Astros Prospect Report: Santana and Correa keep crushing, backed by strong pitching

AAA Fresno Grizzlies: 9-2 win over Reno (ARZ)

-> Domingo Santana: 3-for-4, 2B, 2 HR, 2 R, 4 RBI
-> L.J. Hoes: 2-for-2, BB, 2B, RBI, 2 R
-> Alex Presley: 1-for-3, BB
-> Preston Tucker: 1-for-4, HR, R, 3 RBI
-> Matt Dominguez: 1-for-4, R
-> Jonathan Villar: 1-for-5, R
-> Nolan Fontana: 0-for-3, BB, R
-> Max Stassi: 0-for-3, BB
-> Matt Duffy: 0-for-3, R

SP Tommy Shirley: 5.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 7 K (win)
RP Tyson Perez: 2.0 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 2 K
RP Darin Downs: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 1 K
RP Kevin Chapman: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K

Santana has been slowly picking things up after a terrible start and is sitting at .308/.379/.673 on the season now. He now has five bombs on the year, though he's whiffed 23 times in 15 games, and has struck out at least once in 13 of those 15 games.

After a little mini-slump, Tucker has heated things back up. He has two bombs in his last three games, and seven on the season, which puts him all alone for most in the PCL so far. He's 16th in the league in OPS.

You know who's 7th in the PCL in OPS? L.J. Hoes. Yeah, didn't see that one coming. He's just volcanically hot right now; eight of his 15 games have been multi-hit games, and he's hitting .417/.458/.618 on the season so far. And all that is without hitting a single home run.

The Shirley that excited us in AA last year showed up tonight. Not that his previous start was bad, but the peripherals weren't there like they were in this game. 60 of his 85 pitches were strikes (70.6%). His overall numbers after four games are about everything you could want; 2.70 ERA, 1.6 BB/9 and 7.6 K/9.

AA Corpus Christi Hooks: 5-2 win over Frisco (TEX)

-> Carlos Correa: 3-for-5, 2B, HR, 2 R, 3 RBI
-> Roberto Pena: 2-for-4, 2B, RBI, R
-> Conrad Gregor: 1-for-3, BB, 3B
-> Leonardo Heras: 1-for-4, R
-> Brandon Meredith: 1-for-4
-> Colin Moran: 1-for-5
-> Tony Kemp: 0-for-3, R, 2 BB
-> Telvin Nash: 0-for-3, BB

SP Mike Hauschild: 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 4 K (win)
RP Lance McCullers: 4.0 IP, 1 R (0 ER), 4 H, 0 BB, 9 K (save)

Back-to-back three-hit games with a jack. Correa is hitting .375/.429/.719 with 14 extra-base hits in 15 games so far this season. Reality has almost overtaken hyperbole at this point. He's 2-for-2 in steal attempts to boot, with a reportedly-mediocre run tool a year after missing most of the season with a broken ... leg ... thing. Whatever it was. Who cares? He's unaffected, clearly. You realize that his numbers extrapolated to 150 games would be 40 homers and 20 steals? Normally at this point I'd be going "it's just 15 games, calm down self" but I feel like it would almost be a lie in his case. Only in his case.

Glad to see some success for Hauschild in his third outing on the year. I liked what he showed last season and I think he could be a back-end starter. He has a 5.54 ERA currently, but I imagine his FIP will be much, much better than that when Fangraphs updates it today, considering his 0.7 BB/9 and 11.7 K/9. Some BAbip shenanigans going on here, I bet.

Holy smokes, no walks for McCullers. The fact that it took that to get his BB/9 under four is an indication of how rough it had been, but this is still nice. That 13.5 K/9 is pretty nice, too. Still hasn't even allowed an earned run yet, either, though I'm guessing he's getting a little bit of BAbip love helping him out. But maybe not too much; he's definitely hard to hit.

Gregor is on a little four-game hitting streak now, with seven hits during that time. He's brought his season line up to .298/.370/.426 thanks to that. Still no homers, though.

A+ Lancaster JetHawks: 10-3 loss to Modesto (COL)

-> Jack Mayfield: 2-for-4, 2 RBI
-> James Ramsay: 1-for-2, 2B, R, 3 BB
-> Brian Holberton: 1-for-2, 2B, RBI
-> Danry Vasquez: 1-for-4, R
-> Jose Fernandez: 1-for-5, R
-> Ronnie Mitchell: 1-for-5
-> A.J. Reed: 0-for-2, 3 BB
-> J.D. Davis: 0-for-2, 2 BB
-> Chase McDonald: 0-for-4, BB

SP Zach Morton: 4.0 IP, 3 R (1 ER), 4 H, 1 BB, 1 K (loss)
RP Ambiorix De Leon: 1.0 IP, 4 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 0 K
RP Michael Feliz: 3.2 IP, 3 R (2 ER), 3 H, 2 BB, 1 K
RP Frederick Tiburcio: 0.1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K

With their lineup, Lancaster isn't too prone to just getting out-slugged, but that's what happened today. Brett Phillips having the day off didn't help, either. I have no reason to believe it was injury-related though; he played 12 games in 11 days prior to Sunday, so it was likely just some rest.

