SB Nation Houston: All Posts by Joshua Powling

Astros Sunday Roundup: Minor Leaguer Devenski Tosses No-Hitter

2012-09-02T19:37:21Z

The bombshell of the week was Jeff Luhnow's hiring of Kevin Goldstein, who was working for Baseball Prospectus. Along with a few others, Goldstein is in rarefied air when it comes to prospect evaluators out there who aren't paid by baseball organisations. He will join guys like Mike Fast, Sid Mejdal, Mike Elias and co. in making the decisions that will hopefully keep this franchise turning in the right direction.

Grant Brisbee does not go into an awful lot of information, but the jist of his recent article seems to be, while the Astros are hopeless at the major league level, and there is still not a lot of minor-league talent ready to make an impact in the numbers the franchise requires, at least they are getting the personnel at the top right.

The Astros claimed Brandon Laird from the Yankees as well as shelling Ben Francisco and Steve Pearce. Laird has been sitting at AAA for some time now. He plays third base with a sprinkling of the outfield. Overall solid bench bat with some power. Others returning to the Astros roster include Matt Dominguez, Matt Downs (who scored last night's winning run), Jose Valdez and Jordan Schafer.

Lexington Legends pitcher Chris Devenski tossed a no-hitter against Rome last night during a 10-0 rout, flaming his way though the game with 16 punch-outs. Devenski, as a few of you might briefly remember, was the PTBNL in the Brett Myers deal with the Chicago White Sox. At 20 he was drafted out of Cal Fullerton in 2011 in the 17th round. Luhnow strikes again.

Matt Duffy hit two home runs in the game and Nolan Fontana drew four, yes four, walks. Even with a .227 average it is hard to fault a player who has an OBP around .450.

The Astros, shambolic record and all, still hold a passable 28-39 record at home. That they've managed 13 wins on the road, has been one of their big problems. However, I was intrigued to see Bud Norris' home and road splits flashed up, 2,09 ERA in nine home starts, 7.27 in away games. Wandy's bizarre home-road splits I could start to explain away, but this has come out of nowhere. Yes, generally pitchers do better at home, as teams do, but 2009 he pitched marginally better on the road, in 2010 a run better at home, and last year 3.72 to 3.84.

Is it comforting that Norris is pitching a dream in nine home starts and is a total shambles on the road? Or does it infuriate you? As Clack pointed out, Lucas Harrell also has some mind-bending home-road splits. Overall he has a credible 3.81 ERA, 2.06 at home and 5.10 on the road.

Musing on the current position at shortstop, I looked over at how Clint Barmes was doing over in Pittsburgh. His shocking 54 OPS+ and a rather putrid 2.0 BB% is pretty laughable, even if his insane defense makes up for it to leave him with a 0.6 fWAR and 0.4 bWAR. And to think, if we'd have actually bid on Barmes, not only would we have got an average season or two out of him, we would not have been given a supplementary pick. I always said Ed Wade could pick them.

Astros Sunday Roundup: Brad Mills We Hardly Knew Ya

2012-08-19T20:36:10Z

Nobody is quite sure what 'it' is, but the consensus seems to be that whatever 'it' is, Brad Mills did not have it. He is a nice guy, and probably a decent manager with the right team, but this was not the right team. Just like Bobby Heck, Jeff Luhnow moved to get his guy in place. We'll see who his guy is in the next few days or weeks. Perhaps it is Joe Pettini, bench coach for the Astros, or maybe someone different. Bobby Meacham, you never really know with first base coaches. Mike Barnett was brought here after seeing Toronto and Kansas City up their patience. In April we were walking like hitting had gone out of fashion, but ever since our bats have been wretched.

J.D. Martinez has broke, I guess we still have two position players on the DL, Jordan Schafer has shown he isn't a major league hitter, and quite a lot else has gone wrong. Some has gone right. Chris Johnson and Carlos Lee were competent before their trades, as was Jed Lowrie before injury took him.

DeFrancesco came from the Oakland system with great things, so I hope he can eke out a few wins and stop us being '62 Mets awful in 2012. And it was interesting to see this:

Tony DeFrancesco's abilities as a major league manager have yet to be determined, but he apparently delivers a big-league quality clubhouse speech.

Pitcher Bud Norris, who passes for a grizzled veteran on a young Astros roster, said Sunday he was energized by DeFrancesco's initial speech to the troops upon being named as the club's interim manager.

But I'm actually happy this happened. Not because I necessarily agree with it, but that it gives me a chance to talk about something different, rather than bashing the team for 600 words, which is what I have been doing for the past three months. And last week was one of our good weeks. Actually I'm surprised Ron Roenicke did not get the chop for losing to the Astros in two consecutive games.

But you know, Mills' contract was up at the end of the season and it was never going to be renewed by a new front office. Whether we miss out on our own personal Manny Acta again is yet to be seen. Perhaps this is why they fired him before the year was out, to be first in line when looking for new candidates.

The move seems to have created a lot of hubbub in baseball circles, but no one is actually quite sure why:

Buster Olney ‏@Buster_ESPN
Lots of anger around the sport this morning for the way HOU staff changes went down. The change not a surprise, but method was bloodless.

I'm pretty sure there is no good way to fire somebody. But let's just roll with it. Jon Heyman throws out Jim Riggleman, Joe Pettini and Chris Maloney. Pettini is the obvious one that everyone under the sun has mooted, even me, Riggleman is currently managing the Reds' Double-A affliate, and Maloney seems to fit the Brad Mills pattern of managerial hiring.

The only question, apart from who the new man is, is how did Dave Clark do it? Not that I fully subscribe to the view, but from what I hear, he is the coach most people would do away with first. Affectionately known as 'stop-sign' the third base coach has somehow avoided the latest putsch. A few suggestions from Twitter are:

Voodoo and the blood of a dozen sabermetricians.

Photos

My dad just said he's the only one left that knows the signs!

Might say something about him that he's still around.

Now lets just knuckle down and maybe we can win a few games. What'da ya say?

Astros Sunday Roundup: Altuve Steals Hats, Winning Streaks And Bobby Heck's Departure

2012-08-12T21:09:14Z

Oh dear Milwaukee. You just lost two games in a row to the Houston Astros. Surely your manager is in the hot-seat now. And not just two losses, two walk-off losses, although the second only came after Wilton Lopez blew a ninth-inning save. Brian Bogusevic did the job on Friday, followed by Scott Moore Saturday, after which second-baseman Jose Altuve celebrated by attempting to pull off all his teammates hats.

Two wins in a row. And we had gone 4-34 in the 38 games before that. Shame the Astros couldn't make it three, dropping the finale to the Brew Crew tonight.

I see people calling the Astros team basically an expansion team. With Scott Moore, Steve Pearce, Justin Maxwell, Ben Francisco, Tyler Greene and Chris Snyder, you can hardly argue. Marwin Gonzalez and Fernando Martinez are both young, but their future probably lies on the bench. Maxwell has had a tidy season, and our starting catcher and shortstop are still on the DL, as is our front-line (barf) center fielder Jordan Schafer.

Jason Castro is currently mashing PCL pitching and will return on Monday. Meanwhile former third baseman Chris Johnson is on a tear in Arizona, smashing five home runs in his first dozen games for the snakes. Still not walking much though.

We're still waiting for that influx of high-end bona-fide talent to stop us looking like an expansion team, which will probably start when Jonathan Singleton and Jarred Cosart arrive at the major leagues at some point in 2013. Nice to see August promotions, George Springer heading to Corpus Christi, Delino DeShields Jr to Lancaster, and Lance McCullers Jr, Rio Ruiz and Carlos Correa to Greeneville.

It's interesting that Jonathan Mayo wrote a gushing piece about Bobby Heck and the changes underway a week before the Scouting Director effectively got the axe, replaced by Mike Elias, another former colleague of Jeff Luhnow's in St. Louis.

Looking back to October 2007 when Heck was given the job:

Bobby Heck, who helped rebuild the Milwaukee Brewers' farm system into one of the best in baseball, has been hired by the Astros to help turn around their hobbled minor league system as the club's new director of amateur scouting.

Heck will probably be disappointed not to see the rebuilding project through to fruition, but considering the wasteland he inherited and the restrictions he had to play through, from Drayton McLane's absurd toeing the line on slot money, to Tal Smith forcing guys like Mike Kvasnicka on him, on balance we should probably be applauding him. The ghost of Mike Trout will likely haunt the other scouting directors, while that of Justin Smoak a year earlier seems to have receded since his move to Seattle.

