There were definitely some interesting developments for the Astros minor league system yesterday. There was a significant short-season promote. There was a suspension. There was a solid pitching performance for an upper end prospect. And, there was a physical for an unsigned draft pick.
The promotion was for the former highly regarded HS third baseman who is now transitioned to a late round round first baseman, Mr. Chase Davidson. Davidson is moving up to Tri-City and will likely be bringing his high strikeout rate with him as he faces better competition. I haven't looked into this, but if a lot of his strikeouts were looking, it could help out as the strikezone will be a little better in the NYPL.
The suspension also effects Tri-City as the massive and raw pitcher Euris Quezada was caught with an unauthorised syringe. In the minors, if you have to have authorization from the league in order to be in possession of a syringe. I'm more curious as to what was in the syringe originally. The punishment is 25 games which will take him into one game of next season.
Mike Foltynewicz has been much more impressive since the All-Star break and is starting to look like the first round pick we all hoped to see. He's still inconsistent with bad starts sprinkled in, but at least he's throwing really good games in there as well. Maybe he was just trying to impress Alyson Footer.
Jack Armstrong was in Houston for his physical yesterday, just one day after his team was eliminated from the Cape Cod League. It shows a commitment and willingness to sign that he got in so quick. As soon as Dr. Litner approves him, Bobby Heck says they will begin to exchange numbers. The most interesting thing I find about Heck's excitement about Armstrong is really the change in organizational thinking than what we're used to. Every since Heck took over, they have seemed to shy away from pitchers with mechanical flaws. Every high end pitcher drafted has had clean mechanics. But, this season, we have centered a deal around two young prospects that included a hard throwing right-hander that uses the inverted W and drafted a hard throwing right-hander that uses the inverted W. Not only is Armstrong the highest drafted pitcher with the inverted W in Heck's tenure, he's also the high drafted college pitcher. Just some food for thought.
Oklahoma City: Off
Corpus Christi: PPD
Lancaster lost 15-4
- Andrew Robinson-1 2/3 IP, 9 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO, 1 HR
- Robby Doran-1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 SO
- Wander Alvino-2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 SO
- Grant Hogue CF-2-4, 2B, SO
- Adam Bailey RF-3-4
- Jose Carlos Thompson 2B-1-4, 2B, SO
- Andrew Simunic LF-3-4, 2 2B
Lexington lost 5-2
- Mike Foltynewicz-6 2/3 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 SO, 4/5 GO/AO
- Brian Steilein-1 1/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 SO, 3/0 GO/AO
- Ben Heath DH-1-4, HR, SO
Tri-City lost 6-5
- Juri Perez-4 1/3 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO, 2/4 GO/AO
- Joan Belliard-1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SO
- Mitchell Lambson-3 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO, 3/2 GO/AO
- Rafael Valenzuela 3B-3-3, 2 2B, 2 BB-Dudes been tearing it up since he recovered from injury.
- Matt Duffy DH-4-5, 2B, HR-The Duff is a beast!
Greeneville lost 6-2
- Adrian Houser-3 2/3 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 SO, 1 HR, 4/0 GO/AO
- Jeremy Meiners-3 1/3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 SO, 3/1 GO/AO
- Jordan Scott LF-2-4, 2B
- Jesse Wierzbicki 1B-1-3, 2B, BB
GCL Astros lost 6-3
- Frederick Tiburcio-3 1/3 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO, 7/2 GO/AO
- Dustin Kellogg-1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO
- Yonathan Mejia DH-2-4, SO
- Max Ayarza SS-1-4, 2B
- Luca Martone 2B-0-2, 2 BB, 1 SO
DSL Astros won 14-6
- Ambriox De Leon-5 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO, 1 HR, 6/6 GO/AO
- Juan Santana SS-3-4, 2B, BB
- Mario Gonzalez 1B-2-3, 2 BB, SO
- Franny Polanco C-2-3, 2B, BB
- Mesac Laguna RF-2-4, 2B, SO, CS
- Michael Medina DH-0-0, 4 BB
- Frederick Serrano LF-2-4, 2B
- Yoel Silfa 2B, SS-1-3, 2B, BB
DSL Astros lost 13-1
- Jandel Gustave-3 IP, 5 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 3 BB, 4 SO, 1 HR, 4/0 GO/AO
- Mario Gonzalez 1B-1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 SO
- Jose Solano 3B-2-4, SO
- Yoel Silfa SS-1-3, 2B