Today's big news is that Dallas Keuchel has finally been promoted to Class AA Corpus Christi. It's great to see him moving so quickly through the minor league system. Keuchel, Lyles, and Douglas Arguello could all be set to get major league starts under their belts some time next season, depending on their performances between now and then.
Beyond that, it wasn't a banner day for the Astros' upper level minor league teams, who all lost. (Unless you count the Astros themselves as one, for which I wouldn't blame you.) The short season teams performed much better.
Won:
- Tri-City, 7-4
- Greeneville, 7-6
- GCL Astros, 6-5
Lost:
- Round Rock, 5-10
- Corpus Christi, 2-5
- Lancaster, 5-6
Best Performances
- Wladimir Sutil (AAA), 1-for-2, 3 BB, CS. Sutil has never been the most patient of hitters, but if he can start getting on base at a better clip, his excellent glove might give him an outside shot at a big league job if Sanchez and Manzella falter.
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Collin DeLome (AAA), 3-for-5, HR, SB. DeLome is on an absolute tear, with four homers in his last four games. If nothing else, the Astros have plenty of fourth outfielders/borderline MLB starters.
- Brian Bogusevic (AAA), 3-for-5, 2B. Bogey's ceiling may be underrated due to his age; he's still playing catch-up even now after his conversion from pitcher. I had a dream that Carlos Lee announced his early retirement and Bogusevic got called up to play left field. Good times.
- Drew Locke (AAA), 2-for-5, 2B. Wade really needs to find a way to cash in on all this outfield depth.
- Koby Clemens (AA), 2-for-4, 2 HR, K. Koby seems to be finding his homerun stroke again after a bit of a dry spell. He now has 21 homers on the season, which ties him for first place in the Texas League with Mike Moustakas. He provided the only scoring for the Hooks, as both his homers were solo shots.
- Jon Gaston (AA), 1-for-4, 2B. This is borderline, but I wanted to highlight Gaston's improvement in strikeout rate. He only has five strikeouts in his last ten games (36 at-bats). There has been some thought that he might be sacrificing power to avoid striking out as much, but it could also be the ballpark and its in-blowing wind. Don't be surprised if he has a big rebound year at Round Rock in 2011.
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Jay Austin (A+), 2-for-5, 3B, 2 SB. If there's anything Austin is good at, it's running. He stole both second and third base in this game, plus the triple.
- Albert Cartwright (A+), 2-for-5, 2B, 2 K.
- David Berner (A+), 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.
- Wilton Infante (A-), 2-for-5, 2B.
- Enrique Hernandez (A-), 3-for-4. Deju vu; this is almost identical to his performance the day before. One thing I failed to note was that Hernandez is only 18 years old, which is young for the NYPL. If he can move up directly to Lancaster next season, he would be one of the youngest players in the league.
- Michael Kvasnicka (A-), 2-for-4, 2B, 2 K. Kvasnicka is proving me right as his BABIP regresses upward.
- Adam Bailey (A-), 2-for-4, K, SB.
- Jacke Healey (A-), 1-for-3, HR, BB.
- Carlos Quevedo (A-), 6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K. Quevedo's best trait is that he is incredibly stingy with walks. He's only walked two batters in seven starts (40 IP) for the Valley-Cats, while striking out 28. The K-rate isn't particularly impressive, but it doesn't need to be if you never give out a free pass.
- Jonathan Merritt (Rk), 2-for-4, BB, SB.
- Rafael Valenzuala (Rk), 2-for-4, 2 2B. Valenzuala was recently promoted to Greeneville from the GCL Astros, sensibly enough, since he was hitting well and is old for both levels.
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Vincent Velasquez (Rk), 3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 5 K. Love the strikeouts.
- Ernosto Genoves (GCL), 2-for-4, 2B, K.
- Garen Wright (GCL), 2-for-3, BB, K.
Goat of the Day
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Josh Banks, 4.2 IP, 10 H, 6 R, 3 BB, 1 K. Just the one today. Banks is experiencing some serious regression; he was never as good as his surface stats made him look earlier in the year.