Late Wednesday night the Astros sent out their invites to big-league spring training to their minor leaguers. No surprise, top prospect Jordan Lyles is among them. Brian McTaggart first had the names for MLB.com.
In addition to Lyles, J.D. Martinez, an outfielder who hit .362 in A ball as a 23-year-old last year, and won the Astros Minor League Player Of The Year award, will be on deck. One other name of interest is Roger Clemens’ son Koby, who showed some pop and patience for Corpus Christi last season. Despite struggling mightily in single A last year, Jiovanni Mier will also get a look-see.
The others who will be coming are pitcher Patrick Urckfitz, catcher Rene Garcia, and outfielders Jon Gaston, Drew Locke, J.B. Shuck, and T.J. Steele. As most of the Astros best prospects are younger, it’s a pretty sad crew as far as potential big leaguers out of the gate go. The only player with a real chance to break camp with the team is Lyles, who went to the Futures Game last season and wound up with a 3.12 ERA for Corpus Christi before getting shelled in a cup of coffee for Round Rock.