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 (64-51) went 6-2 this week.
- Teoscar Hernandez, OF: .241 BA (7-for-29), 2 R, 2 2B, RBI, 2 SB
- Tyler Heineman, C: .417 BA (10-for-24), 4 R, 2 2B, 3B, RBI
- Jon Kemmer, OF: .438 BA (14-for-32), 5 R, 2 2B, 3 HR, 7 RBI, 3 SB
- Danny Worth, SS: .382 BA (13-for-34), 5 R, 3 2B, RBI, SB
- Colin Moran, 3B: .281 BA (9-for-32), 5 R, 2B, 2 HR, 6 RBI
- Jon Singleton, 1B: .320 BA (8-for-25), 5 R, 2 2B, 2 HR, 5 RBI
- Mike Hauschild, RHP: 13.2 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 6 BB, 7 K
- Brady Rodgers, RHP: 7.0 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 5 K
- Jandel Gustave, RHP: 4.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
- Chris Cotton, LHP: 5.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
Teoscar had a bit of a down week but still nice to see the two doubles and two steals. He continues to make a push for a callup. Nice to see Heineman get it going. He has his average up to .278 now on the season. With Castro a free agent at the end of the season his progression will be important. Kemmer has been scorching hot. In 24 games since the All-Star break he is hitting .342 with 7 HR, 18 RBI. Moran has struggled a bit this season but seeing him hit 2 homers this week is nice. THird base is crowded right now but he still has a lot of potential with the bat. Singleton is still hanging around too. His walk and strikeout rates are identical to last season, just has a very low BABIP dragging him down.
Hauschild made to starts this week allowing just 1 earned run. He has now made 36 starts in AAA the last two season and has a 3.18 ERA with 60 BB/190 K in 215.1 innings. Rodgers tossed a shortened complete game picking up the win. If the Astros suffer another injury he is definitely on the list to come up. Gustave took over the closer role this week with Hoyt being promoted and responded well not allowing a hit in 4 innings.
AA: Corpus Christi Hooks (68-46) went 5-2 this week.
- Chase McDonald, DH: .263 BA (5-for-19), 3 R, 2B, HR, 3 RBI
- Mott Hyde, SS: .375 BA (9-for-24), 2 R, 2B, 2 RBI
- Ramon Laureano, OF: .259 BA (7-for-27), 5 R, 3 2B, HR, 2 RBI, SB
- Antonio Nunez, SS: .352 BA (6-for-17), 2 R, RBI
- Francis Martes, RHP: 13.1 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 19 K
- Evan Grills, LHP: 7.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 12 K
- Kent Emanuel, LHP: 5.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
- Cy Sneed, RHP: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 3 K
Good week for the Hooks. McDonald got off to a hot start but has struggled for the last couple months. Hopefully this will get him going. Hyde had a good 2015 hitting .304 with 40 2B in 124 games. This season started slow and he missed some time with injury but he has picked it up again this week. Laureano has had a great season and even though he only hit .259 this week, he still had four extra base hits and a stolen base. Small sample but he has a .978 OPS in 14 games with Corpus.
Martes is rolling right now. He has a 1.32 ERA with 4 BB/28 K in 20.1 innings over his last 3 starts. On the season he has a 3.53 ERA. Grills has had a semi breakout season. In 87.1 inning for Corpus he has a 3.97 ERA. He has showed great control only walking 20 in over 100 innings this season. Nice to see Sneed have a good outing. He started out the season great but hit a rough patch the last month or so.
A+: Lancaster Jethawks (63-50) went 4-3 this week.
- Yulieski Gurriel, DH: .429 BA (6-for-14), 2 R, 2 2B, HR, 9 RBI
- Johnny Sewald, OF: .409 BA (9-for-22), 9 R, 2B, HR, 2 RBI, SB
- Drew Ferguson, OF: .400 BA (10-for-25), 7 R, 2B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, SB
- Osvaldo Duarte, SS: .417 BA (10-for-24), 8 R, 2B, 3 HR, 7 RBI, 2 SB
- Aaron Mizell, OF: .400 BA (8-for-20), 6 R, HR, 2 RBI
- Brooks Marlow, 2B: .438 BA (7-for-16), 5 R, 2B, 2 HR, 8 RBI
- Rogelio Armenteros, RHP: 5.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 6 K
- Andrew Thome, RHP: 4.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
- Kevin McCanna, RHP: 5.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
- Scott Weathersby, RHP: 6.1 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K
- Ralph Garza, RHP: 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K
Gurriel’s stint in Lancaster is complete. He performed well though with the HR and 9 RBI. Should be with Corpus Tuesday. Sewald has been on fire recently. With another good week he is now hitting .311 with a .422 OBP in 59 games for Lancaster. Ferguson continues to fly under the radar. Ferguson is now hitting .295 with 21 2B, 11 HR, 55 RBI, 27 SB in 82 games this season. Duarte has showed off some power since his promotion hitting 5 HR in 14 games in High-A.
Armenteros had another solid outing and continues to lead the Astros minor league system in strikeouts. He has a 3.50 ERA in 79.2 innings for Lancaster. Hopefully he can join Corpus for their playoff run. Thome, McCanna, Garza, and Weathersby were all solid in relief this last week. The starting pitching wasn’t great but the bats made up for it.
A: Quad Cities Riverbandits (54-58) went 3-4 this week.
- Ryne Birk, 2B: .464 BA (13-for-28), 7 R, 5 2B, 3B, HR, 10 RBI, SB
- Myles Straw, OF: .353 BA (12-for-34), 6 R, 2 2B, 3B, 2 RBI, 2 SB
- Dexture McCall, 1B: .320 BA (8-for-25), 2 R, 3 2B, 6 RBI
- Kyle Tucker, OF: .414 BA (12-for-29), 5 R, 3 2B, 3B, 3 HR, 6 RBI
- Franklin Perez, RHP: 9.0 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 9 K
- Albert Abreu, RHP: 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 9 K
- Chris Murphy, RHP: 3.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
- Elieser Hernandez, RHP: 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K
- Framber Valdez, LHP: 6.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
Birk played a couple of those games with Tri-City. He has dominated since his promotion to Quad Cities hitting .444 with 8 RBI in just 4 games. Unfortunately he went on the 7 day DL recently. Straw is now up to .366 on the season in 65 games. Just continues to hit. McCall has turned into an RBI machine since the All-Star break with 26 RBI in 34 games since the break. Tucker has really started to show some power. He now has 18 2B, 6 HR. Wouldn’t mind seeing him end the season with Lancaster.
Perez’s week was somewhat thrown off by one bad outing. Overall he has still done very well for an 18 year old in full season ball. He now has 63 K in 58.2 innings with a 3.07 ERA. Abreu has had a great season too and with a good week he has lowered his ERA to 3.66 with 99 K in 86 innings. Hernandez bounced back well after getting roughed up last time out.
LINE OF THE WEEK:
Evan Grills, LHP, 08/03/16: 7.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 12 K (WIN)
Drew Ferguson, OF, 08/05/16: 3-for-5, 2 R, 2 HR, 6 RBI
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**Photo Credit: Richard Guill**
