Astros Minor League Recap: April 10, 2013

After finishing with the best cumulative winning percentage (.546) a season ago, the Astros Minor League Affiliates have picked up right where they left off in 2013, winning 19 of their first 24 games (.792), including 2-0 on Wednesday night.

With only two teams in action, last night was pretty light for Astros' Affiliates. Corpus had a scheduled day off and the Quad Cities game got postponed due to Vermontness. The two biggest stories of the night came in the form of five shutout innings from Jarred Cosart, and the continued dominance of Nolan Fontana.

Oklahoma City cruised to 3-1 win behind the start of top prospect, Jarred Cosart. On paper, Cosart's line looks outstanding – 5 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 Ks – but, as he's done his entire career, he struggled to harness TOR stuff. It should also be noted that his GO/AO ratio was 6:1, and he threw 31 balls, to 45 strikes. At this point in his career, this is what you can expect from Cosart: a fastball in the high 90s, lots of groundballs, some walks and weak contact. When he was first traded to the Astros, we dreamed of a true TOR guy. Now I'm hoping for Lucas Harrell, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

In the nightcap, Lancaster pulled out a 7-5 victory, as Nolan Fontana continued to fill up the statsheet. He was 3-5, with a double, home run, and a strikeout. For only the second time this season, he failed to draw a walk. On the season, Fontana is hitting .476/.586/1.000, with two home runs and a stolen base. With Villar in OKC and Mier on Corpus, Fontana might put the Astros in a tough spot, promotion-wise, if he continues to hit like this.

Oklahoma City

Brooks was at the game last night and took several pictures for our new Instagram page, check it out:

Jimmy Paredes hit his first bomb of the season, and he's gotten off to a good start, sporting a trip slash of .385/.429/.615 in seven games. Robbie Grossman still hasn't recorded an extra base hit, but has eight walks already – good for a .516 OBP. Jonathan Villar continues to really stink at the game of baseball. His trip slash this season is .bad/.bad/.worse, and he's been caught stealing on both attempts. I'm close to conceding that he will ever be a productive major leaguer.

• Jarred Cosart - 5 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, 6/1 GO/AO
• Wes Musik - 3 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1/3 GO/AO
• Robbie Grossman CF - 1-2, 2 BB
• Jon Villar SS - 0-3, BB, K, CS
• Brandon Laird 1B - 0-4, 2 K
• Jake Elmore 2B - 1-4, 2B, K
• Jimmy Paredes 3B - 1-4, HR

Lancaster

Chris Devenski put together his second quality outing in a row – it's not easy to get out of a Lancaster with a line as clean as his. Brady Rodgers got rocked in his second consecutive outing, but according to Aaron West, the Lancaster pitchers are putting a heavy focus on their BB/K numbers. Rodgers improved from 3/5, in his first outing, to 0/4 tonight. He also induced a lot of groundballs. DDJ was only caught stealing 5 times in Lancaster last season. His CS on Wednesday brings his 2013 total to 4. So much for Vince Coleman.

• Chris Devenski - 5 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 3 K, 8/2 GO/AO
• Brady Rodgers - 3.1 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 4/2 GO/AO
• Travis Ballew - 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K
• Delino DeShields Jr 2B - 0-4, BB, 3 K, CS
• Nolan Fontana SS - 3-5, 2B, HR, K
• Andrew Aplin CF - 1-3, 3B, 2 BB, SB
• Preston Tucker - 1-4, 2B, BB, K
• Brandon Meredith - 2-3, 2B, 3B, BB, K
• Tyler Heineman - 0-3, K, HBP
• Matt Duffy - 1-3, HR, BB, K

*BOLD indicates top 30 prospect