Houston Astros 2014 Season Thread

[KABrother88]

Terrible things happen in 3s right?...Correa broke his leg, Appel has struggled all season after his appendectomy, and now Aiken with elbow issues...hopefully that's the end of it. On a side not I just thought of this...we drafted Mac Marshall with our 21st round pick (he was ranked the #66 overall prospect according to MLB.com) and he's stated he will honor his commitment to LSU instead...if we can get Aiken to sign for $5 million we could throw out a $2.5 million dollar offer to Marshall and not hit our 5% overage loss of pick penalty. $2.5 million would be the equivalent to mid 1st round money (slot value would be 15th) and very hard to turn down I would think

[eagle eye]

Here's a depressing/hopeful thought. What if we continue to suck the rest of the season and end up with the worst record (again)? What if we just say thanks but no thanks to Aiken and let him go to college. Heck, do we need an 18 year old with arm problems? What if he needs Tommy John surgery? Anyway, we would have an upresidented 4th 1st pick in the draft in 2015 for having a bad record and the second pick in the draft for losing this year's first. That, my friends, is a 1-2 punch. The issue about salary allotment KABro brought up earlier could be the only fly in the ointment in this situation.

 

I heard a valid question that was brought up and it's this, "If Aiken has elbow issues shouldn't Houston have known it? If the scouts did their job wouldn't that be something that should have come out? IF they did know, why use their #1 pick on damaged goods? And, if they didn't know, why not?

 

Our luck on our #1 picks is running true to Astros form. 2012 #1 Carlos Correa broken leg in June of second year. 2013 #1 Mark Appel appendectomy prior to 2nd season which he really has yet to catch up to where he should be. 2014 #1 pick has a bum elbow and has yet to sign with the team. If it weren't for bad luck...................

 

The good news: Houston ended 7 game slide last night beating out 17 hits and scoring 12 runs to beat the Rangers 12-5. It's a battle for the AL West cellar! Houston is 2 games back.

 

The bad news: Alex Presley strained his oblique during an at-bat last night and will miss an undertermined time.

 

The good news: Jose Altuve set a new team record for hits by the All Star game last night. He went 2-5 on the night. His first his came after a challenge on an out call at first that was overturned allowing Altuve to tie record holder Bob Watson by legging out an infield hit and his hit in the eighth gave Jose the record. That record was going down anyway with 5 games left before the All Star break but now Altuve can pad it a little. He also stole his 39th base on the season, 26 in a row without being caught, which is just 8 steals behind current record holder in games before the ASG, Gerald Young. With 5 games left Altuve probably won't take this record but I wouldn't count him out either.

 

The bad news: C Jason Castro was scratched from the lineup on Monday due to a mystery pain under his left arm pit. Castro was going to see the Rangers doctors about the matter but no word on any details of the pain.

 

The good news: Dexter Fowler is back in Houston doing light hitting and drills. If he has no problems or setbacks he could be activated off the DL on Saturday in the series before the ASG against the Red Sox. Fowler has been on the DL since June 27th because of an intercostal strain. Personally, I would activate him but I wouldn't put in the lineup until after the AS break. The Astros have missed his offense since he went out hitting .270, 6 HRs, 24 RBIs and an OBP of .377. Houston has been very conservative with injured players so I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't play at all until after the AS break.

 

The bad news: The Astros bullpen has an MLB high 5.22 ERA. There still could be moves to upgrade the 'pen but so far the moves they have made have had very iffy results. That, and the no-show of prospective bullpen help Matt Albers and Jesse Crane. Neither has pitched an inning of a game yet.

 

 

[KABrother88]

The issue with Houston not knowing about Aiken's elbow can not be placed on anyone inside the Astros organization...the fact is that players in the MLB draft can not be evaluated pre-draft as players entering the NFL draft are...with high school seasons typically ending well before the draft there is a chance that if he did injure his elbow it could have been after scouts watched him for the final time as well so the would have never seen it. From other things I've read regarding where we stand financially with our draft pool it seems that 5th rounder Jacob Nix has not officially signed his overslot deal. Our only hope if Aiken decides not to sign is to rework Nix's deal to get us out of the hole...if he doesn't then ideally it would be better off to not sign him an get your 2 first rounders (potentially 1.1 & 1.2 as EE mentioned) in 2015 and lose your 1.1 and 5.1 in 2014...although that is not going to be good PR for organization.

