Brett Gillis allowed two hits and struck out five over four scoreless for Corpus. Gillis has hit triple digits with his fastball in the past. He's only pitched 54 innings since turning pro, so whatever faint chance he has to get to the MLB level hinges on his health.
On Clutch City Podcast, they asked one of the main minor league front office guys and he said Neyens will split time between SS and 3B this season. And Alvarez is a very young 18, birthday 1/13/2008.
I feel like he's gotten surprisingly little fanfare for a guy who apparently throws hard and limits walks. Great debut for him.
For a team whose MLB window is closed and minor league system is historically bad, this has been a very fun year so far! In all seriousness, through all the regime changes, the Astros continue to prove they are smarter than the consensus. Is it really Crane and whatever culture he has set up that deserves the credit?
I think one very underrated aspect of Houston’s last decade has been the benefit they’ve gotten from front office turnover. Every time they’ve gotten a new GM or AGM they get a trove of new information. When they hired Luhnow they got all the best of the Cardinals institutional knowledge, then Click brought in the Rays to add to it, then Brown brought in the Braves and Jays. Keeping fresh perspectives and preventing complacency is huge, and Crane deserves a lot of credit for Houston being able to do that this long.
