Astros Minor League Recap: May 26th, 2013

Philip Humber made his first official start for OkC last night in the second game, and produced fairly good results, depending on how you view unearned runs. In this particular case, I blame him a bit for the two that he gave up. With one out in the first inning with the bases loaded, he gives up a foul pop that Marc Krauss misplayed for an error. That should have been out two, but as the at-bat continues, Humber ends up hitting the batter, striking out the next, and then hitting the following batter to walk (Edwin Maysonet, remember that guy?) in two runs. It was just a hard first inning for Humber, the leadoff man hit a homerun off him too. He did settle in nicely following that inning though.

• Philip Humber-4 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO, 1 HR, 3/4 GO/AO, 67/43 P/S
• Jonathan Villar SS-1-4, 3B, 2 SO, CS

Corpus Pieces Together a Pitching Staff in 8-6 Loss

They threw five pitchers out there to complete the game, and not a single one lasted more than three innings. It was a very poor outing in general for the staff as they surrendered fifteen hits against them. Just a messy game. Josh Fields made another rehab appearance wasn't the bright spot for them, he wasn't very good in his one inning of work either. Although, Jiovanni Mier did show why he still has some value. He drew two walks last night and picked up a hit. When he struggles, Mier really struggles. But, when he gets on streaks, he's pretty good. He draws walks at a 10% rate which makes up for his higher strikeout rate and he has a little pop in his bat when he's hitting the ball well. Right now, he's hitting the ball pretty well and has a .281/.425/.333 batting line over the last ten games. Don't give up on him just yet.

• Carlos Quevedo-3 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 2 HR, 3/4 GO/AO, 42/27 P/S
• Andrew Robinson-1 1/3 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO
• Kenny Long-1 2/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SO, 0/1 GO/AO, 27/16 P/S
• Josh Fields-1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 1/0 GO/AO, 21/16 P/S
• Matt Heidenreich-2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 SO, 3/1 GO/AO, 23/15 P/S
• Jiovanni Mer SS-1-3, 2 BB
• Michael Burgess LF-0-2, 2 BB, SO
• Enrique Hernandez 2B-2-4, 2B, SO

Meredith Provides Spark off the Bench in 18-10 Win

Down 6-4 in the 6th, Rodney Linares decided to make a change and pinch hits Brandon Meredith for Jean Batista. Off the bench, Meredith comes in and crushes a ball for a three-run home run to the JetHawks up by one. Only then, at the top of the 7th, Inland Empire scores three to go up by two. The Jethawks respond again! This time with three home runs and ten runs! And, Meredith was one of those home runs! So to recap that, Brandon Meredith came off the bench to hit two home runs! I've said several times that he's one to watch to break out in Lancaster, and it may be time that he does that. He's unfortunately struggled up to this point, but all four of his home runs have been in the last ten games and he's really heating up.

• Luis Cruz-2 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO, 1/2 GO/AO
• Theron Geith-2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 2/1 GO/AO
• Kyle Hallcok-4 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO, 3 HR, 7/1 GO/AO
• Jonas Dufek-1 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 SO, 2/2 GO/AO
• Delino DeShields 2B-4-6, 3B, SB-Heating up
• Joe Sclafani SS-2-4, HR, 2 BB, SO-First HR of the season, performing very well in Fontana's absence
• Andrew Aplin CF-2-5, SO-Check out the instagram photo of his catch from over the weekend
• Telvin Nash 1B-0-2, 3 BB, 2 SO-I can't say enough about the work he's put in to work on this area
• Preston Tucker RF-1-4, HR, BB-Chris fainted
• Chris Epps LF-3-4, 3B, HR, BB
• Brandon Meredith PH, DH-3-3, 2 HR

River Bandits keep LumberKings bats down for 5-2 win

Brian Holmes, Gerardo Sanchez, and Jordan Jankowski combined for a solid pitching performance. Brian Holmes did struggle a bit in his third inning of work. His outing was ended by a rain delay after the bottom of the third that lasted over an hour. But, his five strikeouts in those three innings in not something to be left un-noticed. Not to be outdone, Jankowski added five strikeouts of his own in his four innings of work. We talked briefly about Holmes last night on the AMP, but didn't quite have time to mention Jankowski, and it's unfortunate. He has done a very good job this season with a decent strikeout rate and his walk rate is pretty good. The impressive part is that he's doing it during a transition from a reliever in Greeneville last year to the starting role in Quad Cities.

• Brian Homes-3 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 SO, 2/1 GO/AO
• Gerardo Sanchez-2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO, 3/0 GO/AO
• Jordan Jankowski-4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 SO, 2/2 GO/AO
• Teoscar Hernandez CF-0-5, BB, 4 SO, SB
• Carlos Correa SS-1-4, 2B, BB
• Terrell Joyce RF-1-2, HR, 3 BB-He's still one of my sleepers
• Brian Blasik DH-1-3, 2 BB, SB, CS
• Roberto Pena C-1-4, 2B, BB
• Austin Elkins 2B-3-4
• Jordan Scott LF-2-3, 2 BB