Now Tim and David on the TCB podcast were talking about Brad Mills. There are few still on the Mills bandwagon, as it is hard to judge whether he makes an abysmal team god-awful, or visa-versa. And there was a mention that Joe Pettini might be taking over, currently serving as the Astros bench coach after a long spell under Tony LaRussa.

While I'm au fait about Mike Barnett, I would like to see Doug Brocail replaced, either with someone who has a track record, or a gem out of the bag. I'm being greedy. I want Roger Clemens. Crane still has the 10-year personal services contract in his back pocket, but Clemens proved as a veteran pitcher he could bring out the best in his teammates with minor adjustments. I remember Roy Oswalt, pretty darned good at this point, in 2004 talking about how Clemens had shown him how to hide the ball from the batter's view in his windup.

Astros Sunday Roundup: Minor Leagues Offer Respite For Dismal July

2012-08-05T15:05:34Z

This week even the national press have caught up on the sheer awfulness that is the 2012 Houston Astros. Even the 1962 Mets did not manage that shrieks ESPN's Jayson Stark. The Astros are so good at being bad, harks a writer at SB Nation.

Yet they squeaked to a 3-2 win over the Braves last night, their fourth win since June 28, and Lucas Harrell is actually leading the rotation and Justin Maxwell, a waiver claim, single-handedly provided the offense yesterday. Martin Prado, lollygagging in Turner Field's outfield didn't move for the second and only twitched for the first. Both home runs were long gone. Maxwell now has 12 home runs, one ahead of J.D. Martinez and two behind Jed Lowrie, still on the DL.

We should not give too much credit for waiver claims, since having first choice and far more 40-man roster flexibility than other teams mean the Astros can roll the dice more. It is nice to see Maxwell doing well, and at the same time frustrating to see Justin Ruggiano banzaing in Miami. He is 30 and has 149 major league games under his belt, so we can hope it is an abberation after Jeff Luhnow traded him to the Marlins for minor league catching depth.

We were expecting Wandy Rodriguez, Brett Myers and Carlos Lee to go, but Chris Johnson, while a spare-boot piece that many would not mind seeing the back of, did get moved to Arizona. The bigger shock is not that we moved him, but that we got something of value in return.

Bobby Borchering and Marc Krauss, acquired from the D-backs profile to be the sort of fringe pieces that make good teams, and occasionally you may get a few good seasons from them as starters. Borchering is still playing third base for the Hooks, with scouting reports suggesting he will not stick it out there. Last night the two contributed to a phenomenal ninth inning for Corpus Christi, where, tied 6-6, they scored 11 runs. Jason Castro, currently re-habbing, was involved in the blood-bath. Krauss, already 25 has five bombs in his first five games in the Astros organisation.

Even with all the moves we have made, we are still thin on high ceiling prospects, barring our top three (Singleton, Cosart and Springer) and two of our draftees from 2012 Lance McCullers Jr and Carlos Correa. Exceptions to this would be Vincent Velasquez (currently tearing apart the Penn League, but come back to me in a season), Jonathan Villar and Delino DeShields Jr (they have the pieces, but have not clicked all of it together), Ariel Ovando (too far away from majors to judge), and Domingo Santana (far too streaky).

Still, it is fun to see guys like Adrian Houser, Aaron West or Daniel Minor trotting out every fifth day and having some success.

The other trade to be completed this week is the White Sox deal for Brett Myers, as the player to be named later was announced as Chris Devinski, a 27th round pick from 2011. You can tell from the footnote over at South Side Sox that fans in Chicago see this as no loss. Perhaps you should view him as a guy with an arm, that can throw the baseball hard, and sometimes with break. Not yet a pitcher anyway.

John Sickels reviews his top 20 Astros prospect list from the start of the season.Obviously this list next year will be much changed, but the encouraging thing is most players that we were relying on to take steps forward have done so. Tropeano and DeShields have bumped up to B- and B. The pieces acquired in the Bourn deal have frustrated, but apart from that, all good.