[eagle eye]

Houston just completed going 0-7 in their last two series vs division foes Seattle at home for 3 games and -4 against the Angels. I looked for all the world they would be 0-10 after a 3 game series against the Rangers. After all, Texas owns the Astros. The silver boot award seems to have taken up permanent residence in Arlington. But wait just a cotton pickin' minute! In game one the Astros banged out 17 hits and scored 12 runs to win the opener of the series giving Jarred Cosart the win with some long overdue run support. Cool, 7 game skid over. Game two Houston slugs 12 hits scoring 8 runs to win game 2 8-3 giving Brad Peacock the win. Then, in game 3 Houston's Dallas Keuchel coming off a two game losing streak and actually not winning a game since June 11 (that's almost a month if you didn't notice) squaring off against Astros killer Yu Darvish. No freaking way Houston can sweep. Yeah, right. Keuchel didn't have his best stuff but he battled 6-2/3 innings allowing 8 hits and 4 runs giving Houston a pretty gutty performance. All Houston did was give Dallas some run support in Arlington. The Astros kept up the smack attack in game 3 getting 13 more hits giving the Astros 42 hits in 3 games. Where has this offense been? They also scored a total of 28 runs in the 3 games after scoring 8 more runs last night. Jose Altuve added a couple more stolen bases in the series and Chris Carter found some offense. Even Jon Singleton did a good job in the series.

The coolest thing about the sweep is the fact that Houston is no longer in the cellar in AL West for the first time since 2010! That's four years in the cellar without a break. Now, the lead over the Rangers is tenuous at best. The Astros have a 39-54 record which translates to a .419 winning percentage. The Rangers are 38-53 sporting a .418 winning percentage. That the margin of difference by which Houston climbed into 4th place in the division. They are both 19.5 games behind division leader Oakland.

 

Speaking of Oakland did you see what Billy Beane did? The architect of the 'money ball' strategy for building a baseball team must've gotten the A's owner to let loose some cash because the A's were able to sign former Cubs pitcher Jeff Samardzija in a trade with the Cubbies. It seems another proof that the rich seem destined to get richer. I like Samardzija but I would have liked him better if he had stuck to football and Dallas could have drafted him as WR. I'm just saying.

[eagle eye]

I first thought that Houston had lost their grip on 4th place in the AL West when they lost to Boston last night after a dee-sasterous 6th inning killed Scott Feldman's bid to even his record at 5-5 but he let Boston tag him for 2 runs after he loaded the bases with one out and Boston's Christian Vasquez hit a 2-run double to chase Feldman from the game but Darin Downs came in and walked the first batter he faced to re-load the bases and after Dustin Pedroia flew out to left he allowed David Ortiz to bash a bases clearing double that scored the two runners Feldman left and the man Downs walked. The 5 run 6th blew open a 3-1 Red Sox lead and when the final out was recorded Houston was staring at an 8-1 deficit. So the 3 runs Feldman had allowed earlier in the game would almost have been enough for the Bosox to win the series opener. Chris Carter came through with two solo HRs, one in the bottom of the sixth and one in the 8th which made the final score somewhat respectable at 8-3 which is how the game ended up. I sort of laughed this morning thinking that Houston's time outside the division cellar was pretty short but when I looked at the standings I was shocked to see Texas had actually lost their last two since Houston left Arlington. Despite losing last night Houston is still in 4th place only now it's not by percentage points they actually own a 1/2 game lead over Texas. Pretty cool.

 

The Baseball Gods giveth and they also taketh away.

 

> Jason Castro returned to the lineup after missing three games due to an unknown ailment in his left arm pit.

