Houston Astros MiLB Week in Review
Another week of Astros minor league baseball is in the books. Let’s take a look at the best performances this past week.
AAA: Fresno Grizzlies (24-31) went 2-4 this week.
- Matt Duffy, 3B: .277 BA (5-for-18), 3 R, 2B, 3 RBI
- Jon Kemmer, OF: .375 BA (6-for-16), R, 2B, 2 RBI
- Andrew Aplin, OF: .429 BA (12-for-28), 5 R, 2B, 2 3B, 2 RBI, 3 SB
- Preston Tucker, OF: .421 BA (8-for-19), 4 R, 2 2B, 3B, HR, 3 RBI
- Colin Moran, 3B: .250 BA (4-for-16), 2 R, 2B, 3 RBI
- Brady Rodgers, RHP: 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K
- Mike Hauschild, RHP: 5.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 7 K
- Thomas Shirley, LHP: 6.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K
- James Hoyt, RHP: 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
- Reymin Guduan, LHP: 3.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
Really nice to see Aplin hitting. He is fantastic defensively but has been hot the last few weeks. He has his BA up to .238 with .330 OBP now. Same can be said for Kemmer. After hitting .212 in April he has brought his BA up to .247 on the season. Tucker started out slow in AAA but has really turned it on the last couple weeks. Over his last 10 AAA games he is hitting .351 with 4 BB/3 SO. If he keeps it up he could be back in Houston soon. Moran only hit .250 this week but did draw a good amount of walks, which is nice to see. Not mentioned up top but AJ Reed did homer this week.
Rodgers has been very impressive this season. Six of his ten starts he has walked zero batters. Now has a 3.28 ERA with 8 BB/58 K in 60.1 innings this season. Hauschild has been good for Fresno as well. While his ERA is at 4.08 he has a good walk to strikeout number (12/50) and puts up quality starts. There isn’t much more to say about Hoyt that I haven’t already said. The guy is dominating AAA. Now has 8 BB/44 K in 27 innings. Encouraging to see Guduan have some clean innings with no walks.
AA: Corpus Christi Hooks (34-21) went 5-1 this week.
- Alex Bregman, SS: .136 BA (3-for-22), 5 R, 6 BB/6 SO
- Derek Fisher, OF: .368 BA (7-for-19), 4 R, 2B, 2 RBI, 3 SB, 9 BB/5 SO
- Teoscar Hernandez, OF: .440 BA (11-for-25), 6 R, 2B, HR, 2 RBI, 2 SB
- JD Davis, 3B: .200 BA (5-for-25), 2 R, 2B, 4 RBI
- Cy Sneed, RHP: 7.0 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 5 K
- David Paulino, RHP: 5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
- Keegan Yuhl, RHP: 6.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
- Brian Holmes, LHP: 5.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K
- Francis Martes, RHP: 6.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K
- Evan Grills, LHP: 5.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K
- Kent Emanuel, RHP: 4.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K
- Brendan McCurry, RHP: 4.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
Probably the first down week for Bregman, though he still found a way to get on base. Fisher has been picking it up recently and is now up to .280 with the average and a .386 OBP. He is striking out a bit more but has a career high in walk rate and ISO. Teoscar continues to hit well. He has his season average all the way up to .298 with a .376 OBP. He has a very respectable 25 BB/40 K ratio in 50 games with 18 stolen bases.
The pitching stole the show this week. Sneed has been a great pickup for the Astros and has 45 K in 41.1 innings. Paulino seems to be flying under the radar a bit, and I’m not sure why. He has dominated AA and now has a 1.80 ERA with 9 BB/51 K in 45 IP. Yuhl has been a solid rotation piece for Corpus. With another solid start this week his season ERA is at 2.71. One of the Astros top prospects, Martes, got back on track this week with a solid outing. Remember he is just 20 years old. Emanuel returned from TJS last week and had another great outing this week with 4 perfect innings in relief. Speaking of solid pickups, McCurry is 12/14 in saves and has 6 BB/43 K in 33 innings.