Vasquez cooled off basically as soon as I started wondering if he was breaking out. Whoops. Still hitting a solid .276/.333/.414 (though that's probably nothing to get too hot over considering the environment), but he's 3-for-21 in his last five games. No homers yet, though just eight strike outs in 14 games.

Reed continues to contribute with walks despite not always hitting consistently. He has 10 of them over his last nine games, and 14 on the season. He's hitting just .226, but has a sturdy .364 OBP thanks to the free passes.

Bit of a tough-luck loss for Morton here. His overall numbers aren't great, but he's allowed just one ER in three of his four starts this year, and if nothing else, there's something to be said about that in the California League.

Feliz, once again, was not terrible, but was fairly mediocre. The strike outs disappeared this time, too. He's walked seven in 14 innings of work.

A- Quad Cities River Bandits: Doubleheader!

Game One: 4-2 loss to Burlington (LAA)

-> Nick Tanielu: 2-for-3, RBI
-> Mott Hyde: 1-for-2, BB, 2B, R
-> Jamie Ritchie: 1-for-3, 2B, R
-> Bobby Boyd: 1-for-3
-> Alex Hernandez: 0-for-2, BB
-> Jacob Nottingham: 0-for-3, RBI

SP Chris Lee: 4.0 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 3 K (loss)
RP Eric Peterson: 2.1 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 3 K
RP Albert Minnis: 0.2 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K

Game Two: 7-6 win over Burlington (LAA)

-> Bobby Boyd: 3-for-6, 2B, SB, 2 R
-> Jorge Martinez: 2-for-4, SB, RBI, 2 BB
-> Alfredo Gonzalez: 2-for-5, BB, 3B, RBI, R
-> Bryan Muniz: 2-for-6, 2B, 2 RBI
-> Nick Tanielu: 2-for-6, RBI, R
-> Jamie Ritchie: 1-for-4, RBI, R, 2 BB
-> Ryan Bottger: 1-for-5, BB, 2 R
-> Thomas Lindauer: 0-for-4, BB, RBI

SP Kevin Comer: 5.2 IP, 6 ER, 11 H, 0 BB, 2 K
RP Keegan Yuhl: 2.1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 4 BB, 2 K
RP Ryan Thompson: 3.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 0 K
RP Jose Montero: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 2 BB, 1 K (win)

Derek Fisher has missed four games now, and is listed on the 7-day DL. Worst news of the MiLB season so far. Hopefully he'll be back soon.

Though three runs and three walks in four innings is nothing to be happy about, I'd like to note that Lee got nine outs on the ground and just one in the air. So 12 outs on the ground or on strikes to just one in the air, that's pretty nice (and yes, someone reached on a wild pitch strike three, thus the 13 out results in four innings).

Ritchie has cooled off a bit, comparatively-speaking; he's still hitting .340/.470/.472 on the season. He has 10 games at 1B and four at C. One thing I notice is that, between last year and this, he's currently thrown out just 21% of attempted base stealers, and if that admittedly-small sample is indicative of his arm, that may be a factor that has necessitated him changing his primary position. He's also listed at 6'2" and 190 lbs., and doesn't look like he'd be a particularly poor outfielder, which also raises the question; if he could play OF, why move him to 1B instead of there? Again, it's all speculation, but it looks like he might not have much of an arm.

It's a small sample thanks to splitting time with Nottingham, but boy, Alfredo Gonzalez has lit it up in nine games this year. During that time, he's hit .379 with a, double take, .538 OBP. That's thanks to nine walks (and just five strike outs) in those nine games. He may not have a lot of power (career SLG of .316, ouch) but if he can turn into a solid receiver with some serious walk-drawing ability, there could be some MLB potential there.

Reliever spotlight time; Thompson has not allowed a run yet this year, and has one walk and nine strike outs in 9.2 innings of work.

Today's Scheduled Starters

AAA: TBD vs. TBD
AA: Aaron West vs. Nate Long
A+: Evan Grills vs. Scott Barlow
A-: Off Day