Astros Future Player of the Week: Yordan Alvarez
It is well known that the Houston Astros have a ton of talent at every level. It seems that when a player gets called up, another one rises and fills the void quickly. That is certainly a great problem to have for an organization. A reward so to speak for some years of struggling. This week it was Yordan Alvarez who stood out above the rest. The 19-year old from Cuba went 10-for-21 this week with three home runs and 11 RBI, and has been named the Astros Future Player of the Week.
Alvarez was originally signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers last season. Houston acquired him in a trade that would send Josh Fields to the Dodgers. He rewarded Houston instantly as a member of their DSL squad hitting in his first six games. He’d end up with a hitting line of .341/.474/.500, and had 15 hits in 16 games.
This season the Astros assigned him to Quad Cities and he picked up where he left off. After going hitless in his first game, he rattled off a little 7-game hitting streak. Once that ended he responded with a 12-game hitting streak that was just snapped Thursday night. Not only was the number of games impressive, but he had recorded two hits in each of his last five games prior to Thursday. Still not impressed? Alvarez has recorded at least one hit in 19 of his 22 games he’s played in this season. He is currently batting .397 with an OPS of 1.156.
Alvarez has seen time at first base as well as left field. He has also spent time as the DH for Quad Cities just to keep his bat in the lineup. Houston has done such a great job in recent years developing their talent, so it’s not very clear what the rest of the season has in store for Alvarez. One thing for sure is that if his production continues he will move swiftly through the system.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
One thing I have always worried about is how a player responds after I choose them for the weekly honors. My past has shown that they slide a little the following week, and I hate to think that I had something to do with it. Proving this theory wrong was Derek Fisher. After tearing it up last week enroute to being named PotW, Fisher responded with another good week making me feel some relief. He went 9-for-27 (.333) with two more home runs (16 on the year) and six more RBI (43 on the year) for Fresno, who had a good week too going 5-2 and clawing (no pun intended) their way up the standings.
Buies Creek’s Myles Straw went 11-for-26 (.423) with a double, two triples, and four driven in. He’s hitting .305 on the season and has hit in five of his last six games.
J.D. Davis and Kyle Smith had very good weeks for the Corpus Christi Hooks. Davis, a former player of the week winner, went 9-for-25 (.360) with two doubles and four home runs. He also drove in eight. Smith made one start this week and went five innings without allowing a hit. He struck out four and picked up the win for the Hooks.
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**Photo Credit: Richard Guill**