 

> George Springer was a scratch from last night's game due to soreness in his knee. He will listed as day to day for the foreseeable future which probably means he's out until after the All Star Break next week.

 

> Colin McHugh will miss his start today due the torn fingernail he suffered in his last start.

 

> Brett Olberholzer will make the start for McHugh. He has been called up from AAA to make today's game.

 

> Matt Albers is throwing just not to batters just yet. He has been on the DL since April 22nd with shoulder tendonitis. Albers is hoping to be able to get back in the lineup sometime in August.

[eagle eye]

A couple of thoughts;

 

I didn't watch the Home Run Derby and from what I heard I didn't miss much. MLB needs to get off their hands and stop making a federal issue of each batter and condense the derby down to a couple of hours. Dragging it out for TV is a mistake because in recent years when I did watch I often got bored by the end and it was sort of anti climatic anyway. MLB wants to give their fans their money's worth stop making the deal so long. On Mike and Mike they talked about how even the crowd at the stadium lost interest, or at least, momentum.

 

The Astros finish the first half of the season NOT in the cellar for the first time in God knows when. Pretty cool and the fact that the Rangers are IN the cellar makes it even sweeter for Astros fans does it not? The Astros go into the ASB with a 1.5 game lead over the Rangers and at 40 and 56 they are 16 games under .500 and 19.5 games behind first place Oakland, who I predict will represent the AL in the World Series.

 

The ALG is in the top of the 4th with the AL owning a slim 3-2 lead over the NL. Houston's Jose Altuve hasn't gotten into the game yet but look for him in the 5th or 6th. I'm sorry I missed how Derek Jeter was honored. Oh well, I'll catch up on SportsCenter. Go AL!

[KABrother88]

The HR derby to me seemed to love at a much faster pace this year...a rain delay early slowed it down but they went from giving the players 10 outs to 7 this year...they also turned it into a bracket where the bottom 2 from each league are eliminated after the 1st round then the top hitter from each league gets a bye to its respective league finals...#2s square off against #3s to claim the other spots in the league finals then the winner of each league finals matched up in the final round. Also being at Target Field helped the pace of the derby since it kept someone going on a Bobby Abreu or Josh Hamilton run and pounding out 25 HRs in a round.

 

So the deadline to sign draft picks is 4 PM Friday and it's not looking good for us to sign Aiken or Nix...reports are flying everywhere with Aiken's reps saying Houston is trying to manipulate the system and save enough money to sign 21st rounder Mac Marshall as well...Houston has stayed pretty tight lipped about it and have only said they have done nothing wrong. Nix has agreed to terms and passed a physical but was told that his deal hinged on the ability to save money on Aiken's deal...what's more concerning is the same guy represents both players...if Aiken doesn't then Houston will not sign Nix...and probably for good reason...I had mentioned before that if we signed Nix to his agreed terms and didn't sign Aiken we would lose our 1st rounder next year due to going over the 5% penalty...well I was wrong...we would actually go over our 15% penalty and lose our 1st rounder in 2015 AND 2016. In the end I hope we can get Aiken to agree to terms as well as Nix but Nix isn't the type of talent I sacrifice that much for with out getting Aiken

[eagle eye]

Jose made some positive contributions to the American League's win in the All Star Game last night. He replaced Robinson Cano in the 5th and in his first at-bat he connected a fly ball that allowed Alexei Ramiriez to score from 3rd to cap a two run inning for the AL on the way to a 5-3 win. Altuve flashed a little leather as well as he was inserted into the game in the 3 hole which is pretty awesome but not inappropriate for the AL leader in hits and multi-hit games. So, Jose is on the way to Chicago to join the team for a series against the White Sox beginning Friday beginning the stretch run of the final 66 games of the season.

[Big T]

Springer has just been placed on the DL....

[eagle eye]

The Astros are literally limping toward the end of July. The offense is paying dearly for it too. First, Dexter Fowler has been on the DL with an intercostal strain. I wasn't exactly clear what that meant but Houston lost the services of pitcher Anthony Bass for 3 1/2 months and when he came back he wasn't effective at all. In fact, he was optioned to OKC yesterday. According to Wiki the intercostal muscles are the ones between your ribs so I would imagine that even breathing is painful. The outlook for Fowler is MAYBE he can return sometime in August.