This week watch out for the Appalachian League debut of McCullers, as he gets the bump up to Greeneville after 11 innings and four outings in the Gulf Coast League. Meanwhile we speculated over the first round pick for 2013 if the Astros were to get it. No guarantees over that one, but would they sign someone like Mark Appel knowing they could sign him way under slot. Could they? Would that be a risk too far? Is it even worth wasting a 1-1 pick on him?

Lastly, will see see any callups before September? Perhaps the odd one or two, but I think Brad Mills and the front office will hold off before calling up Dominguez, Jimmy Paredes and others.

Astros History: Franchise record 106 losses

2012-08-01T11:00:10Z

History, you say? But it only happened last year, I hear you roar. If only it was history, and we had banished it to the dusty sporting annals. 56 games left to the season and we seem to be attempting to top that feat, embarking on a diabolical run of games since May 25, when we were 22-23.

So where was I? 2011, of course. But why should you want to relive that nightmare? Well, it can distract you from how angry you are that Jeff Luhnow did not flip Brian Bogusevic for Dylan Bentances, or something similar. Hunter Pence, Michael Bourn, Jose Altuve, Angel Sanchez, Carlos Corporan and all that. Jordan Lyles made his major league debut, Humberto Quintero managed just six walks all season, Jason Bourgeois stole 31 bases on the bench, while Brett Wallace and Chris Johnson lowered expectations in record time.

So much of that team is now gone, it is hard to believe they started off with Bill Hall at second base, with Jose Altuve starting at A+ Lancaster. J.R. Towles got the starting nod at catcher after another fine spring and a season ending injury for Jason Castro. Sanchez got the nod at shortstop as Clint Barmes started the season on the DL.

He even started the season quite impressively, notching 18 hits in his first 12 games. Of the 47 who made appearances in 2011, at least 13 have been traded away by Ed Wade and Jeff Luhnow. Of the 25 men now on the roster, 14 appeared at some point last season.

More after the jump.

Disappointments

The real disappointment was the rotation. The real strength in the last half of 2010 had been the rotation, and many believed that a quartet of Myers, Wandy Rodriguez, Bud Norris and J.A. Happ would form a stable and perhaps above average rotation. Myers' performance went due south, Happ was a mess until his September callup and Rodriguez failed to replecate his dazzling last 17 starts of 2010, turning in a creditable season. Only Norris really shone.

Nelson Figueroa lasted five starts, Aneury Rodriguez even less, until Wade called up Lyles in full job saving mode. Henry Sosa had some success after being acquired from the Giants in the Jeff Keppinger deal, but still contributed to a league worst pitching staff (2012's staff has actually performed worse, but has been kept off the bottom by a hilariously awful Colorado).

The back end of the bullpen, with Mark the Shark Melancon and Wilton Lopez did well, but even Melancon dropped some heartbreakers. One in particular stands out in Atlanta, where Rodriguez pitched a dream against Derek Lowe. Melancon came in for the save but left a curveball over the plate to Brian McCann, who sent it into the stands.

High Points

The high point , for me, was winning the season series against the Giants, the world series defending champions. We had a ton of close games against them and there seemed to be huge frustration in the Bay that they could not beat such a feeble team in the Astros.

Drafting George Springer was a welcome distraction, as was the trade deadline, even though the Astros were unable to work out a deal with the Rockies for Rodriguez when they claimed him.

Rock Bottom

Brandon Lyon's meltdown on opening day. Six Phillies had basehits against him for just one out.

Trivia

Out of the group of Corporan, Quintero, Hall, Jason Michaels and J.R. Towles who registered the highest and lowest OPS in 2011? I was going to put Joe Inglett in that group, but he was by far the lowest.

Readers: What do you take away, if anything, from last season?

Astros Sunday Roundup: Jeff Luhnow Trades Away Brett Myers, J.A. Happ

2012-07-22T20:35:25Z

Ever since J.A. Happ received $2.1m in arbitration at the start of the season I did question how much longer he would be wearing an Astros uniform and several times since. Cost-controlled mediocre pitchers can be replaced with better cost-controlled pitchers.

Jarred Cosart shutdown a Frisco lineup that contained Mike Olt and Jurickson Profar last night, while Ariel Ovando boomed out his first two home runs of the season, going 3-4 with a walk. If only we could get some wins at the major league level eh?

