It’s certainly debatable, but Jones hit for a wRC+ of 87 and 81 in 2017. In a new scenario where there are 2 less rosters in the minors, it’s possible he doesn’t make it out of that year. If you want to say that new tech means they would have identified him as a future big leaguer despite the poor performance (above even more guys than they did in real life), I won’t argue, but that’s giving teams an awful lot of benefit of the doubt. Houston for the most part has rushed role players to have a steady stream of cheap depth, and so far has almost always manipulated service time for players with star potential. Most of the guys they have gotten to mlb quickly won’t even be in the big leagues for 6 seasons.
Bregman went through minors quickly. Alvarez the same until he had to wait a couple of months. Tucker was doing 2 levels a year until being stuck on a holding pattern. Whitley flew up to AA before falling apart. The last step, the Astros manipulate, but they get them to the last step faster than other teams regardless of star status.
Do you have any data to support that the average time from signing to the majors is shorter for Astros prospects than any other team?
Just reading baseball prospect lists, heard Luhnow mention it, and have seen FanGraphs prospect guy mention it.
Bielak's stuff up on Brooks. Fastball does not look good at all but several of his secondary pitches look promising, particularly his curve. He's going to need to be very careful with how he uses his fastball but he has a deep enough repertoire to keep hitters off balance for at least a couple of times through the order.
Curve and changeup are above average and fb is only slightly below average. He has the makings of a good 4th starter.
2018-2019 AA/AAA Leaders in K%-BB% (Starters only) 1. Urquidy 2. Javier 3. James My favorite pitching stat to follow in the minors.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/08/minor-league-baseball-changes-negotiating-teams.html Interesting and dangerous situation unfolding in the background. MiLB appears to be unable to put up a united front and effectively negotiate, which seems to point to MLB toying with the idea of tossing out the whole structure and forming their own minor leagues. I don’t necessarily think it would be a bad thing for the big league orgs to own all the affiliated minor league teams, but I think it would only work if there was a deal to make for a smooth transition, meaning essentially a buyout where all the minor league owners (or at least the owners of all the teams in the full season leagues) agree to be purchased by their affiliates MLB org. Dream scenario for Houston would be to buy the Express (they already own the AA Corpus Christi Hooks and High A Fayetteville Woodpeckers) and own 3 full season teams along with their GCL and DSL complexes, although I don’t know how that meshes with the rumored desire of Crane’s to add a minor league team closer to Houston, which would almost certainly be a AAA team. I would hate to see the Astros give up the Express and concede the Austin market to the Rangers. I half-wonder if there was something related to the Express that led to the falling out between Crane and the Ryan’s.
On the current MiLB system, I can see why MLB teams would want to own the MiLB teams considering the amount of money involved with player development. I don't think travel helps player development. MLB teams being in charge of teams would help logistics. Fewer teams with better talent should help development. For players that don't make the full-season teams, developing at the spring training facilities, intrasquad games, or nearby intersquad games is probably better than young players on the road eating fast food playing out short seasons all over the place.
He did fire/demote Reid Ryan and replace him with his son after the most successful seasons we've ever had. I understand why he did it, but it's fairly well documented that Nolan is hard headed and stubborn. He doesn't take slights very well. I highly doubt there was something prior that caused the rift. There's a reason he's ping ponged between the 2 organizations for 40 years. If you do something to make him mad he goes to the other, and because he's such a legend in this state he's always welcomed with open arms.
Spoiler In an atypical year, MLB Pipeline presents an atypical update to our prospects lists. Since we posted our initial Top 100 Prospects and organizational Top 30 rankings for 2020, the coronavirus has limited baseball action to three weeks of Spring Training games, glimpses of Summer Camp action and a couple of weeks of big league contests. We didn't believe it made any sense to make wholesale changes to our rankings based on those small sample sizes. What we have done is added 2020 Draft picks to our lists, 13 to the Top 100 and a total of 103 to the team Top 30s. Throughout the season, we'll continue to make changes as players graduate from rookie/prospect status (Pirates right-hander Mitch Keller is the lone Top 100 Prospect to do so thus far) or change organizations. https://www.mlb.com/prospects/top100/ Forrest Whitley(21st) on Top 100 Seth Beer '5th best' 1B Abraham Toro '10th best' 3B Forrest Whitley '3rd best' RHP Jose Urquidy & Abraham "Where the **** is" Toro are still prospects? Cristian Javier is #6? He's like the beeeessstttt ever! https://www.mlb.com/prospects/astros/ 1. Forrest Whitley 2. Jose Urquidy 3. Abraham Toro 4. Freudis Nova 5. Bryan Abreu 6. Cristian Javier 7. Jeremy Pena 8. Korey Lee 9. Hunter Brown 10. Alex Santos 11. Jairo Solis 12. Colin Barber 13. Brandon Bielak 14. Enoli Paredes 15. Jordan Brewer 16. Grae Kessinger 17. Tyler Ivey 18. Luis Garcia 19. Jose Alberto Rivera 20. Jojanse Torres 21. Shawn Dubin 22. Tyler Brown 23. Dauri Lorenzo 24. Luis Santana 25. Taylor Jones 26. Zach Daniels 27. Chas McCormick 28. Brett Conine 29. Blake Taylor 30. Jairo Lopez https://www.mlb.com/prospects/international/ Top 30 International 1. Yoelqui Cespedes 2. Wilman Diaz 3. Carlos Colmenarez 4. Armando Cruz 5. Cristian Hernandez 6. Pedro Leon 7. Jesus Galiz 8. Ricardo Perez 9. Yiddi Cappe 10. Shalin Polanco 11. Daniel Vasquez 12. Pedro Pineda 13. Cristian Santana 14. Danny De Andrade 15. Jhonny Piron 16. Jackson Chourio 17. Victor Acosta 18. Dyan Jorge 19. Miguel Bleis 20. Norge Vera 21. Diego Velazquez 22. Angel Genao 23. Manuel Beltre 24. Fran Alduey 25. Ariel Almonte 26. Abel Bastidas 27. Fredy LaFlor 28. Denzer Guzman 29. Maikol Hernandez 30. Victor Lizarraga
Pretty funny they have Ty Brown ranked higher than Blake Taylor. Brown is a pure relief prospect just drafted in the 3rd round, while Taylor was a 2nd round pick and is already contributing in the majors with success. That said, I don’t have any major issues with their rankings, especially considering there’s very little new Information. I still contend Houstons overall farm depth is above average, and that with 2-3 high end position players added (I.e., if Tucker, Beer, and Alvarez we’re still on their list) this farm would be in the Top 15 in the league.
Kent Emanuel has received an 80-game suspension without pay after testing positive for Dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (DHCMT), a performance-enhancing substance, in violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.
He thought it was that COVID miracle drug Trump was praising. In all seriousness I hope he got his teaching certificate because that is what he will be doing soon.
