Astros Announce Minor League Rosters

After long and much anticipated waiting, the Astros have finally released their minor league rosters for the 2013 season. The season starts for each affiliate on Thursday and the Lancaster JetHawks actually have an exhibition game tomorrow.

Oklahoma City:

PITCHERS

Kevin Chapman*

Jose Cisnero

Paul Clemens

Jarred Cosart

John Ely

C.J. Fick

Dallas Keuchel*

Jordan Lyles

Wes Musick*

Brett Oberholtzer*

Rudy Owens*

Jose Valdez

Josh Zeid

CATCHERS

Cody Clark

Jason Jaramillo#

Chris Wallace

INFIELDERS

Jake Elmore

Marc Krauss*

Brandon Laird

Jose Martinez

Jonathan Villar#

OUTFIELDERS

Trevor Crowe#

Jake Goebbert*

Robbie Grossman#

Che-Hsuan Lin

Jimmy Paredes#

Not any real surprises here. Also, not really anything exciting prospect wise. The biggest thing to watch will be the usage of Josh Zeid and Kevin Chapman in the bullpen with the new pitching philosophy. I'm curious as to how Jose Martinez performs as he tries to come back from being a good prospect and his career derailed. Villar may be the most interesting assignment as that was debatable whether or not he deserved a AAA assignment. Grossman's is a promotion, but we all knew it was coming.

Corpus Christi:

PITCHERS

Ruben Alaniz

Jake Buchanan

Jorge De Leon

Bobby Doran

Matt Heidenreich

David Martinez

Andrew Robinson

Ross Seaton

Alex Sogard*

Jason Stoffel

Nick Tropeano

Pat Urckfitz*

Asher Wojciechowski

CATCHERS

Rene Garcia

Ryan McCurdy

Carlos Perez

INFIELDERS

Erik Castro*

Enrique Hernandez

Jonathan Meyer

Jiovanni Mier

Ben Orloff

OUTFIELDERS

Michael Burgess*

Domingo Santana

George Springer

Austin Wates

There's a lot of promotions from last season, particularly on the fielding side. Domingo Santana is the headliner here as the combination of he and Springer will surely make the outfield exciting to watch. Wates' injury problems are probably the biggest reason he returns. The Meyer and Mier combo are probably challenges to see if they'll really progress. Castro will have to use this opportunity to prove he's not a Lancaster product. The catching group is noteworthy and I really like the possible rotation. This will be a pretty exciting group.

Lancaster:

PITCHERS

Travis Ballew

Luis Cruz*

Chris Devenski

Jonas Dufek

Mike Foltynewicz

T.J. Geith*

Alex Gillingham

Tyson Perez

Carlos Quevedo

Brady Rodgers

David Rollins*

Tommy Shirley*

Blair Walters*

Aaron West

CATCHERS

M.P. Cokinos

Tyler Heineman#

INFIELDERS

Delino DeShields

Matt Duffy

Nolan Fontana*

Zach Johnson

Raoul Torrez

Rafael Valenzuela*

OUTFIELDERS

Andrew Aplin*

Chris Epps*

Brandon Meredith

Andrew Muren

Preston Tucker

There are quite a few players who skipped Quad-Cities this season, which we didn't really see last season. Tucker, Ballew, Rodgers, West, Cokinos, and Heineman all made the jump. It's very trusting of the FO to skip the pitchers but I'm not really that surprised with the position players. This team boasts a lot of power potential and the winds of Lancaster could make this one of the best offensive teams in recent Lancaster history. As for the rotation, Houston hasn't sent this amount of talent to Lancaster...ever.

Quad Cities:

PITCHERS

Joe Bircher*

Colton Cain*

Kyle Hallock*

Mike Hauschild

Brian Holmes*

Jordan Jankowski

Cameron Lamb

Mitchell Lambson*

Lance McCullers

Daniel Minor

John Neely

Gera Sanchez

Vincent Velasquez

CATCHERS

Jobduan Morales#

Roberto Pena

INFIELDERS

Carlos Correa

Chase Davidson*

Ryan Dineen*

Carlos Perdomo

Rio Ruiz*

Joe Sclafani#

Jesse Wierzbicki

OUTFIELDERS

Teoscar Hernandez

Terrell Joyce

Ariel Ovando*

Jordan Scott*

Prospect fun! This is the team that will have scouts flocking to. Ovando, Ruiz, Correa, Velasquez, and McCullers is one of the best prospect headlines to be in one place we've seen recently. Corpus last year boasted the best prospect lineup last year, but this blows that out of the water. There are plenty of others to watch with Hernanez, Joyce, Scott, Davidson, Pena, and Morales position wise. The pitchers are mostly college level guys with Minor, Holmes, Bircher, Hallock and Cain, but should definitely be effective.

Missing Notables:

Bobby Borchering, Max Stassi, Chan Moon, Kenny Long: I would suspect these are injury guys who are working back to action.

Kevin Comer, Joe Musgrove, Adrian Houser, Lance Day, Jose Fernanez: I guess these guys just aren't ready for fulls season ball quite yet or are pushed back due to depth.

Telvin Nash, Tanner Bushue: Dog House

We will also be bringing out season previews for each team starting tomorrow.