Astros Minor League Recap: August 31, 2012

What we learned last night? The South Carolina GameCocks are not the number nine team in the nation. Wait...it's still baseball season! Resist CFB...nope! I went to the Vanderbilt and South Carolina last night and it was a good game to watch, but the atmosphere at Vandy is lacking. Jordan Rodgers is definitely not Aaron, but he did some things to open a few eyes at times. South Carolina has to do something with their quarterback situation. Sorry Tim, but aside from running the ball, your boys can't do a whole lot. Marcus Lattimore is legit but it's hard for him to carry the team from the spread offense. I think Spurrier could do a better job of using him than what they showed last night (first game of the season though).

Back to baseball! Big story yesterday is that George Springer launched his first home run in AA! His bat could be starting to heat up a bit as he adjusts to better pitching and a less hitter friendly environment. He's had a tough transition and I'm not going to put it past getting nailed in the head with a pitch early as a large impact on that. Although, he hasn't really helped things either with his aggressive approach at the plate. When he struggles, instead of toning it down and trying to make contact, he takes bigger hacks. The home run is nice to see, but really the fact that he picked up three hits in the game is better. They're going to need him to be consistent for the playoffs.

Possibly a bigger story is that Oklahoma City road another solid outing from Brett Oberholtzer into another win. Now, they are 1.5 games back and have four games left in the season and they are all on the road against Round Rock. They have a shot to make the playoffs, but will need some more wins and for Albuquerque to continue to fall apart.

Let's talk about ObieHockey for a bit though. Over his last five starts, he's been very good and has shown some nice adjustments. His line for those five starts is 35 2/3 IP, 34 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 6 BB, 31 SO, 1 HR. That comes out to a 2.02 ERA. He's been absolutely solid. We've been waiting for a prospect in AAA to start to show up a bit and he's been that guy. I think it's very possible that we will see him get a September call-up, although I think it depends largely on if OkC makes the playoffs. I think they will keep him down there for the playoffs. Once those are over, or if they don't make it, he will be called up to pitch out of the pen as he already has 11 more innings than last season.

Oklahoma City RedHawks won 3-1

• Brett Oberholtzer-7 1/3 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 SO, 7/7 GO/AO, 114 pitches, GS 66
• Chuckie Fick-2/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 SO
• Jose Valdez-1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO
• Brad Snyder CF-2-4, 2B, 2 SO
• Brian Bixler 3B-2-3

Corpus Christi Hooks won 7-2

• Matthew Heidenreich-5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO, 5/3 GO/AO, 63 pitches, GS 57
• Alex Sogard-2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO, 3/0 GO/AO
• Kevin Chapman-1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO
• Jason Stoffel-1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO
• Robbie Grossman CF-0-4, BB, 3 SO
• George Springer RF-3-5, HR, SO, SB-YES!
• Jake Goebbert LF-2-4, HR, SB
• Drew Locke 1B-0-5, 3 SO
• Bobby Borchering DH-1-4, 2B, BB, 2 SO
• Enrique Hernandez 2B-3-5
• Ben Orloff SS-2-4, BB

Lancaster JetHawks won 2-0

• Tyson Perez-7 1/3 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 So, 13/2 GO/AO, 97 pitches, GS 73
• Kenny Long-1 2/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 SO
• Jiovanni Mier SS-2-4
• Jonathan Meyer 3B-2-4, SO
• Telvin Nash LF-0-4, 3 SO

Lexington Legends lost 3-1

• Jonas Dufek-7 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 11 SO, 2 HR, 4/4 GO/AO, GS 61
• Nathan Pettus-1 IP, 0 H, 0 R< 0 BB, 0 SO
• Nolan Fontana SS-1-4, 2B, BB, SO
• Chan Moon 2B-1-4, 2B, BB, SO, SB
• Zachary Johnson 1B-0-2, 2 BB
• Teoscar Hernandez RF-0-4, 4 SO
• Ryan McCurdy C-0-2, 2 BB

Tri-City ValleyCats lost 7-3

• Juan Minaya-5 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 4 SO, 9/1 Go/AO
• Jamaine Cotton-1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO
• Euris Quezada-1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO
• Scott Zuloaga-1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 SO
• Preston Tucker RF-0-2, 2 BB, 2 SO
• M.P. Cokinos C-3-4