Astros Prospect Report: Starting pitching leads the way

AAA Fresno Grizzlies: 4-0 win over New Orleans (MIA)

-> Andrew Aplin: 2-for-2, BB, R, 2 SB
-> Matt Duffy: 2-for-4, 2B, RBI
-> Nolan Fontana: 1-for-3, 2B, 2 RBI
-> Tony Kemp: 1-for-4, RBI, R
-> Jon Singleton: 1-for-4
-> Robbie Grossman: 0-for-2, BB, R
-> Alex Presley: 0-for-3, BB, SB, R

SP Brady Rodgers: 6.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 7 K
RP Jordan Jankowski: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 3 K (win)
RP Tyson Perez: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K (hold)
RP James Hoyt: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K

Great game for Rodgers. He's been flip-flopping between greatness and awfulness in recent games. In eight of his 20 games this year, he's allowed four earned runs or more, and he has a 10.33 ERA in those games. In his other 12 games, he owns a 1.56 ERA. So it's truly been a light switch kind of thing going on for him; he's generally either dominating or getting dominated. At any rate, he shaved a quarter of a run off his ERA with this outing. He now has a 1.99 BB/9 and 6.81 K/9 on the season. He got seven outs on the ground to one on the fly in this game.

In today's edition of #CallAMup, Hoyt has a 2.00 ERA over his last 25 appearances, and he has a 2.25 BB/9 and 11.25 K/9 on the season (that's an even 5-to-1 K/BB ratio).

Duffy, who Morgan Ensberg and Adam Everett both love it seems, is hitting .306/.378/.498 on the year with Fresno. Wouldn't be a shock to see him find his way on the roster in September, though he's not on the 40-man.

AA Corpus Christi Hooks: 2-1 win over Northwest Arkansas (KCR)

-> Roberto Pena: 3-for-3, BB, 2B, R
-> A.J. Reed: 2-for-4
-> Teoscar Hernandez: 1-for-4, HR, R, 2 RBI
-> Jiovanni Mier: 1-for-4
-> Jack Mayfield: 1-for-4
-> Colin Moran: 0-for-2, BB
-> Jon Kemmer: 0-for-3, BB

SP Michael Feliz: 6.0 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 8 K (win)
RP Vincent Velasquez: 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 K (hold)
RP Jandel Gustave: 1.0 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 0 K (save)

In case you are unaware, Feliz is on a heck of a run. He hasn't allowed a run since the second inning of his game on July 24, and so he has a scoreless streak of 26.1 innings. He's allowed more than one earned run in a game just once in his last 10 outings, and has a 1.15 ERA during that run. That's a 1.15 ERA from June 18 to the present. His peripherals have been good but not awesome (2.47 BB/9 and 7.57 K/9) during that time, so that may be the reason he hasn't been promoted yet. They might just want him to finish out the year in Corpus, helping that team in the playoffs.

Reed has three-straight two-hit games, and is on a 10-game hitting streak. He's up to a healthy .328/.416/.552 with the Hooks in 33 games, and he's struck out just three times in his last seven games.

Velasquez has tossed three shutout innings in his last two games as he continues to transition to a relief role for the near-MLB-future. Since heading back to Corpus to do so, he's posted a 5.40 BB/9 and a 10.80 K/9 in a small sample.

Moran has hit the skids a bit, as he hasn't had a hit in his last five games. Silver lining is that he's drawn a walk in each of his last four. He has 32 walks this year in 78 games; he walked 37 times all last season in 117 games.

A+ Lancaster JetHawks: 7-5 loss to San Jose (SFG)

-> Mott Hyde: 2-for-3, BB, 2B, RBI, R
-> Ronnie Mitchell: 2-for-4, R, 2 3B
-> Derek Fisher: 1-for-3, BB, 3B, R
-> Chase McDonald: 1-for-4, HR, R, 2 RBI
-> Alex Bregman: 1-for-4, RBI
-> Marc Wik: 0-for-3, BB, R
-> James Ramsay: 0-for-4, BB

SP David Paulino: 2.2 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 4 BB, 3 K
RP Kevin Comer: 2.1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 K
RP Christian Powell: 0.2 IP, 5 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 0 K (loss)
RP Albert Minnis: 2.1 IP, 1 R (0 ER)

First game in California for Powell. Say it with me, gang; "welcome to the California League!"

Well, the ERA went down a little, but this was hardly a nice bounce back game for Paulino. Whenever I see a line like that from a guy pitching in the California League after they got lit up their last time out, I just kind of go "yeah, I probably wouldn't want to throw it over the plate, either." Paulino had allowed four walks and thrown 67 pitches in less than three innings and they just had to get him out of there and protect the arm. He's coming off TJ surgery, after all.

Fisher has four walks in his last seven games, so he's still doing that along with hitting the occasional dinger, but he's hitting .208 in his last 14 games. He's only struck out four times in his last eight games though, so that's a good sign.

Speaking of not striking out, Bregman has whiffed just 27 times in 48 games since beginning his pro career.

