Astros set minor leagues rosters; Correa and Appel to start in Corpus Christi

Baseball is just around the corner. The Astros with their major league roster now set, announced their minor league assignments. There wasn't too many surprises. it appears the championship train that rolled through Quad Cities in 2013 and Lancaster in 2014 has it's sights set on the Texas League Championship this season. The Hooks are loaded, and have two overall picks in Carlos Correa and Mark Appel to boot.

★★★

The Triple A team is a reflection of the depth and the rising standards for the Astros major league club. Matt Dominguez and Jon Singleton probably expected to be in the starting lineup on Opening Day, just not in Fresno.

"There's a lack of "exciting" players on this roster, mainly because so many of the players here have had middling MLB time before. Jon Singleton leads the way in that category. But, there's still plenty of players with upside. If we're looking just at guys who could see the majors this season, you have to put 18 of the players down as probabilities. The upside may not be here, but it's a nice collection of talent."  - David Coleman

Fresno:

Pitchers

Buchanan, Jake

Chapman, Kevin*

Cruz, Luis*

Downs, Darin*

Hoyt, James

Jankowski, Jordan

Rodgers, Brady

Rodriguez, Richard

Shirley, Tommy*

Stoffel, Jason

Straily, Dan

White, Alex

Catchers

Flores, Luis

Stassi, Max

Infielders

Dominguez, Matt

Duffy, Matt

Petit, Gregorio

Singleton, Jon*

Sclafani, Joe#

Torreyes, Ronnie

Outfielders

Aplin, Andrew*

Hoes, L.J.

Santana, Domingo

Sosa, Ruben#

Tucker, Preston*

★★★

The 2015 Texas League All-Star game is in Corpus Christi this season. With amount of talent on the Hooks this season, I expect a handful of home town represent  on the All-Star team.

When Teoscar Hernandez isn't the fifth-best prospect on a roster, there's a pretty huge collection of talent on hand. That could be the case with this roster, which just bundled up all of TCB's favorites in one place. Correa. Appel. Hader. LMJ. Aaron West. Heineman. Nolan Fontana. Conrad Gregor. Tony Kemp. Colin Moran. Telvin Nash. Heck, even semi-breakout candidate Tyler White is here. If you live near Houston, I recommend a trip to Corpus at least once this summer. - David Coleman

Corpus Christi:

Pitchers

Appel, Mark

Baez, Angel

Ballew, Travis

Devenski, Chris

Emanuel, Kent*

Hader, Josh*

Hauschild, Mike

Lambson, Mitch*

McCullers, Lance

Minor, Daniel

Perez, Tyson

West, Aaron

Westwood, Kyle

Catchers

Booth, Brett

Heineman, Tyler#

Pena, Roberto

Infielders

Correa, Carlos

Fontana, Nolan*

Gregor, Conrad*

Kemp, Tony*

Mier, Jio

Moran, Colin*

Nash, Telvin

White, Tyler

Outfielders

Heras, Leo*

Hernandez, Teoscar

Kemmer, Jon*

Meredith, Brandon

★★★

Lancaster may have been raided of last year's talent but J.D. Davis and A.J. Reed will do their best to help Jethawks fans forget all about that.

The duo of A.J. Reed and J.D. Davis in the Hangar could be explosive, as in 50 combined homers-explosive. Brett Phillips returning to Lancaster speaks more to the depth in front of him in the system than anything.Phillips only got 27 games in High A last season and the Astros will need to see the same production out of him again before he supplants anyone at Double-A. - David Coleman

Lancaster:

Pitchers

Brunnemann, Tyler

Cotton, Chris*

Fant, Randall*

Feliz, Michael

Frias, Edison

Grills, Evan*

Holmes, Brian*

Houser, Adrian

Morton, Zach

Sanudo, Gonzalo

Scribner, Troy

Sims, Blaine*

Tiburcio, Frederick

Catchers

Holberton, Brian*

Morales, Jobduan#

Infielders

Davis, JD

Fernandez, Jose

Mayfield, Jack

McDonald, Chase

Moon, Chan#

Reed, AJ*

Outfielders

Mitchell, Ronnie*

Phillips, Brett*

Ramsay, James*

Vasquez, Danry*

Wik, Marc*

★★★

The only surprise on this list was to see Derek Fisher still in Quad Cities, but I imagine that Mr. Fisher will get a ticket to Lancaster very quickly if he plays well.

A little surprised that Derek Fisher starts here, but he's part of an interesting outfield with Bobby Boyd and Ryan Bottger. Kristian Trompiz and Nick Tanielu will be fun to watch on the field, while Jacob Nottingham has plenty of potential. The pitching staff is a mix of short-season guys and college players. It's probably headlined by Daniel Mengden, but guys like Chris Lee or Kevin Comer could surprise. - David Coleman

Quad Cities:

Pitchers

Chrismon, Austin

Comer, Kevin

Dykxhoorn, Brock

James, Joshua

Lee, Chris*

Mengden, Daniel

Minnis, Albert*

Montero, Jose

Musgrove, Joe

Peterson, Eric

Radziewski, Bryan*

Thompson, Ryan

Yuhl, Keegan

Catchers

Gonzalez, Alfredo

Nottingham, Jacob

Ritchie, Jamie

Infielders

Hernandez, Alex

Hyde, Mott

Lindauer, Thomas

Muniz, Bryan

Tanielu, Nick

Trompiz, Kristian

Outfielders

Bottger, Ryan#

Boyd, Bobby*

Fisher, Derek*

Martinez, Jorge#

McMullen, Sean*

* - denotes left-hander

# - denotes switch-hitter