Astros Prospect Report: Games of May 11, 2016

First things first, a hearty congratulations must be extended to both Joe Musgrove and Reymin Guduan for their promotions (announced today, a day after the games covered in this recap) to Triple-A Fresno!  Both players fairly dominated at Double-A Corpus Christi, and richly deserve the promotions.

BREAKING: The Astros have promoted SP Joe Musgrove to Triple-A Fresno, as expected. Had an ERA of 0.34 in six Double-A appearances.

— Ian Steele (@IanSteeleKIII) May 12, 2016

Also BREAKING: Reymin Guduan has been promoted to Triple-A. LH reliever made 9 appearances, 2 saves, 19 Ks, and a 0.69 ERA this year in AA.

— Ian Steele (@IanSteeleKIII) May 12, 2016

With the congratulations passed along, let's get to yesterday's action.

AAA Fresno Grizzlies: WON 7-6 over the Tacoma Rainiers (SEA)

Mike Hauschild was brilliant through five innings, allowing just two hits (a bunt single and a double) while recording four strikeouts, four fly ball outs, a pop out on the infield, and six outs on ground balls, including a double play in the top of the third.  He escaped trouble in the fifth after the lead off man reached on another error by third baseman Colin Moran and Shawn O'Malley followed two outs later with a double, placing two runners in scoring position.  But Hauschild was able to induce his sixth ground ball out off the bat of Ed Lucas to escape the inning unscathed.

No such luck in the sixth inning.  After being staked to a 7-0 lead (more on that in a minute), Hauschild retired the first two hitters in the sixth (a ground out and a fly out) before issuing his first walk of the day.  He then hit Efren Navarro with a pitch, and Stefen Romero took him deep to make it 7-3 Grizzlies.  Mike Zunino followed with a single to left before Hauschild was able to retire the third out on his fifth strikeout of the game.

Jordan Jankowski relieved in the seventh, and didn't look very good at all.  On one hand, he would end up with three strikeouts over his two innings of work, but he also allowed three runs in the seventh inning (a two run home run, and then three wild pitches that brought a third run home later in the inning) and allowed a hit and two walks in addition.

James Hoyt pitched a hitless, scoreless ninth with two strikeouts to record his eighth save of the season and lower his ERA to 2.45 through 18.1 innings pitched.

On the offensive side, Jon Singleton smashed his team-leading seventh home run of the season to drive in what would prove to be the decisive three runs.

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Colin Moran went 2-4 with a double (his slugging percentage is up to .385 now, and his isolated power is back up to .091) while Tony Kemp had a pair of singles, Matt Duffy continued heating up by notching a single and a double on the day, and Eury Perez had a double and a single on his day as well.  Andrew Aplin notched a multi hit game, which was nice to see for him after his stone cold start to the 2016 season offensively.

Box Score:

AA Corpus Christi: OFF

High A Lancaster: LOST 6-5 to the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (LAD)

A promising start to the game saw the Jethawks take a 5-4 lead to the bottom of the ninth before a single, a walk, and a walk off triple spelled "blown save and a loss" out for 'Hawks reliever Angel Heredia.

Joshua James and Trent Thornton each turned in excellent four inning appearances, especially considering the league run scoring environment.  James allowed three runs (two earned) while Thornton allowed a single earned run, and the pair combined to strike out fifteen Quakes hitters in eight innings (James eight, Thornton seven) while allowing only a single walk between the two of them and a grand total of five hits.

On the offensive side, Ramon Laureano had a single and three walks while Nick Tanielu continued his own torrid offensive start with three singles, raising his slash line to .348/.378/.518 so far in 2016.  Jamie Ritchie had a solid day at the plate, with a single and a double, the team's only extra base hit for the game.

Meanwhile, Jason Martin's numbers continue to plummet as he remains mired in a 3-38 slump, and Kristian Trompiz continues to struggle terribly offensively as well.

Box Score:

Low A Quad Cities: LOST 6-5, WON 1-0 in doubleheader with the Burlington Bees (LAA)

The River Bandits fell just short of a comeback in the first (shortened, seven inning) game of this doubleheader.

Jose Hernandez made the start and didn't pitch terribly well, giving up four earned runs in five innings with a walk, a single strikeout, and seven hits allowed.  Andrew Thome came in in relief and allowed a pair of runs (only one earned) on two hits with no walks allowed and two strikeouts.

In the second game, which only went six and a half innings, right-hander Chris Murphy got the start and pitched beautifully.  He went the whole (seven innings) game and allowed just four hits (three singles and a double) without allowing a walk, and punched out three batters.  He also achieved eight ground balls, per the box score, to just two flyouts.

Kyle Tucker has quietly been building steam at the plate.  He combined to go 3-7 in the doubleheader with a double, two singles, and his fifteenth stolen base in just 31 games played.  It seems doubtful that he maintains a pace for 78 stolen bases in 162 games, but then, I wouldnt have expected he'd even steal fifteen by this point in the season, so what do I know?

Tucker has also posted a .385 wOBA, a 148 wRC+, and has nearly doubled his walk rate (up to 10.7%) from his inaugural professional campaign last year.  It's incredible to think that he might earn himself a Lancaster promotion sometime in the next month or two if he keeps up this production, given that he's already one of the youngest players in his current (Midwestern) league.

Another player who is playing his way toward a Lancaster promotion is Anthony Hermelyn, one of the catchers drafted in 2015.  He only played in the second game of this doubleheader, but he drove in the game's only run in the first inning with a triple after Johnny Sewald led off the game with a double.  Hermelyn has posted a likely-untenable .465 BABIP, but he's got solid peripherals along with it: 18.1 BB%, 27.2 K% (a bit high, actually), a .172 ISO, a .313/.439/.484 slash line, a ridiculous .433 wOBA, and a 179 wRC+.

Game 1 Box Score:

Game 2 Box Score: