situation between missing over a year because of Cuba - then COVID - then the Astros insisting he play the infield … and now an afterthought. In hindsight he would have been better signing with someone other than the Astros. I had a Cubs scout tell me that Leon has the type of skill set where he may play better in the big leagues than AA and AAA.
Too early to tell. I really didn’t like feel or instincts for hitting - felt the same way about DeShields when the Astros took him in round 1. When the Astros took Matthews, Brown said that fans need to be patient with Matthews and that it may take him awhile to figure it out. Why take him? Has a similar skill set as Barry Larkin but VERY raw for a college player and inconsistent from play to play. He has started slow - but too early to call him headed towards being a bust. He is also battling some nagging injuries. Brown took a lot of very high upside players - a very ambitious draft. The early returns are very promising but it’s really really too soon to know.
I thought he was a FA after next season because he had 2 arbitrations already. Apparently he’s super 2 and goes through the system 4 times. At a certain point his salary will exceed what you should pay him if you have a ready replacement in minimum wage. Modern day Aledmys Diaz whole let walk when he hit FA.
My draft day notes said that he would not stick at SS but he could be a second baseman and an eventual replacement for Altuve if things went really well. At some point in my research I learned that he was a pet project of Brown's before he came to Houston. I took that to be an explanation for drafting him in the first round when he probably could have been picked up late in the second.
My memory tells me there were multiple teams hoping that and all of them picked before the Astros in rd 2.
