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Free Jon Singleton
Jonathan Singleton's much-anticipated 2013 debut was a success, as he launched a home run in his first at-bat of the season. Game two was no different, when he smoked (no pun intended) his second home run in as many days. He finished the night 2-4 and is now batting .667 in two games with Quad Cities.
Arguably the best first baseman prospect in all of baseball and one of the Astros top three or four prospects should be promoted to AA or AAA within the next few weeks. He's clearly too good for Low-A, and it wouldn't surprise me to see him wearing the Orange and Blue by season's end.
Springer's Strikeouts
As I pointed out on Twitter, more than 50 percent of George Springer's plate appearances have resulted in a walk, strikeout or home run this season. Wednesday night fell right in line, as he struck out in three of his five plate appearances.
Springer has a great make-up, solid speed, legitimate power and plays great defense. However; if he doesn't make enough contact, it's going to be extremely difficult for him to showcase the rest of his tools at the Major League level. He's played 70 games in AA and struck out nearly 30 percent of the time.
On a positive note, he's doubled his walk rate and his OBP is currently upwards of .400, but he won't be able to sustain his .370 BABIP for an entire season. To put Springer's strikeout rate in perspective, here are a list of players who had a lower K rate than 30 percent in AA: Drew Stubbs, Pedro Alvarez, Chris Davis, Mark Reynolds, Danny Espinosa and Ike Davis.
That's a list of guys who are struggling mightily to make contact at the Major League level, and even they had more success not striking out in AA than Springer is having. The player I most hear Springer compared to, although completely irrational, is Matt Kemp, and Kemp only struck out 17 percent of the time in AA. He was also three years younger.
I love Springer as much as the next guy, but he's going to have to cut down on the Ks to become a successful Major Leaguer – just something to keep in mind before penciling him in to the middle of the Astros lineup for the next decade.
Oklahoma City (29-23)
- Postponed
Corpus Christi (31-20)
- Jio Mier - 0-1, BB
- George Springer - 1-5, 3 K, SB
- Domingo Santana - 1-5
- Erik Castro - 2-3, 2 2B,
- Max Stassi - 2-4, 2 2B
- Jorge De Leon - 4 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 3/1 GO/AO
- Ruben Alaniz - 3 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 4/0 GO/AO
Lancaster (32-20)
- Delino DeShields Jr. - 2-6, K
- Joe Sclafani - 2-6, K, SB
- Andrew Aplin - 1-4, BB, K
- Brandon Meredith - 0-4, BB, K
- Preston Tucker - 2-3, HR, 2B, 2 BB
- Telvin Nash - 2-5, 2 HR, 2 K
- Tyler Heineman - 2-5, 2B
- Matt Duffy - 3-5, 2B
- Chris Epps - 2-4, 2B, BB, K, SB
- Tyson Perez - 4 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
- David Rollins - 4 IP, 0 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 3/1 GO/AO
- Michael Dimock - 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
Quad Cities (29-23)
- Teoscar Hernandez - 1-4, HR, 2 K
- Carlos Correa - 0-4
- Jon Singleton - 2-4, 2B, HR, K
- Rio Ruiz - 2-4, K, SB
- Ariel Ovando - 0-3, K
- Mike Hauschild - 5 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 8/2 GO/AO
- Colton Cain - 3 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 3/0 GO/AO