Astros Crawfish Boil: November 6, 2022

The 2022 Houston Astros are your World Series Champions.

For the next 52 weeks, give or take four days or so, the Astros will be the defending baseball champs. I don’t think 2017 deserves an asterisk, but for those that do, the 2022 Astros would like a word.

Astros News

A story from ESPN on how the Astros got over Carlos Correa, with Gold Glove rookie Jeremy Peña.

Speaking of Peña, he became the first rookie position player to ever win the ALCS MVP and the WS MVP Awards.

You probably already knew this, but Martín Maldonado played through the World Series with a broken hand. This is legend.

Check here for news on the Astros victory parade. I need to disclaim that the site currently says TBD in every important informational block. I assume it’ll update before too long.

The guy who caught Yordan Alvarez’ 450-foot homer to dead center was wearing an Alvarez jersey. Serendipity?

Other news around the MLB

Correa is already being heavily linked with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Go ahead, try and buy yourselves a championship. You’ve proved time and again that you can’t win it all without a 60-game season.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. wouldn’t even sign with the Yankees if he were dead.

Why do 50 percent of all drug suspensions come from the Dominican Republic?

The Players Choice Awards were announced, with Aaron Judge and Justin Verlander as the big winners in the American League. Check out the rest of the winners here.

The Arizona Fall League had their All Star Game.

Oops! All Astros: Korey Lee

Korey Lee is a six-foot-two, 210 lb. catcher from Escondido, CA. Born on July 25, 1998, he was Houston’s first round pick in 2019 with the 32nd overall pick. Thirty-two players taken 32nd have made the major leagues, including Korey, and, fittingly, Corey Lee of the Texas Rangers. The player with the highest WAR yield taken at that spot is Aaron Judge (36.9 WAR).

Lee signed with the Astros to a contract including a $1,750,000 bonus out of the University of California. Currently Houston’s number seven overall prospect, Lee’s biggest strength is his 70-grade arm.

Lee has quieted his load, shortened his stride and added more balance at the plate, which has allowed him to drive balls in the air from gap to gap more easily. - MLB Pipeline

The 2021 season would see Lee slash out a .226/.285/.419 line in 64 games with the triple-A Sugar Land Space Cowboys between April and June, with 10 homers and 40 RBI. Defensively, he appeared behind the plate for 592 innings in total, putting up a .994 fielding percentage and throwing out 17-of-62 runners, a 27 percent kill-rate. Lee was promoted to the majors for his first look in the month of July, and played a total of 12 games.

On July 10, Lee had his best appearance at the major league level thus far, hitting two singles and a double with three RBI in a 6-1 win against the Oakland Athletics. Outside of that, Lee was one-for-21 in his other 11 contests. Defensively, he appeared behind the plate for 67 innings, making one error in 74 chances for a .986 fielding percentage. He also allowed four-of-four runners to steal.

Through Lee’s 25 plate appearances at the major league level, he managed to barrel zero balls, making contact 16 times for a .105 XBA. He only drew one walk while striking out nine times. Although his sample size was small, he was notably a ground ball hitter, putting 56.3 percent on the dirt. Also of note is that he was above average at hitting the changeup, against which he was two-for-two, and the slider, against which he was two-for-six.

Sent back to Sugar Land to start August, Lee went on a tear that lasted the rest of the season. He slashed .256/.341/.583 with 15 round-trippers and 36 RBI. On August 23, Lee went deep three times in a 23-8 win over the Las Vegas Aviators, collecting five RBI. On September 23, he hit a single and two more home runs in a 6-4 win against the Albuquerque Isotopes. As a postscript to the season, Lee was added to the Astros World Series roster before yesterday’s game after Yuli Gurriel was announced out with an injury.

Lee is certainly in the mix to make the roster out of 2023 Spring Training, depending on how many of Houston’s existing catchers manage to stay on. Remember, we still have Jason Castro, Christian Vazquez, Martín Maldonado, and Yainer Díaz, as well as J.C. Correa, Luke Berryhill, and Cesar Salazar in the system.