George Springer has put on the 15 day DL retroactive to July 20th with a quad strain.

Alex Presley is on the DL for an oblique strain.

P Matt Albers has been moved from the 15 day DL to the 60 day DL with shoulder tendonitis. He has pitched an inning for Houston yet worth talking about and his return is in deep question after Houston had high hopes he would be ready to go by now.

 

So, to bolster the lineup the Astros have recalled Marc Krauss (Wednesday) and they have called up 29 year old Gregorio Petit to fill in for Marwin Gonzalez who is dealing with a sore hamstring. This is the third time in Petit's career that he's been called up to the bigs but it's the first time since 2009. He was hitting .297 with 10 HRs and 43 RBIs for OKC when he got the call. Petit missed the 2011 season after tearing his ACL so this third opportunity means more to him than the previous call ups.

 

The Astros have sent Colin McHugh to OKC for a rehab stint. He has been out of the pitching rotation since he tore off his fingernail on his right middle finger on July 7th. It sounds painful and if you think you can pitch without a fingernail guess again. Knuckle ballers need to dig into the seems to prevent the ball for any rotation. Several off speed pitches rely on the nails not to mention just tearing off a finger nail just plain sucks.

 

To make matters worse, the team is battling through all these injuries with a group of guys who are less than dynamic at the plate. On Thursday Houston got bombed by Oakland 13-1. Nothing good happened in that game. Then, last night Houston returns home and gets shut out by the stupid Miami Marlins losing 2-0 on a pretty nice outing by Dallas Keuchel scattered 9 hits over his 7 innings of work allowing only 2 runs. And both runs were unearned. Geez, it seems like the wheels are totally falling off the cart right now and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. Damn, 1st pick in the draft FOUR years in a row. Kowabunga.

[eagle eye]

The biggest thing the Astros need to do is NOT get discouraged. Despite the fact that they have lost 5 of their last 6 games they have tried hard. Altuve is still cranking out multi-hit games and, for the most part, they are still getting decent starting pitching. They can't seem to avoid the injury bug that is running rampant through the club house. The guys that are filling in for the injured are not getting the job done. Nobody's fault really, they just aren't that good. I still feel Bo Porter is part of the problem but when you're playing short handed I don't care if Joe Torre or Tony LaRussa are managing you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Sometimes it's hard to keep the big picture in mind so when I get dejected over the Astros fortunes I pull out my Sports Illustrated with George Springer on the cover with the caption, "2017 World Series Champs the Houston Astros". I figure if SI sees bright days ahead I can be patient for a while. I admit I drank the Kool-Aid when Houston was on it's torrid streak in May and the fact they were only 6 game under .500 in early June was an encouraging sign.

But as we settled into summer things got a little nauseating. They were unable to sign their first round pick and by proxy another pick which KABro can detail much better than I can. We started suffering injuries in droves some requiring a trip to Wiki to find out what the heck they were. I can honestly say I have never heard of an intercostal strain before but two Astros have suffered strains to the muscles between their ribs and it has caused one to miss 3+ months and when he returned he was ineffective and the other has been out a month at least and currently is doing nothing to try to rest the muscles.

There are pleasant surprises too like George Springer, while not perfect, has been a ray of light for the Astros offense. The recent call up of Kike Hernandez has been a pleasant addition and Marwin Gonzalez has been solid all season. Heck, even Chris Carter has found some semblance of offense the past month. It's just hard staying patient.

 

Mark Appel is on his way to AA Corpus Christi. The 2013 1st pick in the draft has struggled this season especially early on mainly due to a setback in January of having an emergency appendectomy. Appel missed a huge chunk of spring training as he recovered from the surgery and his spring began during the regular season. His ERA so far is an ugly 9.74 but chalk that up to his rough beginning and also to the assertion of GM Jeff Luhnow that Lancaster is rough place to pitch. Luhnow said that even with your best stuff a pitcher can still get knocked around. The last game he pitched at Lancaster Appel gave up just 2 runs with 7 Ks and no walks. The K/BB ratio was the indicator that Appel was ready to make the move up to AA. That's a good sign that Appel is making progress.