A- Quad Cities River Bandits: 6-2 win over Lake County (CLE)

-> Nick Tanielu: 3-for-5, 3B, RBI, 2 R
-> Bobby Boyd: 2-for-4, BB, 2 SB, 2 RBI, 2 R
-> Ramon Laureano: 2-for-5, 2B, 3B
-> Trent Woodward: 1-for-3, BB, R
-> Bryan Muniz: 1-for-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI
-> Jose Fernandez: 0-for-3, R, 2 BB
-> Luis Reynoso: 0-for-3, BB

SP Brock Dykxhoorn: 5.1 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 3 K (win)
RP Ryan Thompson: 1.2 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 1 K (hold)
RP Riley Ferrell: 0.2 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 1 K
RP Angel Heredia: 1.1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 2 K (save)

Dykxhoorn's outing looks a little more mediocre than it really was. Not that his final line is bad, but it's not great. He tossed five innings of shutout ball to start, but in the sixth he walked a guy and then allowed a homer, so there were the two runs and one of the walks right at the end. Still a nice game, though. He's allowed three or fewer earned runs in each of his last seven games. On the season he has a 3.42 ERA, 2.35 BB/9 and 8.61 K/9 in 92 innings of work.

"Effectively-wild" could describe the beginning of Ferrell's pro career. He has 16.2 innings under his belt now, and has posted a 1.08 ERA with a 9.18 K/9. The catch? A 7.02 BB/9. Some of that is likely small sample noise, some of it is starting immediately in full-season ball, but he has shown some tendency towards command issues in the past, namely this year at TCU, when he posted a 5.68 BB/9. The ludicrous 2.84 H/9 (yeah, not a typo) and 15.06 K/9 made that not matter, but you probably shouldn't expect those two rates to translate to pro ball, much less the Majors, so he'll need to cut down on the walks.

Tanielu continues to ride his contact skills to some success. He's hitting .311/.355/.438 at the end of this game, and his strike out rate is just 13.2%. He's not totally slappy either, with 25 doubles, four triples and five long balls providing some pop. All told, his wRC+ is better than 125 for the second-straight season.

SS Tri-City ValleyCats: Doubleheader!

Game One: 5-3 loss to Lowell (BOS)

-> Pat Porter: 2-for-3, BB, 2B, HR, R, 2 RBI
-> Cesar Carrasco: 2-for-4, 2B, R
-> Johnny Sewald: 2-for-5, SB, RBI
-> Brooks Marlow: 2-for-5
-> Keach Ballard: 1-for-3
-> Bobby Wernes: 1-for-4, R
-> Dexture McCall: 0-for-3, BB
-> Kolbey Carpenter: 1-for-1

SP Rogelio Armenteros: 2.2 IP, 4 R (2 ER), 5 H, 4 BB, 0 K (loss)
RP Adam Whitt: 0.1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K
RP Alex Winkelman: 4.0 IP, 1 R (0 ER), 3 H, 0 BB, 3 K
RP Juan Santos: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 2 BB, 0 K

Game Two: 2-0 win over Lowell (BOS)

-> Johnny Sewald: 2-for-3, R
-> Aaron Mizell: 1-for-3, SB, R
-> Bobby Wernes: 1-for-3, RBI
-> Kolbey Carpenter: 1-for-3, RBI
-> Hector Roa: 0-for-1, 2 BB

SP Jose Hernandez: 4.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 4 BB, 5 K
RP Zac Grotz: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K (win)
RP Harold Arauz: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 K (hold)
RP Jacob Dorris: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K (save)

The first one was technically just a resumed game from last night, but whatever.

Sewald has a .399 OBP after a good showing in this two games. He also has a .282 SLG. He is what he is. He's also 26-for-29 (89.7%) in stolen base attempts in just 51 games. A little hitting, a lot of walks and stolen bases...it can work. I'm just not sure if it will at the higher levels.

Another rock-solid outing from Winkelman. He has a 1.63 ERA, 1.63 BB/9 and 9.43 K/9 in seven games for the ValleyCats.

RK Greeneville Astros: 5-3 loss to Johnson City (STL)

-> Arturo Michelena: 2-for-3
-> Luis Payano: 2-for-4, BB, 2B, 2 R
-> Kevin Martir: 2-for-4
-> Kyle Tucker: 2-for-6, SB, RBI
-> Christian Correa: 1-for-2
-> Myles Straw: 1-for-5, BB, 2 SB
-> Randy Cesar: 1-for-6, 2B, R
-> Ford Stainback: 0-for-5, BB

SP Albert Abreu: 4.0 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 4 K
RP Cristhopher Santamaria: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K
RP Salvador Montano: 3.0 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 1 K (hold)
RP Samil De Los Santos: 3.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 4 K (blown save)
RP Lachlan Madden: 1.1 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 4 BB, 3 K (loss)
RP Alejandro Solarte: 0.2 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K

Abreu has a string of six starts in a row with two or fewer earned runs allowed. He finishes this outing with a 2.45 ERA, 4.42 BB/9 and 9.08 K/9 in 10 games.

Tucker's strike out rate is just 13.3% with Greeneville, and he's hitting .308/.333/.481 in his 14 games with the club.

Cameron pinch ran in this game, but nothing came of it and he didn't get a plate appearance. His numbers hold at .300/.397/.400.

Today's Scheduled Starters

AAA: Dan Straily vs. Travis Blackley
AA: Off Day
A+: Francis Martes vs. Jordan Kipper
A-: Off Day
SS: Off Day
RK: Moreno Polanco vs. Ramon Santos