I wanna say this is the 4th straight Hooks lineup posted with no Dezenzo. Have yet to find an update.
Since last year I've really been digging Zach Daniels. Kinda reminds me of Randy Arozarena. 25+ home run power, athletic, ability to steal 20+ bases, walks a decent amount with some swing and miss and likely 150+ strikeouts a year but still able to hit in the .260-275 range. Probably better in the corners but could play CF if needed. Hopefully continues to develop but has really shown the ability to make adjustments. One of these days they'll hit on one of these raw athletic draft picks.
Luis Baez hit his 5th HR in the FCL today. It’s his 8th game. Fangraphs doesn’t have their complex league stats formatted correctly so we can’t go compare to before 2021. The Astros FCL HR leader in 2022 was Rolando Espinosa with 6 in 45 games; in 2021 it was Freddy Guilamo with 5 in 28 games. Not sure why they’re not putting Baez in Fayetteville but if they don’t I suspect he will be the Astros all-time single season HR leader in the next few weeks. Complex league stats are worthless outside of velocities. But with 5 HR in 8 games it seems pretty clear that Baez has rare power potential.
You can get the complex league stats from fangraphs for 2006-present, but you have to select it by league (clicking on the FCL populated both GCL and FCL for me) not level. No player has more than 7 HRs for their entire complex league career. Not sure why he isn't in Fayetteville either, but it's a pretty special start for him.
Luis Baez is 3-4 today; in addition to his solo homer, he also has an RBI double and a two-run single.
Updated Baseball America Top 30 Spoiler 1. Yainer Diaz - graduating off this list the next time it updates 2. Drew Gilbert 3. Jacob Melton 4. Ryan Clifford - close to being maxed out physically, mature swing decisions 5. Luis Baez - "fairly maxed out physically" 6. Zach Dezenzo - potential plus-plus raw power, bat-first everyday player 7. J.P. France - should be close to graduating from this list 8. Joey Loperfido 9. Spencer Arrighetti 10. David Hensley 11. Justin Dirden 12. Andrew Taylor 13. Kenedy Corona 14. Colton Gordon 15. Miguel Ullola 16. Colin Barber 17. Forrest Whitley - ok 18. Michael Knorr 19. Shay Whitcomb 20. Will Wagner 21. Pedro Leon 22. Quincy Hamilton 23. Rhett Kouba - could be a spot starter option in Houston as soon as... now 24. Jose Fleury 25. Trey Dombroski 26. Joe Perez 27. Ronel Blanco - should be close to graduating from this list 28. Grae Kessinger 29. Korey Lee - well... alright 30. Camilo Diaz
I know he's a little older now and not sure about his history of being released. . . but Luis Aviles Jr. looks great out there too and seems to be a nice pick up. Saw him play last weekend and he is a stud. https://www.si.com/mlb/astros/news/houston-astros-quietly-sign-exciting-cuban-shortstop-denton7
Down in the complexes... - Camilo Diaz is 2-3 with a double and an RBI single for the DSL Blue team. - Jancel Villarroel hit his second home run (solo) for the Orange team. - Rafael Gonzalez got the start for the Orange team and allowed a run, a hit, walked two, and struck out six in three innings. The run was a steal of home. - German Ramirez and Sandro Pereira both have two hits for the Orange team. - Yeriel Santos allowed a hit, two unearned runs, walked four, and struck out seven in 4.2 innings for the FCL squad.
The Astros don’t have a rule 5 roster crunch pending overall, but they probably do have an over abundance of OF who carry rule 5 risk. In addition to the 6 OF on their current 40 man roster (Alvarez, Tucker, Meyers, McCormick, Brantley, and Julks), they have 4 top prospects in the upper minors who will be Rule 5 eligible this year (Dirden, Barber, Corona, Daniels). I would be surprised if Houston ever has more than 7 OF on their 40 man roster. I would expect at least one of those 13 OF to be traded at this years deadline.
Zach Cole hit his 9th homer of the season for Fayetteville. There's a very real chance he's just a guy because of his 33% strikeout rate in A-ball at his age, but if the hit tool gets to fringe, he might become somewhat viable. Luis Angel Rodriguez turned in five dominant shutout innings, allowing four hits, walking two, and striking out nine. Rodriguez, a 23-year-old lefty from Mexico, was a minor league Rule 5 draft pick last winter from the Cubs organization.
Spencer Arrighetti @ Arkansas: 5 IP, 2 H, 3 BB, 9 K, 83 pitches (50 strikes); he stranded the bases loaded in the 5th. C.J. Stubbs and Joey Loperfido both homered for the Hooks:
