Astros Prospect Report: Strong starting pitching leads all four full-season clubs to victory

AAA Fresno Grizzlies: 7-0 win over Salt Lake (LAA)

-> Andrew Aplin: 2-for-3, BB, R
-> Robbie Grossman: 2-for-4, 2B, 2 R
-> Matt Duffy: 2-for-5, HR, RBI, 2 R
-> Joe Sclafani: 1-for-3, BB, 2B, R, 2 RBI
-> Tyler White: 1-for-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI
-> Tony Kemp: 1-for-4, BB, 2B, R, 2 RBI
-> Tyler Heineman: 0-for-2, 2 BB
-> L.J. Hoes: 0-for-3, 2 BB
-> Jon Singleton: 0-for-4, BB

SP Mike Hauschild: 6.0 IP, 0 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 6 K (win)
RP Kevin Chapman: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 K
RP Jordan Jankowski: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 K
RP James Hoyt: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 3 K

Hauschild finishes his season with a great game. Seven outs on the ground against one on the fly. Ground ball rate is 59% on the nose when it's all said and done. 47.3% of the batters he faced either grounded out or struck out. He posted a 3.49 ERA, 2.77 BB/9 and 8.32 K/9 in 87.2 innings pitched for Fresno. His combined BB/9 between AA and AAA was 2.28.

It's funny to think of Tyler White hitting .324 over his last ten games as a "down period," but that's almost what it feels like. He finished the night hitting .367/.472/.567 with 19 doubles, seven long balls, and 41 walks against 38 strike outs. The sample size is pretty decent now at 56 games.

In his games since April 21, Hoyt has posted a 2.06 ERA, 1.65 BB/9 and 12.78 K/9. Look at those peripherals. He has a 7.75 K/BB ratio!

AA Corpus Christi Hooks: 9-2 win over San Antonio (SDP)

-> Chan Moon: 2-for-4, SB, 2 R
-> Jiovanni Mier: 2-for-5, 2B, R, 2 RBI
-> Danry Vasquez: 2-for-5, 2B, R
-> Teoscar Hernandez: 1-for-3, RBI, R, 2 BB
-> Conrad Gregor: 1-for-4, BB, HR, R, 2 RBI
-> A.J. Reed: 1-for-4, BB, 2B, R, 2 RBI
-> Colin Moran: 1-for-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI
-> Alfredo Gonzalez: 1-for-5, R
-> Leonardo Heras: 0-for-1, BB, R

SP Kyle Westwood: 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 4 K (win)
RP Gonzalo Sanudo: 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 2 K

Vasquez is hitting .246/.293/.301 on the season with Corpus now. That doesn't sound like much because, well, it isn't, but consider that after the game on August 4, he was sitting at .174/.222/.193. That's a .415 OPS. That's a special level of suck. Since then, though, he's 39-for-111 (.351) and has turned things around completely. 18 strike outs in his last 26 games has helped, and helps you believe it might be at least somewhat real. He's still 21, after all.

Moran drew 52 walks in 159 games in his career prior to this year. In 2015, he's drawn 43 walks in 96 games. He's also seen a spike in power, with a .153 ISO this year (.101 last year). His future value and role remains debatable, but what isn't debatable is the fact that this was a big year for him that saw notable improvement in several of the weaker areas of his game, and it came at the AA level.

When you factor in the difference that's going to come for everyone that comes out of a park like Lancaster, Reed really hasn't been any worse than he was there. His walk rate is down a bit, if you want to pick, though it's not like 11.5% is bad. He's hitting .330/.403/.575 with 11 dingers for Corpus in 52 games.

Gonzalez now has a good, full month in Corpus under his belt, and he's hit .316/.412/.337 in 31 games. He has 17 walks against just 19 strike outs. It will be very interesting to see if he continues to develop going forward.

A+ Lancaster JetHawks: 5-1 win over High Desert (TEX)

-> Mott Hyde: 3-for-4, 2B, RBI, R
-> Jamie Ritchie: 1-for-3, BB
-> Chase McDonald: 1-for-4, HR, R, 4 RBI
-> Alex Bregman: 1-for-4, 2B
-> J.D. Davis: 1-for-4, R
-> James Ramsay: 1-for-4, BB
-> Derek Fisher: 1-for-4
-> Ronnie Mitchell: 0-for-2, R, 2 BB
-> Sean McMullen: 0-for-3, BB, R

SP Akeem Bostick: 8.0 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 9 K (win)
RP Enrique Chavez: 0.2 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 0 K
RP Jordan Mills: 0.1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K (save)

BOSStick is back. This guy posted a 10.92 ERA over seven starts from July 21 through August 25. That's a rough month. Over his last two games, though, he has a 1.29 ERA. He got 10 outs on the ground tonight, too. So 19 of his 24 outs were on the ground or on strikes. Big time performance to finish off his statistical season with. Don't let the overall ERA be what sticks with you about Bostick in the off-season; it was, in no small part, the Lancaster effect. This a 20-year-old 2nd-round pick who has good raw stuff, gets grounders, can miss bats when he's right, and limits walks. He posted a 2.52 BB/9 in Lancaster, despite the struggles. When I see a kid this young getting knocked around in Lancaster, and then I look at the peripherals and see that he's not being shaken by it and he's still hitting some spots and limiting walks, that's a great sign.

