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Astros Prospects: The Forgotten Few, Volume 4

We take a gander at some prospects that are putting up the numbers, but did not make the TCB Top 30.

By Irish Pete

In case you have been missing this series, here are links to the previous three volumes of this series along with a list of the featured prospects.

Volume 1

  • Leo Heras, OF, Corpus Christi Hooks (AA)
  • Jamie Ritchie, 1B/C/DH, Quad Cities River Bandits (A)
  • Daniel Mengden, RHP, recently promoted to the A+ Lancaster JetHawks (technically he shouldn't count because of he did make the TCB Top 30, my bad!)

Volume 2

  • Mott Hyde, SS, Quad Cities River Bandits (A)
  • Chris Devenski, RHP, Corpus Christi Hooks (AA)
  • Brock Dykxhoorn, RHP, Quad Cities River (A)

Volume 3

  • Sean McMullen, OF, Quad Cities River Bandits (A)
  • Brian Holmes, LHP, recently promoted to the Corpus Christi Hooks (AA)
  • Tyler White, 3B, Corpus Christi Hooks (AA)

Here's Volume 4 (It's actually just the Forgotten Two this week)


Danry Vasquez, OF, recently promoted to the Corpus Christi Hooks (AA)

Danry started the year in Lancaster, again. He spent the entire 2014 season there. He hit well in Lancaster and was rewarded this week with a promotion to AA. Danry was acquired in 2013 when the Astros closer, Jose Veras, was traded to the Detroit Tigers. Here is what John Sickel's had to say about Danry back then (Sickels had him ranked as the 5th best Tigers prospect at that time)

5) Danry Vasquez, OF, Grade B-: Like Garcia, he's handicapped by poor plate discipline, but has terrific bat speed and is very young at age 19 in January. It will be interesting to see how aggressive the Tigers are about promoting him.

Our past Dear Leader did a very in-depth profile of Danry in 2013 when he was traded to the Astros. Here's a snippet from that David Coleman article on his ceiling and floor:
Floor

The defensive questions are real and may hinder his progress in a system that is suddenly chock full of outfielders. He's also relying heavily on his batting average on balls in play to prop up his batting average this year, which could see a decline as he moves up in competition levels. Basically, his floor is as a guy who might stall out in Double-A, but he could also turn into a serviceable bench outfielder.

Ceiling

The player Vasquez reminds me of most is Hunter Pence. He's got tools across the board, but none of them stand out. He's got a good chance to hit for a high average, but probably will top out as a 20-home run hitter with a ton of doubles. He'll play good defense in the outfield, but not Gold Glove-caliber. In short, he's got the potential to be an above-average major leaguer, but won't wow you in any one area.

If we're making comparisons, though, doesn't Vasquez sound like a younger version of Robbie Grossman, without the plate discipline?
Not much has changed since David wrote that. Danry Vasquez is still a guy that has no tools that stand out, but also doesn't have any just horrific weaknesses either. Danry's biggest plus is father time. He has always been young for his league, and now that he is in AA he is one of the youngest players in the league. On a quick fangraphs search, only Carlos Correa, Nomar Mazara (TEX), and Matt Olson (OAK) were younger (this was among those with qualified number of plate appearances).

I know we are a numbers heavy blog, but Danry is a guy that the numbers may not be totally explain why he's still an interesting prospect. Just using the eye ball test, this kid may be a late bloomer when it comes to his physical development. Here's an early picture of Danry from when he was with the Tigers.

Here is a recent picture of Danry taken yesterday.

Danry is still a slender fellow, but he appears to have put on a little weight. Let's take a look at Danry's minor league numbers.
Year Age Tm Lg Lev Aff G PA Iso HR BABIP LD% GB% OFB% K% BB% SB SB% BA OBP SLG OPS wOBA
2011 17.42 GCL Tigers GCL ROK DET 54 224 0.078 2 0.314 16.8% 52.5% 21.8% 15.2% 3.1% 3 60.0% 0.272 0.306 0.350 0.656 0.305
2012 18.42 West Michigan MID A DET 29 112 0.060 1 0.185 13.1% 54.8% 22.6% 17.9% 6.3% 0 0.0% 0.162 0.218 0.222 0.440 0.203
2012 18.42 Connecticut NYP A- DET 72 310 0.090 2 0.361 24.3% 44.2% 22.3% 14.5% 4.2% 6 54.5% 0.311 0.341 0.401 0.742 0.353
2012 18.42 MiLB Total - - - 101 422 0.083 3 0.317 21.5% 46.9% 22.4% 15.4% 4.7% 6 54.5% 0.273 0.308 0.356 0.664 -
2013 19.42 West Michigan MID A DET 96 420 0.109 5 0.313 18.7% 44.6% 27.4% 13.3% 7.4% 9 52.9% 0.281 0.333 0.390 0.723 0.333
2013 19.42 Quad Cities MID A HOU 32 128 0.110 3 0.304 14.2% 44.3% 33.0% 11.7% 4.7% 2 100.0% 0.288 0.323 0.398 0.721 0.345
2013 19.42 MiLB Total - - - 129 549 0.116 9 0.311 17.5% 44.4% 28.9% 12.9% 6.7% 11 57.9% 0.284 0.331 0.400 0.731 -
2014 20.42 Lancaster CAL A+ HOU 113 475 0.116 5 0.335 20.8% 43.6% 25.8% 14.3% 8.4% 1 33.3% 0.291 0.353 0.407 0.760 0.335
2015 21.42 Lancaster CAL A+ HOU 40 182 0.155 3 0.355 25.5% 43.4% 22.1% 13.2% 7.1% 6 60.0% 0.315 0.365 0.470 0.835 0.372
- - MiLB Total - - - 437 1852 0.107 22 0.323 20.0% 45.7% 25.1% 14.1% 6.3% 27 56.3% 0.285 0.332 0.392 0.724 -
Let's focus on a particular column, ISO. Over Danry's career, this has continued to creep up. We have to take ISO in the Cal League with a grain of salt, but Danry had raised his ISO by nearly 40 points from last year to this year. After pointing this out, let's look at a quote from John Sickels prior to this season about Danry (Sickels had Danry ranked the #18 Astros prospect):

