Deshields and Springer weren’t, as they say, ready for the Show.
Deshields appeared in 10 of 16 games, went 4 fer 12 with a double, a walk, 2 SB, 1 CS, 8 runs scored. He played second base, played 21 innings, made no errors (HEY LOOK, NO ERRORS IMAGINE THAT!!!!). He’s 20, had an .839 OPS over 111 games at A ball, and dropped when he hit High A Lancaster to .718 OPS over 24 games. I think he’s going to AA instead of Hitters’ Heaven, but we’ll see. I’m guessing he’s got 2 more years in the minors, but Altuve will still be here, that is, I think he will, depending on how cheap Crane is, so if Deshields has a better power bat, I’d guess Altuve will be traded for the younger and cheaper. But that is getting ahead of myself because all KINDS of guys killed A ball and crapped out by AAA. Altuve was in the bigs to stay by age 21.
George Springer, age 23, killed the ball in ST this year. 4 fer 12 with 2 walks, 2 homers, 6 runs, 1 SB over 8 games played. Yeah, that’s a 1.300 OPS but it is 12 PA, too. He played 32 innings, had 1 error (which allowed runs to score). Last year, He faschmozzled that ball at Lancaster. He killed it. He slayed it. He knocked it OUT. Of course, he kind of had the usual decrease in hitting that happens with a move to AA at the end of the A ball season, so he’ll be starting the year there. He’s not Berkman, who by the way, moideded the ball at AAA at age 22 and really SHOULD have been a ML regular at age 22, but the club was already obsessed with veteran goodness, so his “rookie” year was 2000, 2 years later. Anyway, George is a prospect and has a chance of eventually being a big leaguer at age 25 or so. Which is better than most.
Jake Goebbert, age 25. Otherwise known as major league filler. A career Astro, I thought he had had a chance to go somewhere after hitting decently, but without much power in 2011 and then being sent to the AFL, but he was demoted to AA so the club could stash all their crappy AAAA guys at AAA, and he didn’t get back to AAA until the stash was diminished enough to give him a slot. Of course he had zero chance at the ML roster, appeared in 8 games, 6 AB, went 1 fer 6 with a double, 1 walk, 1 HBP, 1 run scored. He played 11 innings in the OF, no errors. He’s gonna be a bouncer again, because that is what roster filler does.
Marc Krauss, age 25, is one of the guys we got for Chris Johnson (who has a .896 OPS over 34 PA so far) last year from Arizona. Krauss spent most of last year at AA, repeating the level, and he destroyed the ball at Corpos and was promoted to AAA, where he didn’t do so good. So he’s goin back. He hit the ball very well this ST, going 4 fer 12 with a homer, 3 BB, 5 K, 6 RBI and 2 runs scored. He didn’t get much chance in the OF, 3 innings, but at least he didn’t make an error. Of course he’s going to AAA. A lot of OF are going to AAA, seems like. Poor Goebbert.
Chris Wallace, homie, gonna be 25. Ended the year at AAA, where he did fine for a catcher, .270/.357/.351 over 42 PA. This spring, he started 1 game, a disaster with glove and bat, went ofer 4 with a walk and an RBI. Not that he had a chance. I hope he does well at AAA – sure would like to see him succeed. Another Original Astro, like Goebbert.
They had to send down a couple of pitchers, too. Jeezus, how, of all the gawdawful pitchers, do you decide who to keep? Besides looking at options, that is? It’s hard to put into words, without using Bad Words, exactly how dreadful the pitching has been. Of course, the terrible fielding has not exactly helped neither. But I digress…
Down went LH SP Rudy Owens, age 25, one of the guys we got for Wandy. age 34. OMG. Age 34. How did that happen? When I started this blog back in The First Year Of Da Rojah, Wandy was a promising lefty at AAA. Where DOES the time go?
where was I?
oh yeah.
Rudy pitched 3 innings in relief over 3 games giving up 9 hits, 3 walks and 5 runs. Only 2 were earned, and some of those hits happened because he had lead foot lead gloves for fielders/catchers. He’s going back for a 3rd year at AAA. The problem with Rudy is that he is a pitch to contact guy with a very low walk and kind of low (6.0 K/9) strikeout rate. And if you got fielders who stink, you are gonna give up too many hits. And a lot of those fielders who are being kept for their bats are teh sukc with gloves, so in this Organization, if you are not a big time K pitcher, you’re gonna have a higher WHIP/RA number.
