Astros Future Player of the Week: Alejandro Garcia
It’s that time again to choose the Astros Future Player of the Week. What would have made this much easier, is if one player stood out above all the rest. Instead, there were about five or six that produced enough this week to take the award. After much debating back and forth with myself and a little with Astros Future owner Jimmy Price, it was decided that Alejandro Garcia will take home the hardware as Astros Future Player of the Week.
Garcia, 25, had an outstanding week for the Corpus Christi Hooks. The outfielder went 13-for-26, scoring five runs, with two doubles, two home runs, while driving in eight runs. If that wasn’t enough he also stole a base and only struck out three times. I suppose with a week like Garcia had it’s easy to raise your batting average this early on, but now Alejandro is batting a very respectable .315. He hit safely in all of the games he played this week, and also had three three-hit nights. Another streak he had this week was scoring a run in each of his last four games.
After signing a minor league contract with the Houston Astros in 2015, Garcia has made his way nicely through the system. In his first professional year, he spent his time playing for the Astros Dominican Summer League team. In 2016, Alejandro made it all the way to Triple-A Fresno appearing in 17 games for the Grizzlies. He hit .393 playing in the minor leagues highest level. After a relatively mediocre fall league in Arizona, the Astros assigned him to the Corpus Christi Hooks. Garcia is putting together a nice little 2017 and could find himself moving up again at some point this season.
Corpus Christi has won five out of their last six games, and has three more this weekend against the Frisco Rough Riders before returning home next week. With the win on Thursday the Hooks record improved to 9-4 which puts them in first place in the Texas Leagues South Division.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
This week isn’t really any different than any other week with a log jam at the top for Astros Future weekly reward. A case could have been made for several players to take the award home. Kyle Tucker who is playing for the Buies Creek Astros had a tremendous start to the week, with a little dry spell in the middle, before finishing up strong. He went 9-for-29 (.310) hitting the weekly cycle with three doubles, a triple, and two home runs. His 12 RBI was the most in the organization including a 7-RBI game earlier in the week. Tucker is another player that could be seen making his way through the system at a decent clip.
Drew Ferguson and his 10-for-26 week was also considered for the weekly award. He drove in five runs this week but also scored a staggering 10 runs of his own.
Another player that had a 10-hit week was Quad Cities Alex DeGoti. DeGoti finished the week hitting .434 and belted two home runs in one game. He hit two all of last season so you can be sure that he will be breaking his own career high in that category when the season ends.
Entering the discussion literally minutes before this was written was third baseman J.D. Davis. Davis hit .400 this week (like so many other players in the organization), but it was his eventual game winning home run on Thursday that put him closer to the top of consideration. Overall he went 10-for-25 with six runs scored, two doubles, three home runs, and seven driven in. He also walked five times too.
What about pitchers? There weren’t too many that stood out, but there were two that really caught my eye.
Ryan Deemes and Franklin Perez both had really good weeks on the bump playing for the Buies Creek Astros. Deemes recorded a win and two saves this week with three innings pitched. He didn’t allow a run and he struck out six. Perez picked up a win and a save this week. He pitched nine innings giving up just two hits with nine strikeouts.
THIS WEEKS TEAM RECORDS
Fresno Grizzlies 1-5 (Thursday night’s game was complete at time of article)
Corpus Christi Hooks 5-1
Buis Creek Astros 5-2
Quad Cities River Bandits 5-1
OVERALL 16-9
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**Photo Credit: Tammy Tucker**