Trade dichotomies are always fun to search through, and the general consensus is Andrew Anthopoulos, the fleecer, got fleeced.

Some people forget in this era of jealousy guarding your prospects and building them up in your own minds as the next star pitcher or gold glover that most fail and the whole point of having organisation depth, especially in the minors, is to trade it to get what you need right now.

As many have pointed out there were many reasons for Toronto to ship the pieces it did to Houston, with the one small caveat that the PTBNL, thought to be a 2011 draftee that signed between this time and the August deadline last year. Carlos Perez had catchers in front of him, and either they would have had to waste a 40-man roster spot next year to protect him, or someone would have grabbed him in the Rule 5 Draft. Joe Musgrove is an intriguing arm, but has shoulder issues. Asher Wojciechowski is 24 this year and still in High-A ball.

And AA may be right on betting on a Happ rebound, but I wouldn't count on it. Yet if he can fluke an excellent season in Philadelphia, as most people agree it was a fluke, then he could fluke another one. Or even two. But at the moment he is getting outpitched by Lucas Harrell, an unheralded White Sox castoff, and has shown no real signs that he will ever be more than a league average starter.

So perhaps we should not be too eager to get too suckered into lazy reporting, falling into 'narratives' and buying into the fact that Jeff Luhnow is, in fact, a wizard.

The Brett Myers to the White Sox return did not really wow me, but again, until we see the PTBNL and understand what the Astros are on the hook for if Myers' 2014 option is triggered, it really is difficult to gauge.

Still, with this and the Carlos Lee trades give the organisation a few more minor league pieces to play with.

I noticed this from Buster Olney earlier in the week:

Rival execs noting Astros are following path of Devil Rays: Field a team so bad that they will draft No. 1 or near top of draft for years.

Well, I don't think they are playing this bad intentionally. Some of this is down to trading assets for stock that could help the Astros in the future rather than being intentionally the worst team in the majors to amass 1-1 picks.

Easiest job in the world? Closer for the Houston Astros? Francisco Cordero was told he would be closing for the team. I hope they also explained to him not to expect too many save opportunities.

Next to go for the Astros? Given that Luhnow seems to be able to get actual prospects back for relievers, I would not be surprised to see teams inquire about Wilton Lopez, even if recent injuries will have dented his stock somewhat.

Astros Sunday Roundup: How Low Can This Team Go?

2012-07-15T21:03:26Z

Since June 27 the Astros have won only once, a 6-3 win against the Brewers. And they only won that because Zach Greinke got himself ejected. True, some of that time saw the Astros out of action with the All-Star Break, but May 25 seems an awful long time ago when the team was 22-23. Since then, almost everything has gone wrong for the team.

The most ridiculous thing about 2012 is the Astros are still over .500 at home, and have scraped just nine wins away from Minute Maid Park. You would need a real stat-head to tell you what team has the worst away record over an entire season, but we might just be pushing it.

Jason Castro just went on the DL to join Jed Lowrie, out for at least six weeks. Carlos Corporan, welcome back. All we need is the recall of Angel Sanchez to make this season even more of a mess.

Carlos Lee is gone, bringing back a haul, even if the Astros did have to pay the rest of his salary . To get anything for a guy who has not hit a home run away from Minute Maid Park in 2012 is good (apart from when he re-habbed at Corpus Christi). In Rob Rassmussen they picked up a piece that could be a Mark Melancon or David Carpenter, or something in-between.

Like the Mets with Fernando Rodriguez the Marlins have bailed with a former top prospect, whose bat never looked like materialising. As flyers go Matt Dominguez is a good one at a position the Astros system is paper thin at - third base.

Miami have picked up two former Astros this month, signing Humberto Quintero on Saturday after he was cut from the Royals after 144 rather ineffectual plate appearances. Quintero not hitting? Dun-dun-dun.

Jim Crane and Jeff Luhnow's mood might have soured with all of this going on, and seeing Jonathan Villar break his hand cannot have helped. As far as crumbs of comfort go they and Astros fans have to settle on the 2012 draftees currently romping their way through the competiiton, from Nolan Fontana at Lexington, .575 OBP-machine in his first eight games, Andrew Aplin, Tyler Heineman and Brad Rodgers down at Tri-City and Daniel Minor at Greeneville. That does not even mention Lance McCullers Jr, who threw three scoreless in his debut last night for the Gulf Coast League Astros, Rio Ruiz's debut last night for the very same team, or the success Adrian Houser and Vincent Velasquez are having.