And down went Sam Demel, RH RP, age 27, who was taken off waivers from the Dbax at the end of the 2012 season. Sam had, well, I can’t say bad, can’t say horrible, because it’s worse than horrible, Spring Training. You got a bad heart, don’t read the rest of this. 2.1 IP over 5 games, 21 batters faced. 10 hits, 4 walks, 4 HR, 11 ER. He’s thrown a total of 138 innings over 4 years (looks as if he was hurt most of 2010/2011) with an ERA of 3.46, WHIP 1.28 and a K rate of 9.5/9 IP. I’m sure that if he manages to make the AAA roster that he’ll be up and down all year, depending on the health and success of the other crappy relievers they have.
Part 2 of Nolan Ryan comin up soon, I swear.
Tags: Houston Astros
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130312&content_id=42645762&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb
I watched Wandy Rodriguez pitch in the WBC last night. *tear* He’ll always be one of my favorite Astros.
How has Harrell pitched in spring training ? I haven’t heard much about him.
Hey Lisa, do you have an e-mail that I can reach you at? I would like to do a podcast with you.
Sending Cosart back to OKC, is the best thing that could happen to this guy.
He thinks he’s a lot better than he really IS. This kid needs to bring a more humble
attitude to the mound if he ever wants to make it in the bigs. Becky
Reminds a little of Brandon Backe, whom Lisa referred to as a RA, if I recall correctly.
Meanwhile, the puzzle about our next spring training location (once Drayton’s contract runs out) remains on my mind. Can’t decide if they will 1) cut facility costs by sharing with two other teams (not bad if you re-deploy the profits towards ML level players), 2) cut travels costs (ie Woodlands vs. OKC) (not bad if you re-deploy the profits towards ML-level players), or 3) just move closer to the golf course. Or, how about all three? DING – DING – DING!!
PS If Pena goes to the Yankees and Norris gets traded, I’m thinking the team on the field may set a record low pay-roll for players actually on the team.
Pena can *NOT* be traded before June 15th. that’s in his contract, and he has to approve the trade. The best trade would be for Norris, Wallace and Wright………..
for a BIG haul. I wouldn’t trade just Norris, by lumping Wallace and Wright in the mix, you get a LOT more. Becky
Gosh, I feel I’ve been so hard on the poor man!
“It doesn’t bother me that people want us to spend more money,” Crane said. “But it’s not their money. This is a private company, even though it’s got a public flair to it. If they want to write a check for 10 million bucks, they can give me a call.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324532004578358762117791922.html
2004 AA Round Rock highlights – Wandy, Willy Taveras, and Ezequiel Astacio.
becky
a ballplayer gets too umble, they think he doesn’t have The Competetive Fire and he won’t go anywhere. especially when he isn’t a Designated Ace. he’s gotta do it like bud norris did. cosart NEEDS more AAA innings, his stuff isn’t major league.
i wouldn’t be even a tiny bit surprised if elo-cheapo crane decides to move the team to another place to share costs. i also wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to move the AAA team closer by – free stadium, rich people eager to spend money, less $$$ on flights to houston…
bruce
it simply is freaking unbelieveable that crane can say absolutely ANYTHING like that – as well as pretend he is not making any money this year, when he is easily clearing 30 mill profit, and the media completely ignores it. he’s worse than loria. trouble is that the media ignores houston altogether.
seems like yesterday i was sure wandy would make the majors as a solid ML pitcher, and that astacio would suck. wandy actually owes phil garner, who was VERY sure that wandy was gonna be a solid ML pitcher, even when 05 didn’t go quiiiiite as planned.
it’s interesting about young players – sometimes they start off shaky, and need some ML seasoning andthen they take off after being given a real chance – see wandy with phil, see michael bourn with ed wade (made the manager play him). sometimes, guys get a few bad pinch hit ABs or a few bad relief innings against the meat of a ML lineup in high leverage situations, and that’s the end of the line
You are a good talent scout.