Tuesday Morning Astros etc., Round Up
by Stephen Higdon on Jun 2, 2009 3:09 AM CDT
16 comments
I'm having a lot of fun playing with the new tools that tech team created, and one of the coolest ones, besides autotagging, is this news clipping tool. It makes having a link dump post pretty use for us, so hopefully we'll just turn into your hub for all things Astros news:
- Jose Valverde threw 25 pitches from the mound and feels fine: Hallelujah
- The Astros attendance is down by about 13%, so I guess we can expect payroll to drop 13% next year to compensate.
- The Chronicle has a feature about how stellar the Astros minor league outfielders have been. It's just a shame that the we don't have one of the better offensive outfields in the bigs right now.
- That said, I'm calling it now: Yordany Ramirez will get traded sometime late July for a bull pen arm: it's basically already a done deal.
- Sean Berry is back after his surgery—I know we all continue to wish him the very best.
- The Astros have had an above average strength of schedule so far, according to Sky's calculations.
- A collection of some pitch/fx primers for those of you who were hopefully mildly interested by the Backe piece.
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I, for one
might not be too miffed to see Ramirez traded, although for “veteran” bullpen help might not make me too pleased. I’m not sure how solid of a prospect he really is, and how much of a future he has as an Astro. He got off to a scorching start to this season, but in May, he only hit .242, hitting .176 over his last 10 games. We may be seeing a regression to the mean. He hit a paltry .231, with an OPS of .636 for the season last year, and his minor league career average is .249, with an OPS of .661. He’s only walked THREE TIMES this year and in almost 2000 minor league at bats, he’s only walked 70 times, to 338 strikeouts. I understand he has amazing speed and all the defensive tools for the outfield, but he doesn’t appear to be in position to be replacing anybody on the Astros roster anytime soon (barring a trade). If he can fetch a prospect at a position of greater need, I’d be fine with that. I’d also be fine with keeping him around until next sesaon (at the end of which he’ll be out of options) and see if his hot start to this season portends things to come.
Adding to your links, Seaton pitched a three hit shutout yesterday for Lexington, striking out 6 and walking none. He’s only given up more than one run twice in his 10 starts, with only one truly BAD start, coming a couple outings ago. He’s now 6-4, with an ERA of 2.44, a WHIP of 1.08, and 30 K/11 BB over 59 innings.
by littlevisigoth on Jun 2, 2009 9:06 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
oops
didn’t realize FarmStros already linked to the performance by Seaton. Guess I should get all caught up on the site postings before starting to comment. My bad.
by littlevisigoth on Jun 2, 2009 10:38 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
And everyone knows we have an amazing young pitching staff, so there’s no reason for us to keep a good young arm…
"He walked 18."
"New league record!"
"Struck out 18."
"Another new league record! In addition he hit the sportswriter, the public address announcer, the bull mascot twice...also new league records! But, Joe, this guy's got some serious shit."
by Elephande on Jun 2, 2009 11:21 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
what is this in response to?
please elaborate.
by littlevisigoth on Jun 2, 2009 4:53 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, I think the consensus is that
Yordany Ramirez is mostly a defensive replacement who might be able to hit well enough to be a 4th/5th outfielder. Maybe.
Your friendly neighborhood Dreamshake mod.
by Only_A_Lad on Jun 2, 2009 2:00 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Yordany seems to be regressing somewhat.
But he has shown a power spike which is different than his previous career offense. So maybe the Express pitching coaches is helping him out. His lack of walks probably means his potential in the majors is as a 4th or 5th outfielder, rather than a starter. If he has developed HR power, then perhaps he could be a younger and better defensive version of Reggie Abercrombie. I doubt that Yordany has much trade value at the current time.
by clack on Jun 2, 2009 5:21 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Astros current outfielders
Offensively aren’t they doing fine? Bourn has been a pleasant surprise. Pence had the highest batting average in the NL in May didn’t he? Lee batting over .300 the past month.
They may lack the homerun power of other outfields but are they worse than other teams?
Astros fan for life
by Joe in Birmingham on Jun 2, 2009 12:00 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
The sarcasm didn't get relayed via text.
The Crawfishboxes
A good friend of mine used to say, "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." Think about that for a while.
by Stephen Higdon on Jun 2, 2009 12:36 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
I'll shoulder part of the communication breakdown.,
I was reading and doing something else at the same time.
Astros fan for life
by Joe in Birmingham on Jun 2, 2009 2:07 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Anyone remember Mike Burns? He’s headed to Florida to join the Brewers. Jorge Julio facing 6 batters and getting none out means he’s gone.
by ol Pete on Jun 2, 2009 12:44 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
sure I remember Burns...he was brought up as a reliever for awhile in 2005.
My impression of Mike Burns was that he is one of those minor league fastball pitchers who can get AAA hitters out, but whose fastball isn’t good enough to consistently retire major league batters. Of course, I don’t know much about him since that time…so I can’t say whether he has improved or not. My recollection is that he will throw strikes.
by clack on Jun 2, 2009 5:24 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
And that phrase “throws strikes” is what seems to be the most common description around here for him. He’ll probably pitch tonight too.
by ol Pete on Jun 2, 2009 6:29 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Anyone here remenber Chad Harville? What happened to him?
"A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings." ~Earl Wilson
by hunterpencefan on Jun 2, 2009 5:00 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
as best I can tell, Harville is no longer playing professionally.
His last ML season was with the Rays in 2006. His last minor league season was with Tucson (AAA) in 2007 and he had a good year as the closer, notching 25 saves and a 3.75 ERA (in a hitters’ park). I vague recall that the Rays may have invited him to spring training in the next year. He is 33 or 34 now, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he retired.
by clack on Jun 2, 2009 5:30 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
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