So Bregman just keeps tearing up A-Advanced all of three months after being drafted. He's hitting .319/.364/.475 with the club, and to be frank, I think that's a really reasonable expectation of him in the future. He's showing roughly 15 HR power, hitting for average, drawing some walks, stealing some bases, and limiting strike outs. It's a very Pedroia-like package, as expected. There's really no giant boost in power in Lancaster, either. A .156 ISO seems completely reasonable to me.

Hyde is finishing strongly, hitting .385 over his last ten games. He's up to .312/.386/.448 on the season with Lancaster, and like Bregman, there doesn't appear to be much, if any, Lancaster shenanigans at work in those numbers. He only has two long balls in his 73 games with the club; power has come more from a ton of doubles and a few triples. He does strike out a bit, but it's not awful, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him find some success in AA next year.

A- Quad Cities River Bandits: 14-2 win over Beloit (OAK)

-> Garrett Stubbs: 3-for-4, BB, 2 R
-> Bryan Muniz: 3-for-5, BB, R, 2 RBI
-> Bobby Boyd: 3-for-6, RBI, 2 R
-> Luis Reynoso: 2-for-4, BB, HR, SB, 3 RBI, 3 R
-> Nick Tanielu: 2-for-4, 2B, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R
-> Ramon Laureano: 2-for-5, HR, R, 3 RBI
-> Wander Franco: 1-for-2, 2B, RBI
-> Drew Ferguson: 1-for-5, BB, 2B, RBI, R
-> Jason Martin: 1-for-5, BB, RBI, R
-> Kristian Trompiz: 1-for-5, R

SP Elieser Hernandez: 5.2 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 6 K (win)
RP Zach Davis: 2.1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 5 K
RP Eric Peterson: 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 0 K

Hernandez had given up 13 earned runs over his previous four games, so this was a bit of a nice bounce back outing. He has a serviceable 3.94 ERA to go with a 2.17 BB/9 and 9.05 K/9, both of which indicate that he might actually be better than the ERA says.

Stubbs continues to show a little ability with the bat. His plate discipline has been just incredible; 14 walks and just two strike outs in 25 games for Quad Cities. Just silly. He has basically no power, but if he's a good catcher and has that level of plate discipline, I can certainly see some real upside. He has a .370 OBP for QC right now.

Muniz is hitting .382 over his last ten games, and that has him up to .287/.411/.452 on the season in 44 games for the Bandits. He too is showing nice plate discipline; it's not as nuts as Stubbs' is, but 28 walks and 27 strike outs in 44 games is certainly tasty. And he's shown some pop, too, with 14 doubles and four long balls. The knock here is that he's a 1B/DH exclusively, so the bat will have to be special, and while he's looked solid, he certainly hasn't wowed when you consider his positional value, or lack thereof. Still, at the least, he looks like he could be a nice organizational guy, and who knows, maybe magic happens.

SS Tri-City ValleyCats: 9-4 loss to Connecticut (DET)

-> Richard Gonzalez: 3-for-3, 2B, RBI
-> Cesar Carrasco: 3-for-4, 2 R
-> Brooks Marlow: 2-for-4, 2B, R
-> Pat Porter: 1-for-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI
-> Kolbey Carpenter: 1-for-4, 2B, RBI
-> Keach Ballard: 0-for-3, BB
-> Johnny Sewald: 0-for-4, BB, SB, R

SP Alex Winkelman: 4.2 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 5 K (loss)
RP Adam Whitt: 1.1 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 0 K
RP David Schmidt: 2.0 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 1 K
RP Juan Santos: 1.0 IP, 1 R (0 ER), 2 H, 0 BB, 1 K

Things didn't quite bounce Winkelman's way this time. He's mixed in a couple of mediocre outings recently, and has a 7.98 ERA over his last four games. The good news is that he's maintained his K/BB ratio awesomeness; he has a 2.22 BB/9, 10.08 K/9, and a 4.54 K/BB in 57.1 total innings this season.

Sewald is now 31-for-36 (86.1%) in stolen base attempts on the season. He owns a .291 average and a .415 OBP. He leads the league in both runs scored and stolen bases, and he's third in OBP. He's certainly been a big reason why the Cats are the league leaders in runs scored.

RK Greeneville Astros: 12-2 loss to Princton (TBR)

-> Randy Cesar: 2-for-3, 2B, R
-> Christian Correa: 2-for-3, BB
-> Kyle Tucker: 2-for-4, R
-> Rodrigo Ayarza: 1-for-4
-> Brauly Mejia: 0-for-2, RBI
-> Ford Stainback: 0-for-3, BB

SP Albert Abreu: 2.2 IP, 4 R (3 ER), 7 H, 2 BB, 4 K (loss)
RP Carlos Hiraldo: 1.1 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 1 K
RP Makay Nelson: 2.0 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 0 K
RP Cristhopher Santamaria: 3.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 2 K

The two wild card teams knocked off the division winner, and now face off in the championship series. Too bad Greeneville got lit the bleep up. They'll have to win both of the final two games in the series now.

Daz Cameron was 0-for-3 with a hat trick, by the way.

Today's Scheduled Starters

AAA: Brett Oberholtzer vs. Tyler DeLoach
AA: Francis Martes vs. Stephen Kohlscheen
A+: Christian Powell vs. Dallas Gallant
A-: Rogelio Armenteros vs. Joey Wagman
SS: Jose Hernandez vs. Toller Boardman
RK: Salvador Montano vs. Blake Bivens