While the Rangers and Rockies made those picks, the possibility existed that they may have taken Bregman instead. We don't know what the "truth" is/was.
The Rangers' GM had personally met with Bregman before the draft, and The Athletic's Jamey Newberg wrote that the Rangers would have taken him with the 1st pick had they not gone on an improbable 13-3 run to end up with the 4th pick. Admittedly Newberg is probably more fan than reporter, so there's no guarantee they would have taken him if they Astros didn't, but there's reason to believe they might have.
Jonathan Arauz just hit a two-run single to put Fayetteville up 4-2 in Winston-Salem. Arauz is currently 5-5 on the night. Josh Rojas just hit his second solo homer of the night in Amarillo to put the Hooks up 4-1. Drew Ferguson and Kyle Tucker are both 2-3 tonight for Round Rock. Ferguson has a two-run homer and an RBI double; Tucker scored on both of his hits. Tucker has an RBI double as Round Rock leads San Antonio 6-1.
Cristian Javier finished off Corpus Christi's 6-1 win, allowing two hits, walking two, and striking out four over the final four innings. Josh Rojas went 3-4 and hit two solo homers, giving him three on the year. Stephen Wrenn hit his first homer of the year, and Abraham Toro went 4-5 with a couple of RBI singles. Toro is now slashing .322/.423/.513 on the season with 7 home runs and 35 RBI for the Hooks.
Hernandez-Urquidy now has 60 strikeouts to 6 walks in 44 innings this season between Corpus and Round Rock.
I was doing a lot of work in the Dallas area at the time, and listening to Dallasvsports talk radio, it seemed like they were hoping Bregman would fall to them. He is the grandson of the man who moved the Rangers to Arlington in the middle of the night. I’m fairly confident that the Rangers wanted Bregman to start the rebuilding process. From what i remember, It was a toss up between Swanson and Bregman for #1 and 2....
Quad Cities (11 AM), Fayetteville (10 AM CT), and Corpus Christi (11:05 AM) will all be playing day games tomorrow. José Alberto Rivera will start for Quad Cities in Kane County. Enoli Paredes gets the start for Fayetteville in Winston-Salem. Brett Adcock will start for Corpus in Amarillo.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sp...gers-No-52-comes-full-circle-for-13638187.php Had no idea his velocity was anything close to this. This and the spin rate improvement sound way more promising than I ever gave him credit for. As a reliever, could we see 96 with consistency? Btw, who is Carlos Sanabria and how does a 22-year old reach AAA with a 1.61 ERA and 0.86 WHIP without any fanfare? I would assume it means his fastball tops out at 91mph.
I know nothing about Sanabria’s stuff, but pitching prospects who are relegated to relief in A ball are usually (rightfully) ignored until they reach AAA or even the majors, unless they throw 100 (Guduan/Gustave) or were highly drafted (R Ferrell).
Osvaldo Duarte has slumped the last 2 weeks. K rate up to 27%, wRC+ down to 112. Hopefully he can refocus; I was getting really excited about him.
Towles was included in the search and didn’t make the cut. Fangraphs only tracks minor league wRC+ back to 2006. If you would have stopped it after 2015, AJ Reed would have made the list.
Perhaps explains why Tampa Bay’s reliever strategy is able to compete for a pennant while having the lowest payroll in baseball. May not do much for already being second lowest in attendance though. It’s ironic though, as relievers are literally 1/3 to 1/2 as important to winning a game as the starter, seems the Yankees invested heavily in that mindset, maybe too much the other way until this year.
Haven’t looked into it, but I would guess that Tampa’s relievers (like almost all big league relievers) were developed in the minors as starters. Tampa’s opener strategy works 2 ways: 1. It puts an elite reliever with matchup advantages against the top of the opposing team’s order in the 1st inning, essentially eliminating the advantage of having your best hitters at the top of the lineup. 2. It further leverages the pitcher’s advantage during the 1st time facing a batter. Once batters have faced a pitcher (and especially once the pitcher is tired and they’ve faced him multiple times), the batter has an advantage.
He has had a really impressive season. He looks like he could potentially help the Astros today coming out of the pen. Does anyone know anything about his stuff?
Fangraphs threw a 35+FV, mentioning they believe he has the command and stuff to be a 5th starter, so maybe that stuff plays up in the pen. FWIW, they had him ranked higher than Urquidy to start the year. Not sure where he stacks up compared to Scheetz, McCurry, Pinales, or Blanco (who can apparently throw 98?!) in the pecking order of non-40 man reliever options.