18) Danry Vasquez, OF, Grade C+: Age 21, I keep expecting this guy to blossom but it keeps not quite happening, hit .291/.353/.407 in the Cal League. Pretty swing, makes contact, doesn’t strike out much, young. Still interesting.
I know I get long winded, but John sums it up pretty nicely in that quote. Danry is still interesting, and if he can play in AA and show some pop, he will become very interesting.



Albert Minnis, LHP, Lancaster JetHawks (A+)

I really had to dig to find this weeks pitcher, but it didn't take long for Albert to start pinging on my radar. He was drafted in the 25th round of the 2013 draft out of the Wichita State. He was drafted in the 33rd round of the 2010 draft by the Atlanta Braves. Interestingly, he was punished by the NCAA for having illegal contact with the Braves and had to sit out part of his freshman year of college. The more I dug into Albert, the more I began to feel like he may be yet another hidden gem in this trove of minor league depth.

There's not a bevy of information out there about Albert Minnis. I did find a short scouting report about Albert over on Baseball Beginnings from when he was an incoming freshman at Wichita State:

Minnis is never going to be a power arm, but he is going to maintain a feel for pitching beyond many of his peers. With a high over-the-top arm slot, arm speed and repetition, Minnis figures to be develop into a four-pitch guy whose curveball and change-up should help him on both sides of the plate. With broad features that suggest muscle maturity is in his future, Minnis could find more power in his fastball, which was 85-88 last summer. The curveball was 75-76 and the change-up was 75-78. He also threw a slider at 78. This guy should be able to help himself against wood, mixing the ability to attack with the fastball movement and command to set up the secondary stuff. Pitch-ability left-handers usually find their place in the game, and some overachieve what the scouting reports suggest they should. Time will tell, but when I looked at this guy, I thought here’s a guy who could hang around a lot longer than a radar gun might suggest.

Ok. Sounds a lot like a certain current Astro over achieving LHP. Let's look at the stats:

Year Age Tm Lg Lev G IP ERA FIP SIERA GB% BABIP K% BB% KS% HR/9 BB/9 K/9
2013 21.58 Tri-City NYP A- 14 14 3.21 3.70 3.06 67.4% 0.238 16.1% 7.1% 10.7% 0.64 2.57 5.79
2014 22.58 Quad Cities MID A 24 40.2 3.76 2.61 2.68 66.4% 0.356 19.4% 6.1% 15.0% 0.22 2.43 7.75
2014 22.58 GCL Astros GCL ROK 3 6.2 6.75 2.90 4.16 29.2% 0.458 20.0% 11.4% 17.1% 0 5.40 9.45
2014 22.58 MiLB Total - - 27 47.1 4.18 2.65 2.98 60.8% 0.372 19.5% 7.0% 15.3% 0.19 2.85 7.99
2015 23.58 Lancaster CAL A+ 8 11.1 3.97 1.70 2.80 58.6% 0.276 28.3% 8.7% 21.7% 0 3.18 10.32
2015 23.58 Quad Cities MID A 6 7.2 0.00 0.98 1.29 60.0% 0.2 38.5% 3.8% 23.1% 0 1.17 11.74
2015 23.58 MiLB Total - - 14 19 2.37 1.41 2.24 59.1% 0.25 31.9% 6.9% 22.2% 0 2.37 10.89
- - MiLB Total - - 55 80.1 3.59 2.54 2.89 61.6% 0.326 21.6% 7.0% 16.0% 0.22 2.69 8.29

Minnis has been working as a reliever this season, which shocked me slightly. FIP and SIERA like what Minnis has done so far in his career, but the number that stands out to me is the ground ball percentage. That is elite territory. In my minor league recaps, I pegged Mike Hauschild as the "Dallas Keuchel Starter Kit," so I guess for Minnis I will have to go with "Dallas Keuchel Starter Kit Junior." It will be interesting to see how Minnis is handled by the Astros. We may have a ground ball specialist LOOGY on our hands here.

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