 

Josh Zeid was put on the DL with a foot injury. Colin McHugh will be back with the club and start in the series finale against Miami today. Brad Peacock has lost his spot in the rotation and gained a spot in AAA. Peacock has struggled the past month and with how well Brett Oberholzer has pitched in several appearances the past month bouncing back and forth from Houston and OKC the Astros felt like Obie deserved a roster spot on the big club. The Astros are expected to make a corresponding move today to fill the open roster spot left by Peacock.

[eagle eye]

Talk about head scratchers. Houston is swept pretty easily by the Marlins over the weekend and they begin a series with the best team in the AL, division rival Oakland A's, and win the opener jacking 4 home runs in the game. Go freaking figure. All you can say is baseball is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you'll git. Gotta love Forest Gump. Still, Houston won the opener in Oakland last week and they suffered a beat down in the remaining two games so there is no real reason to get too excited except...................it's the end of the top of the 7th inning of game 2 and Houston is leading 3-1. Cue Gump. Scott Feldman has successfully negotiated 7 full innings giving up only one solitary run. Not freaking bad, Scott. Now, if you've been following the Astros this season you know good and well that the bullpen is fully capable of blowing the lead if not the game. But, as the man who fell out of a 10th story building was heard saying as he passed each floor, so far so good, so far so good. Just think, if Houston does hang on they will win this 3 game series and end the month of July on positive note. That's not a bad thing at all. The cherry on top will be defeating A's ace Jeff Samardzija who, last Thursday, was on the hill for a 13-1 beat down of the Astros in Oakland. As I've been writing this post Samardzija has given up an insurance run to the Astros on a walk to begin the inning and with two outs Kike Hernandez doubled in the run. That was the end of Samardzija's night as Dan Otero comes on to face Jose Altuve with Hernandez in scoring position. Otero gave Altuve an intentional pass and now faces Marwin Gonzalez. Gonzo grounds out to former Astro Jed Lowrie to end the inning. However, Houston now leads Oakland 4-1 with six outs to go. Heading to bed hoping for the best.

[eagle eye]

Okay, I lied. I had to check out the 8th especially since Josh Fields took over for Feldman. Fields hasn't exactly been the paradigm of consistency. In fact he's been down right bad at times. But, tonight he gets the A's 1-2-3 to end their second to last at-bat. I should've gone to bed but now I'm past the point of no return, gotta see this all the way unless, of course, it goes to extra innings.

[eagle eye]

All right, the Astros must know I've got to hit the sack because Chris Carter pops out and Jason Castro and Marc Krauss both strike out swinging. It's all up to what I believe will be Chad Qualls to shut the door on the night for the A's.

[eagle eye]

Yep, it's Qualls and he's facing 1B Stephen Vogt to begin the ninth. Vogt strikes out swinging on a 2-2 count on the sixth pitch of the at-bat. Edited July 30, 2014 by eagle eye

[eagle eye]

Next up is C Derek Norris and Qualls singles on an infield hit to Matt Dominguez. Next up was Josh Reddick who doubled to center field. Men on 2nd and 3rd.

[eagle eye]

Next up is pinch hitter Alberto Calaspo who singles scoring both Norris and Reddick. Score is now 4-3 with one out. Top of the order comes up and John Jaso grounds into a fielder's choice. Jon Singleton to Marwin Gonzalez for out #2.

 

Jed Lowrie batting and a wild pitch by Qualls sends Jaso to second base. Qualls goes to 3-2 to Lowrie. Lowrie walks and Yoenis Cespedes singles to right scoring Jaso. And just like that the three run lead is friggin gone. &*)_)(((*^^%. Qualls had only 2 blown saves before tonight. Make it 3 and with his job done Chad Qualls hits the showers and Tony Sipp comes in to see if he can blow the tie.

