Astros Minor League Recap

by Subber10 on Apr 14, 2011 9:00 AM CDT in Houston Astros Minor League Recaps

So far, the story lines have been all about the offenses with the pitching lagging behind for the most part. But, things turned around a little bit last night with some solid starting pitching. Each level had a pitcher shine! Sergio Perez pitched like the second rounder he is. Andrew Robinson pitched really well, especially for being in Lancaster. Folty induced groundballs like they were going out of style. Gabriel Garcia and Zachary Grimmett both pitched well in long relief. These pitching staffs are starting to step up and if they continue to improve, we could see some exciting performances this year.

I'll be meeting up again with Astros County tonight for another game at Greer Stadium! Hyphen is supposed to be getting the start so we'll see if he can take a step forward towards contributing to the Astros this season after he signed a guarranteed contract. As for my write-up for the other night is concerned, It's still a work in progress. But, I do have a very short video of Lyles warming up edited and ready to go!

Oklahoma City lost 6-1

Sergio Perez-6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, BB, 7 SO-Maybe he will put it together this year!
Collin DeLome CF-0-2, 2 BB, SO
Brian Bogusevic RF-1-2, 2 BB, SB
Ozzie Navarro 3B-1-4, 2B, SO

Corpus was off

Lancaster won 4-3 in 12 Innings!

Andrew Robinson-6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO-Not bad...
Zachary Grimmett-4 2/3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 SO
Kirk Clark-1 1/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, SO
Jay Austin CF-2-6, SO, SB-A .321 avg. right now is pretty legitimate.
Jonathan Villar SS-2-5, BB, SO, 3 SB-Yes, you read that correctly, three stolen bases.
Jose Altuve 2B-1-3, 2 BB, SO-There ya go Timmy, he made it back!
Ben Heath DH-2-4, 2B-I think they need to start giving him time at 1B, with his bat, he could still make it as a first baseman at this point.
Kody Hinze 1B-2-6, SO
Austin Wates RF-2-5, 2B, 2 SO, SB

Lexington lost 1-0

Mike Foltynewicz-6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO, 9/4 AO/GO-The k's weren't there but i'll take that stat line any day. It's a step in the right direction!
Kike Hernandez LF-1-1, 2B, 2 BB, CS
Tyler Burnett 1B-1-3, 2B

Lexington won 6-4

Ruben Alaniz-3 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO, 1 HR-The homer was to Bryce Harper...can you blame him?
Gabriel Garcia-3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 SO-Nice!
Delino DeShields 2B-1-4, HR, 2 SO, Error-It's nice to see the power but the kid has to stop striking out. Another thing, he has four errors so far, so his adjustment to second is something to keep an eye on.
Ben Orloff SS-2-4
Adam Bailey RF-2-3, SO
Tyler Burnett 1B-2-2, HR, BB-He was feeling it last night!

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I notice that Wates is back in RF and Austin is back in CF. Maybe the Astros are just trying to give both guys exposure to both positions.

I would expect the errors from DeShields, since he is playing an infield position for the first time.

by clack on Apr 14, 2011 9:38 AM CDT reply actions 1 recs

I can definitely see where Austin will need some positional versatility, same with Wates. Although, they may still be trying to find a primary position Wates.

I’m expecting a high error count from delino, but I am hoping to see a drop in the rate of errors. That’s what I’ll be monitoring

by Subber10 on Apr 14, 2011 10:24 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions

What's the deal with Ben Heath?

Specifically, does he have the defensive catching chops to be the everyday guy? I was under the impression that he does, but it looks like they’re playing him as backup catcher to light-hitting Rene Garcia.

by AstroAndy on Apr 14, 2011 9:46 AM CDT reply actions

I think it’s divided on whether he can or not. He is the backup right now but I think that’s mostly because Rene Garcia is a great defensive catcher. This way they both get at bats but the better defender is in the field. Hopefully well see Heath get more time at catcher as the season rolls on and he hopefully develops defensively.

by Subber10 on Apr 14, 2011 10:28 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions

Folty

I watched Folty pitch last night on MILB.TV, and there was a couple of things that he did good and bad. He consistently got ahead of hitters and was able to locate his fastball pretty well. He did get quite a few swings and misses throughout the night, even though only 3 strikeouts to show for it. He worked primarily off his fastball which the announcers would say the speed at times, which was usually 92 or 93. He also works with a very quick tempo, as soon as he got the ball back he was back on the rubber ready for the next pitch a la Roy Oswalt. The biggest problem that I saw with his outing was with his offspeed stuff. His curve looked very flat, and he also had a very hard time throwing it for strikes. He is going to have to develop his offspeed stuff to get the strikeouts and move up.

As far as the rest of the game went nobody really hit all that great in this game, and Kvasnicka and DeShields looked bad in the field.

by conroestro on Apr 14, 2011 9:48 AM CDT via mobile reply actions

Actually, Folty’s changeup looked really good. He got numerous swings and misses with it throughout. Also, DeShields DH’d so I don’t know how he could look bad in the field.

by Guydude on Apr 14, 2011 10:26 AM CDT up reply actions

He dh’d in the first game only. It was the second game that he played second, not sure if both were on milb tv.

With folty, of course it’s going to be inconsistent. This is low-a ball. Lyles curve was big and loopy at this point. It’ll develop, give him time. His change is supposedly pretty good so he could have a lylesesque season.

by Subber10 on Apr 14, 2011 10:35 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions

Yeah, sorry about that I didn’t clarify, but both games were on milb.tv. I had Lexington’s double-header going as I was watching the tivo’ed Astro game so I had a full night of baseball. Score 1 for technology.

by conroestro on Apr 14, 2011 10:49 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions

As far as Wates goes they’re probably going to continue to shuffle him from CF to RF to see if he can cover the ground in CF. That’s the big question with him. If he’s fast enough for CF he’ll rise quickly if not he needs to develope power for RF

by Its Gonna Happen on Apr 14, 2011 6:16 PM CDT via mobile reply actions

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