A+: Lancaster Jethawks (30-26) went 7-1 this week.
- Ramon Laureano, OF: .300 BA (6-for-20), 6 R, 3B, HR, 7 RBI, SB
- Bryan Muniz, 1B: .272 BA (6-for-22), 4 R, 2B, HR, 6 RBI
- Bobby Boyd, OF: .353 BA (6-for-17), 8 R, 2B, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 SB
- Garrett Stubbs, C: .400 BA (8-for-20), 6 R, 2B, HR, 7 RBI, SB
- Jason Martin, OF: .278 BA (5-for-18), 4 R, 2 HR, 5 RBI
- Johnny Sewald, OF: .391 BA (9-for-23), 8 R, 3 2B, HR, 3 RBI, SB
- Trent Thornton, RHP: 6.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
- Scott Weathersby, RHP: 5.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K
- Rogelio Armenteros, RHP: 5.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
- Joshua James, RHP: 5.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 6 K
- Jacob Dorris, RHP: 4.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K
- Andrew Thome, RHP: 5.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
Great week for Lancaster. Laureano hit his 2nd HR of the season and continues to be a force in the middle of the Jethawks lineup with a .423 OBP. Boyd has had a really nice season. He is now hitting .325 with 5 HR, 26 SB in 37 games this year. Stubbs has moved himself in position to be the top catching prospect in the Astros system. With another solid week he is hitting .310 with 6 HR, 30 RBI, 21 BB/21 SO, 9 SB in 36 games. Martin really has his homerun stroke working. With 2 more this week he now has 10 HR on the season.
Thornton has had a very good season to this point. The ERA is at 3.97 and now has 11 BB/47 K in 47.2 innings. He could be heading to Corpus soon if he keeps it up. Armenteros has kind of came out of nowhere this season and now has a 2.94 ERA with 15 BB/57 K in 49 innings between Quad Cities and Lancaster. Two relievers that have joined Lancaster, Dorres and Thome, have been great. Dorris has 28 K in 15.2 innings and Thome has 9 K in 7.2 innings.
A: Quad Cities Riverbandits (23-33) went 1-6 this week.
- Kyle Tucker, OF: .370 BA (10-for-27), 3 R, 2 2B, 3B, 4 RBI, SB
- Dexture McCall, 1B: .333 BA (6-for-18), 2 R, HR, 2 RBI
- Kristian Trompiz, SS: .353 BA (6-for-17), 3 R, RBI, SB
- Myles Straw, OF: .360 BA (9-for-25), 3 R, 2 3B, RBI, SB
- Osvaldo Duarte, SS: .277 BA (5-for-18), 3 R, 2 2B, 3B, RBI, SB
- Christian Correa, C: .375 BA (6-for-16), 2 R, 2 2B, 3 RBI
- Zac Person, LHP: 3.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
- Chris Murphy, RHP: 7.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
- Franklin Perez, RHP: 9.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 11 K
- Yoanys Quiala, RHP: 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
- Elieser Hernandez, RHP: 4.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
After a down week, Tucker is back to raking. He is hitting .306 with 23 SB in 53 games, which is very impressive for an 18 year old. McCall has played well for Quad Cities recently and is now hitting .291 on the season. Trompiz got demoted from Lancaster to Quad Cities but put together a good week. He is only 20 years old. Correa is a stud defensively so seeing a nice hitting week from him is great. Duarte showed some pop this week with 3 of his 5 hits going for extra bases.
Person has pitched a lot better of late and now owns a 1.46 ERA in Quad Cities. Perez had another great outing. He could be one to rise fast just like Martes last season. Cuban starter, Quiala, had a nice start this week allowing just the 2 runs over 7 innings. Hernandez also got demoted from Lancaster, but just like Trompiz he is still young, just turning 21 years old.
LINE OF THE WEEK:
Brady Rodgers, RHP, 06/02/16: 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K
Bobby Boyd, OF, 06/05/16: 2-for-2, 5 R, HR, RBI, 3 BB, SB
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**Photo Credit: Richard Guill**