[eagle eye]

Cleanup hitter Brandon Moss comes to the plate with men on first and second. Sipp falls behind 3-1 but comes back to run the count full. Sonofabitch, Sipp allows a single to left to Moss allowing Jed Lowrie to score and Yoenis Cespedes to go from first to third. There is major cussing taking place right now.

 

Sipp, having blown the tie is headed to the showers with Qualls. Jose Veras is coming on to try to stop the bleeding.

[eagle eye]

Next man up is Josh Donaldson who is the ninth man to come to the plate this inning. On Veras' second pitch Donaldson doubles to center scoring Cespedes and Moss. Score is now Oakland 7 Houston 4. For some frigging reason Bo Porter has Veras intentionally walk Vogt who led off the damn inning giving the A's men on first and second.

Thank God, Derek Norris grounds into a fielder's choice as SS Marwin Gonzalez goes to 2B Jose Altuve for the final out. Ten f**cking batters go to the plate in the 9th and 6 of them score. A 3 run lead is flipped to a 3 run deficit. Now it may be I can't sleep now. I should have gone to bed after the top of the 7th. Holy crap I'm upset. Qualls and Sipp are the best relievers Houston has and they both stink up the Juice Box. This is just unbelievable. Then again, I sort of predicted this earlier didn't I. Damn, I wish I had gone to bed.

[eagle eye]

Sean Doolittle comes on for the A's to see if he has any better luck than Qualls did for Houston.

 

1st batter is Jon Singleton and he does what he does best......he strikes out on 5 pitches. 1 out.

 

2nd batter is Matt Dominguez who pops out weakly to 2nd baseman Nick Punto - 2 out.

 

3rd batter is Robbie Grossman who pops out weakly to 2nd baseman Nick Punto - 3 out, game over.

 

If it wasn't so incredibly sad it would be funny. SOAB!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[eagle eye]

Can you believe it? Houston totally blows a 3 run lead in the ninth to lose by three. Wasting a chance to take the series and totally taking a dump on the wonderful night Scotty Feldman had on the hill. Do the Astros blow the series last night with a devastating collapse? NO! They send Dallas Keuchel to the mound and he responds by tossing a complete game allowing only one run on a solo HR by clean up hitter Josh Donaldson on 4 hits giving up 3 walks and striking out 5 leading Houston to an 8-1 win. Most of the damage was from two 2-run HR's. One by Robbie Grossman (I know, right?!) in the first inning and the other by Jon Singleton in the 5th with one out and Jason Castro on first with a lead off walk (I KNOW, RIGHT?) that chased Hammel from the game. The only thing that didn't happen was Jose Altuve getting another multi-hit game. No worries, he was 1-4 with a walk so his OBP was .400 for the game. (I know, right? The guy is a machine!). Back to Keuchel, I can't prove it but if he's not the AL, if not the MLB, leader in complete games this season I'll eat my hat. I hope he stays as hot as he was back in May at least through August. I'd love to see him win 16 or 17 games. (BTW, he's 10-7 right now.) I went from pure D pissed last night to just dumbstruck today. (Cue Gump) The Astros end up winning the three game set anyway. The Astros will close out July tomorrow at home against the Blue Jays beginning a 4 game set that also begins the month of August. With the recent outburst of runs by Houston maybe we get another May-like hot streak. Don't worry, I'm not getting my hopes up. If it happens I'll enjoy the ride and if it doesn't---no big deal. It's just Houston after all.

 

I couldn't stand it I had to look it up. Keuchel is tied for most complete games this season with 4 with the Dodgers Clayton Kershaw. BTW, Keuchel's ten wins account for 23% of Houston's 44 wins.

 

Chris Carter missed today's game with an illness. It may be after effects of watching Chad Qualls and Tony Sipp blow a sure win last night. I read that there was a lot vomiting involved.