So, in the next unanswered question of July 2012, who is going to grab Wandy Rodriguez at the deadline? Since he is not going to bring the haul Astros fans would like, and with teams seemingly turned off by the price-tag on pitchers such as Cole Hamels and Zach Greinke, someone like the Blue Jays or Orioles may offer Luhnow a package of sell-low prospects, blocked players or people due for a rebound.

This season is set to flounder on. In 2010 the Astros brought up Chris Johnson, Jason Castro and Brian Bogusevic, getting rid of wasted space in Pedro Feliz. Last year they called up Jordan Lyles, J.D. Martinez and Jose Altuve. No such reinforcements this season. Dominguez and Brett Wallace seem likely to get called up, as will Jimmy Paredes and some other pitchers at AAA. Jonathan Singleton might get a taste of the big leagues, but at 20 there really is no need to rush.

Astros Sunday Roundup: Get Carlos Lee to the Dodgers Already

2012-07-01T21:20:37Z

Jose Altuve, All-Star. The little engine that could, Pocket Jesus is off to Kansas City as the Astros representative orbiting a respectable .803 OPS as of today. His BB% has fallen considerably over the past few months since the start of the season, but for a 22-year-old in his first full season, to be even keeping up with the guys around him is an achievement.

It's frustrating meanwhile to see Carlos Lee oom and aah over the trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers. That is biting the hand that has fed you $100m. A half-season in Los Angeles is hardly the greatest chore, and considering the Dodgers are giving us back a bona-fied prospect in return, I'm almost giddy.

It clears some space at first base to give others playing time for the rest of 2012, like Brett Wallace. Who or what the Dodgers see in Lee is irrelevant. Jeff Luhnow is close to pulling off his latest heist. If you hadn't noticed, the Dodgers have lost seven in a row, five by shutouts. And they are still seven games over .500, one game behind the Giants. But will Lee, who has not hit a HR away from Minute Maid Park this season help? Not particularly.

If we can snag Garrett Gould, having a miserable 2012 in A+ ball then all the better (a quick glance at his 2012 numbers shows his ERA at 5.13, but his FIP at 3.51).

Meanwhile sage words from venerated sportswriter Peter Gammons:

AL Scouting Director:"Houston took its draft position and killed it like noone else. Correa, McCullers, Ruiz...they changed the franchise."

That's what we like to hear. Now this is only Gammons repeating, but these baseball writers rarely do it without the sentiment echoing their own opinions.

Nicholas Tropeano is off to Lancaster, but will Mike Foltynewciz join him? He had his first awful outing in ages yesterday, and I would venture he could be kept at Lexington before a bump to Corpus Christi, in either late August or to start off 2013. That just seems to be the route the Astros take with pitching prospects like Folty.

Vincent Velasquez's return has been welcome for the Valleycats after missing all of 2011 after Tommy John surgery. Even with limited pro playing time, I had him at number 12 in my pre-season rankings, which shows you, either how high I was on him, or how low I was on some of the other guys in the farm system. The right hander has allowed three earned runs in his first three starts for 2012. The Valleycats have won eight straight games. Madness, but basically down to some insane pitching. Brady Rodgers, Juri Perez et al. are putting on a pitching clinic.

Delino DeShields continues his siege on 100 stolen bases, reaching 57 so far.

For all this good news, the major league team is sinking from a multitude of holes in the rear, from Bud Norris' exit to the DL, to his return, to Jose Altuve's absence, Wilton Lopez won't be back till the All-Star Break, and the only bright spark is Dallas Keuchel, who has only allowed three runs in his first 20 innings of duty, despite only eight strikeouts, compared to nine walks. Rather unusal to see a K/BB under 1, but we'll just roll with it for now.

And this is July now, so perhaps we are entering the endgame of Wandy Rodriguez and Brett Myers' respective careers in Houston. With Jose Bautista bullish over Toronto's chances Alex Anthopoulos is the sort of GM you'd figure to snag Rodriguez.