Astros Place Four Prospects on Baseball America’s Top 100 List
The season of “prospecting” continues as Baseball America released their top 100 prospects. Here are the Astros on the list.
#10 Forrest Whitley
Whitley has seen an astronomical rise, pun intended, over the last year and a half. After striking out 26 in 18.2 innings in 2016, he put together a dominant 2017 season. He started the year in Low-A and progressed all the way to Double-A. Overall he had a 2.83 ERA with 143 K in 92.1 innings.
#15 Kyle Tucker
Like Whitley, Tucker continues to rise as well. Tucker ranked #16 going into 2017 and moves up one spot to 15 this year. Tucker showed off his power last year hitting .288 with .554 SLG and 9 HR in Buies Creek before being promoted to Corpus. He finished the season there with another 14 HR giving him a combined 33 2B and 25 HR in 120 games as a 20 year old.
#62 Yordan Alvarez
Alvarez was acquired from the Dodgers in the deal that sent Fields to LA. In his first full season he showed off what he is capable of with the bat hitting .304 with .859 OPS and 12 HR in 90 games. Alvarez has huge raw power that hasn’t fully translated yet but should start to show this year.
#76 J.B. Bukauskas
Bukauskas was the Astros first round pick this year (15th overall). He had a good college career with his mid 90s fastball and devastating slider. He only pitched 10 innings in the minors this year as the Astros are being sure not to rush him. Some see him as a reliever but either way, he has a good pitch mix that should get him to Houston at some point.
Here is a link to Baseball America’s top 100 list.
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**Photo Credit: Tammy Tucker**
