Astros Prospect Report: Solid pitching leads Fresno, Lancaster to wins; Quad Cities rained out

AAA Fresno Grizzlies: 5-3 win over Nashville (OAK)

-> Jon Singleton: 2-for-3, BB, 2B, HR, 2 RBI, 3 R
-> Matt Dominguez: 2-for-4, RBI
-> Nolan Fontana: 1-for-3, 2B, R
-> Matt Duffy: 1-for-3, RBI
-> Tyler Heineman: 1-for-4, 2B
-> Domingo Santana: 1-for-4, R
-> Alex Presley: 1-for-4, RBI
-> L.J. Hoes: 1-for-4

SP Dan Straily: 7.0 IP, 3 ER, 9 H, 1 BB, 6 K (win)
RP Tyson Perez: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K (hold)
RP Kevin Chapman: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 1 K (save)

Solid outing for Straily here. As I said last week, he's really only had the one ugly start, ranging from mediocre to good outside of it. This one was more on the "good" side, though not dominant. It's his longest outing of the season, and yet another outing of allowing one or fewer walks (he's allowed two or more in two of his eight games). Five outs on the ground tonight as well. He sits now with a 4.25 ERA, 2.13 BB/9 and 6.59 K/9 on the season, and the BAbip is still pretty high against him.

Singleton continues banging loudly at the door. That's dinger number 14 for the MiLB leader. He's struck out once in each of his last three games, though he hasn't struck out multiple times in a game since May 14. He's posted a .291/.399/.646 line to this point.

Heineman is on a 10-game hitting streak if you carry over his time in Corpus. He has just three games post-promotion, but he's off to a nice start in them. With Castro creeping towards free agency and Stassi no longer looking like a legitimate solution, Heineman's breakout in the upper minors would be a welcome sight indeed. He's walked eight times and whiffed just six in 25 games this season (combined AA and AAA).

Perez is having a very interesting season in his second year since converting to a reliever. He came into this game with a 2.81 ERA...but a .200 BAbip. Big regression expected, right? Well, his FIP was just 3.32, actually. Part of it appears to be the walk rate; he's walked just one in 17 innings of work now. His strike out rate isn't special, but it's certainly solid enough if that walk rate holds up. His GB% is fluctuating around the 50% mark, too (two of his three outs tonight were on the ground). We'll see if he can keep it up in a larger sample size.

AA Corpus Christi Hooks: 6-2 loss to Midland (OAK)

-> Andrew Aplin: 2-for-4, 3B
-> Jon Kemmer: 1-for-3, BB, solo HR
-> Conrad Gregor: 1-for-3, BB, R
-> Jiovanni Mier: 1-for-4
-> Tony Kemp: 0-for-3, BB
-> Trent Woodward: 1-for-1, 2B, RBI (pinch-hitter)

SP Josh Hader: 6.0 IP, 4 ER, 9 H, 0 BB, 5 K (loss)
RP Travis Ballew: 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 K
RP Chris Cotton: 0.2 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 1 K
RP Jandel Gustave: 0.1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K

Half of the four runs Hader coughed up came on a homer; the line would have looked quite different if he had got his man there. It happens. The peripherals are more important to me. This is just his second outing without walking anyone, and his first outing allowing more than a run April 25. Overall he's posted a 3.63 ERA, 3.12 BB/9 and 8.05 K/9 in eight games this year.

Ballew has been very strong, with a 1.19 ERA in 22.2 innings of work this season. He's getting some BAbip luck behind him (and stranding nearly every base runner he allows), but his numbers are still pretty solid on the whole.

Aplin has hit .464/.571/.679 in eight games since being sent back to Corpus. Three of his 13 hits have been triples, and he's also stolen four bags.

A+ Lancaster JetHawks: 9-5 win over Inland Empire (LAA)

-> Brett Booth: 2-for-3, BB, HR, R, 2 RBI
-> Danry Vasquez: 2-for-4, BB, 2B, RBI, R
-> Marc Wik: 1-for-3, BB, R
-> James Ramsay: 1-for-4, RBI, R
-> Brett Phillips: 1-for-5, HR, R, 2 RBI
-> A.J. Reed: 1-for-5, R
-> Ronnie Mitchell: 0-for-2, RBI, R, 2 BB
-> Jose Fernandez: 0-for-3, BB, R
-> J.D. Davis: 0-for-4, BB, R

SP Edison Frias: 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 3 K (win)
RP Zach Morton: 2.0 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 3 K
RP Keegan Yuhl: 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 1 K

Decent work for Frias, at this point it's nice just to see him putting up some peripherals and getting some grounders (five outs on the ground in this game). He did give up one homer, but the wind was pretty calm and going out to RF, and the batter was a right-hander, so you probably can't cast too much blame on The Hanger. On the year Frias owns a solid 3.72 ERA, 2.33 BB/9 and 8.38 K/9. He is Rule 5 eligible, so it's nice to see some real improvement; he could certainly be protected, especially if he sees AA and performs well there later this year.

Vasquez is on a blistering streak right now, with at least one hit in each of his last ten games. Going back a little further, he's hit .431/.486/.672 with four doubles, two triples and three taters in his last 15 games. The homers are especially nice, since he hadn't hit any yet. If he's figured something out and it's going to help him turn some of the doubles into bombs, he may be a prospect to watch yet. He's still just 21-years-old, certainly not too old for the A-Advanced level. He's up to .319/.369/.472 with 12 doubles and the three bombs on the season (39 games).

A- Quad Cities River Bandits: Rained Out

QC will play a doubleheader today with Peoria to make it up. They're 18-4 on the month so far with eight games remaining in May, assuming the weather allows them to play everything. The pitching staff is currently leading the league in ERA, Saves and WHIP. The offense is leading the league in AVG, OBP, SLG (and therefore OPS), runs scored, walks and doubles (and total extra-base hits).

Today's Scheduled Starters

AAA: TBD vs. Marco Gonzales
AA: Mike Hauschild vs. TBD
A+: TBD vs. TBD
A-: Doubleheader
--> GM 1 - Kevin Comer vs. Austin Gomber
--> GM 2 - Francis Martes vs. Daniel Poncedeleon