Astros Off-Season League Update

Off-Season Leagues are not yet a week old, but there is plenty to talk about, especially with the Arizona Fall League. But, we expected that with the AFL being the premier off-season league and with many of the Astros top prospects in attendance this year. One thing to keep in mind when looking at statistics for the AFL is that it is a rather hitter friendly environment and that offensive numbers can be inflated, but I don't want to deter you from getting excited about Jonathan Singleton.

Speaking of Singleton, why is it that the man with such great power have the word single in his name? Shouldn't it be like Double-ton or, better yet, Homer-ton in tribute to his already two home run total in the AFL? He has gotten off to a hot start in the AFL with an OPS of 1.235! But, George Springer is one-upping him a bit with an OPS of 1.754! Yeah, his SLG is 1.111! He has 13 plate appearances in which he's drawn four walks (two strikeouts) and has hit a double, a triple, and a home run.

Although, the best aspect for prospect nerds like myself is that two parks have pitch f/x cameras! Well, we already have data for one pitcher, and than man is Nick Tropeano!

More than we've seen before, right? There are three pitches that I didn't include, a slider, a curve, and one more changeup that just didn't look anything like the others. The other thing to keep in mind that this is a group of 11 fastballs and four changeups.

The main thing I wanted to point out with this data is the similarity between the fastball and the changeup. The change drops less than two inches more and fades a little less than inch more than the fastball. The spin angle is just a little over 10 degrees more than the fastball and spins 400 revolutions slower. That is a very similar profile to the fastball. The angle isn't really noticeable and the fade is actually within the range as his fastball since he had a few fastball that had -10 fade on them. The drop is the biggest difference but isn't that big of a difference. But, the fact that it comes in 11.5 MPH slower makes it a great combination.

Arizona Fall League

• Bobby Borchering-3 G, 10 AB, 2 R, 1 H, 1 HR, 2 BB, 6 SO
• Jiovanni Mier-2 G, 7 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 SO
• Jonathan Singleton-5 G, 20 AB, 7 R, 7 H, 1 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR, 3 BB, 5 SO
• George Springer-4 G, 9 AB, 4 R, 4 H, 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 4 BB, 2 SO
• Jarred Cosart-1 G, 1 GS, 3 1/3 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 SO
• Chia-Jen Lo-2 G, 2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 HR, 2 BB, 3 SO
• Alex Sogard-2 G, 2 1/3 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO
• Nick Tropeano-1 G, 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO

Venezuelan Fall League

• Brandon Barnes-4 G, 14 AB, 2 R, 4 H, 1 HR, 3 BB, 4 SO, 1 SB, 1 CS
• Jose Martinez-4 G, 16 AB, 1 R, 3 H, 1 2B, SO
• Gabriel Garcia-2 G, 1 2/3 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER
• Arcenio Leon-1 G, 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO
• Sergio Perez-1 G, 1 GS, 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO

Dominican Winter League

• Jonathan Villar-1 G, 3 AB, 1 H, SO, SB
• Erick Abreu-1 G, 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 HR, 1 SO
• Aneury Rodriguez-1 G, 1 GS, 4 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SO

Liga Mexicana del Pacifico

• Garrett Mock-1 G, 2/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 0 SO