Astros Minor League Recap: Opening Day

LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!....over react to small sample sizes!

The minor leagues opened up yesterday and there were naturally performances that were exciting and naturally some that weren't. But, it's one game! Lets just be happy that it's full on baseball season!

Homers Too Much to Overcome for Fresno in 6-4 Loss

Well it appears the Triple-A club with go with a traditional or six-man rotation and not use the tandem staffs like the other clubs. Brad Peacock received the start and went five innings. It took him 81 pitches, 49 of which were strikes, to make it through five. Not overly efficient but pretty typical of Peacock. Four of the five pitchers gave up home runs which was the largest problem. Jon Singleton and Colin Moran each had two strikeouts.

Musgrove Trumps Gattis' Rehab in Hooks' 2-0 Win

It's great that Evan Gattis is back on the field playing competitively but Joe Musgrove is the highlight from this game. His performance resulted in 69 game score which was only limited by the tandem pitching set up. He used just 54 pitches (43 of which were strikes) to go through five innings. Only two of the fifteen outs he recorded did not come via a groundball or strikeout if you count a double play groundball as two outs via groundball.

Lancaster Falls 4-3 in Season Opener

Couple of notable things. Akeem Bostick continued to pitch similarly as he did last season. He showed a lot of improvement with ground balls last season but was not a strikeout pitcher despite good velocity. Last night was more of the same. But, the way the tandem was set up was not consistent with how we've seen it laid out before. It could just be this one night and how the timing worked out, but worth noting. Also, Bobby Boyd pushed Jason Martin to LF for much of last season in Quad Cities because Boyd is a stand out center fielder by all accounts. Martin took the start last night. A healthy hamstring can go a long way in regards to speed and help defensively.

Quad Cities Gets Blown Out in Season Opener 12-4

You don't go through a box score of a game like this and get excited. Anthony Hermelyn had a multi-hit game and had a double. Great! But as mentioned up top, it's a small sample. So, to get excited lets look at something Jason Marbach screen shot on his phone from MiLB's First Pitch app.

Jason Marbach

Daz Cameron Works the Count

That's a big league at-bat! That's exactly what you expect from a young prospect who has grown up around the game. Knowledge of the strike zone and an understanding of how to work the count.