I agree, the door isn't completely closed on Hensley, but stumbling out of the gate in AAA after getting optioned (+ Dubon becoming a useful MLB player from out of nowhere) probably closed the door on him for this year.
IMO Hensley is a classic AAAA hitter. The difference between MLB and AAA pitchers is command and control. On AAA he can take walks and get good pitches to hit and hammer mistakes. In MLB pitchers can take advantage of his patience and hit the corners. He gets behind more, expects close pitches to be balls loke in AAA, and when he does swing its frequently at pitcher's pitches. Pitchers know if it's on the edge he isn't swinging so they have no fear. I don't know how he comes back from this? Start swinging at more borderline pitches? If so, does he have the talent to actually get hits on those?
^^^ Luis Encarnacion's RBI double in the 8th was the only scoring play, giving the Woodpeckers a 1-0 win in Charleston. After a pretty punchless first couple of months, Encarnacion seems to be finding his footing in Class A. Ben Badler mentioned that he was a bat-first infielder who started to make the transition to catcher after signing. He'll raise his stock a bit if he can stick there. Austin Temple and Manuel Urias completed the shutout; Temple got a strikeout to end the 6th and Urias allowed a hit and struck out four over the final three innings. Urias was a minor league Rule 5 pick from the Phillies.
Jordan Brewer (1) and Kenedy Corona (11; 13 season) homered for the Hooks: Cole McDonald struck out two in the 9th for the save (4), although he did give up an RBI single that allowed the runner he inherited from Aaron Brown to score. McDonald now has 31 strikeouts in 19.2 innings this year for Corpus and 39 in 24.1 overall between Corpus and Asheville.
Brewer sure is a good lookin athlete. Would be great if he could stay healthy. Corpus has a really, really good roster right now.
Abel Mercedes turned in probably his best outing as a pro down in the FCL: 4 IP, H, BB, 6 K Mercedes has touched triple digits with his fastball, so we'll see if he's able to harness his stuff.
Sandro Pereira hit his first career home run (3-run) for the DSL Orange team. Pereira, 17, a switch-hitting infielder from Venezuela who signed on January 15, has gotten off to a blistering start, going 13-32 (.406/.524/.531) in his first 10 games as a professional. He's also one of the youngest players on the Astros' DSL rosters, so he could be a name to stash away in the back of your mind.
Deylin Miley has been fantastic this month: 17 ip, 1.59 era, 26k, 5bb. I don’t know anything about him. But those are amazing top line numbers for Asheville. Shay Whitcomb hit his 19th HR of the season last night. That ties his number from last year and he got there this season in about half as many games. 35+ HR could be in range for him if he stays healthy and productive. At this point he is a guy that they absolutely have to add to the 40 man roster this year if he isn’t traded.
Miley signed as an undrafted free agent after the 2021 draft. He's held his own in Asheville, but he's also 25... so he's more than likely just a guy.
2B/SS Pedro Leon has hit for the cycle for Triple-A Sugar Land. Needed a single, got a double but stayed around first base to make it official.
Does anyone else think it's weird that the Astros have 3 minor league players with homeruns in 10% or more of their at bats in June (at least 50 ABs) but no doubles? Aviles, Whitcomb, and Hamilton.
1061 ops this month. He is still striking out too much, but he found his power and he’s walking plenty. Whitcomb hit his 20th HR last night. He has 8 HR in 17 AAA games.
If Leon can actually manage to capitalize on his talent and become a solid MLB player, then the organization will deserve huge props. Julks, Salazar, Bannon, Kessinger, and Madris all on the MLB roster before him? Every one of us would have expected Leon before any of them. Some of that is about Pedro's lack of progress but with the pressure front offices are under, it would have been easy to gamble on him. If Leon becomes a player that's a huge plus, if he never does then maybe they should have.