 

Josh Zeid will undergo season ending surgery on both his feet. Zeid has actually been playing through pain in both feet for about a year and a half but he and the Astros have decided to fix the problem now. Zeid will have surgery, called sesamoidectomy, on his left foot Wednesday and the same procedure on his right foot six weeks later. The recovery time is roughly 3 months before Zeid can resume pitching related activities.

 

Alex Pressley is starting to swing a bat finally after having a strained oblique keep him sidelined. He started hitting off a tee today beginning his march to get back on the field. Pressley is one of several key players on the DL right now. It would be nice to start getting some of them back beginning with Press and hopefully George Springer right behind him.

 

Tomorrow is the non-waiver trade deadline and there are several Astros players sweating out the next 24 hours. Here's a look at possible trades that could happen from Astros.com

 

http://houston.astros.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140729&content_id=86900654&notebook_id=86900960&vkey=notebook_hou&c_id=hou

[KABrother88]

Also had some good news down in Corpus tonight...Mark Appel pitched 5 scoreless innings and only allowed 2 hits while striking out 4...he did walk 4 guys but this was by far his best outing of the year...unfortunately three opposing pitchers combined for a no hitter...CC only had one baserunner (reached on an error) and struck out 10 times.

[KABrother88]

Well Houston made a deal at today's non waiver trade deadline...and it was a very surprising one to me...a 6 player deal with the Miami Marlins...here's a breakdown

 

Miami gets:

SP - Jared Cosart

UTL - Kiké Hernandez

OF - Austin Wates (AAA)

 

Houston gets:

3B - Colin Moran (A+)

OF - Jake Marisnick (AAA)

RHP - Francis Martes (ROK)

2015 Competitive Balance Pick

 

Cosart had been a serviceable starter and was still young so I was surprised he wasn't considered to be a big part of the future

 

Hernandez played very well in his 1 month he spent in Houston...batted a respectable .284 and played well defensively at multiple positions...guess the FO wanted to sell high on him

 

Wates is a guy who I have posted about on here as hoping to see in Houston this season...he was hitting .299 with 31 steals at OKC and even missed about a month of action with various injuries

 

 

Moran is a guy Houston strongly considered drafting at 1-1 last year before going with Appel...he's currently injured but has hit .294 with 5 HRs and 21 doubles in 89 games at A+ ball. He slides into the #5 spot in Houston's top 20 prospects according to MLB.com and #72 overall.

 

Marisnick ended 2013 as Miami's #1 prospect but has since lost prospect status due to time in the majors...he has struggled so far at the big league level but has hit .277 at AAA this season.

 

Martes is an 18 year old who currently has a 5.18 ERA in the Gulf Coast League

Edited July 31, 2014 by KABrother88

[Big T]

Cosart was never going to be a top tier starter. He has the physical stuff to be but when you throw 100 pitches in the fifth inning every game... He just never had the control and I don't think he ever will. I think the reaction by Jon Mayo and Duke was perfect when they heard what the Astros were receiving. Here it is.

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/hou/astros-send-jarred-cosart-to-marlins-for-prospects?ymd=20140731&content_id=87320460&vkey=news_hou

[eagle eye]

As with any trade time will tell if this was a good deal or not. I like Cosart and I thought he'd be a good four or five down the road. As Big T pointed out Cosart threw a lot of pitches in most of his starts and rarely made it past the 5th. In MLB jargon Cosart made a lot of quality starts but he probably never would have been much more than he is. So, we'll have to wait and see.

 

Mark Appel made his first start at Corpus and he did very well. Seems the change of scenery did him some good! Appel pitched 5 scoreless innings and when he left the Hooks were in a scoreless tie with San Antonio. Appel ended up with a no-decision because the Hooks were no-hit by SA and ended up losing 6-0. The Change was a good omen for Appel who struggled at Lancaster.

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/hou/astros-prospect-mark-appel-tosses-five-scoreless-frames-in-double-a-debut?ymd=20140730&content_id=87063006&vkey=news_hou

 

BTW, Houston lost 6-5 to Toronto when Josh Fields and Chad Qualls blew another game together giving up 2 runs in the final two frames. I'm glad to say goodbye to July. Hopefully, August will be a better month.