Houston Astros Minor League Recap: April 21st
By Mac Wolff
While you finish cleaning out all the plastic eggs you claim, “weren’t only for the children!”, check out how things went down on the farm.
On a day where the Astros held their own version of the Purple Wedding for King Felix, the four minor league squads went 2-2 in a not particularly flashy fashion.
The Lancaster Jethawks receive a lot of attention for the star power that complies it’s tandem rotations but don’t go sleeping on what the Hooks bring to the table. They possess what seem to be the two best lefties in the system with Thomas Shirley and Luis Cruz. Brady Rodgers and Aaron West have also had very good seasons and Rodgers’ continued his tonight.
Sticking with the Hooks, Chris Blake, one of their beat writers put together the All-Hooks team to commorate the start of their 10th season. Some successes like Altuve and Chris Johnson, and Ben Zobrist are followed up by drop outs like Josh Anderson and Drew Locke. It’s a fun read.
Triple-A Oklahoma City Redhawks (11-8), Loss 4-7
The Redhawks faced off against super prospect Oscar Taveras and the Redbirds in Memphis. Nick Tropeano and Kevin Chapman put together 6 innings of 3 run ball that left it tied at 3 going into the 7th. Zeid and Stoffel blew the lead giving up 2 runs each in their respective innings. Max Stassi hit his 5th HR and continues to prove that his power surge last year wasn’t actually a fluke. Grossman also continued to get his head right by clobbering his first homer as a Redhawk.
30 year old journeyman, Gregorio Petit, is manning the 3 hole, so I’m guessing they miss Springer a bit.
SS Gregorio Petit – 2/4, K
C Max Stassi – 1/3, HR(5), K
3B Jonathan Meyer – 0/3 now sitting at .191 BA on the year
OF Robbie Grossman – 1/4, HR(1)
SP Nick Tropeano – 4IP, 6H, 3ER, 2BB, 3K
RP Kevin Chapman – 2IP, 1H, 1BB, 3K
RP Josh Zeid – 1IP, 4H, 2ER
Double A – Corpus Christi Hooks (10-7) Win 5-2
The Hooks picked up 5 unearned runs in the 3rd including Preston Tucker‘s 4th homer and that was all they needed as Brady Rodgers and company shut Midland down.
3B Joe Sclafani – 2/4
OF Preston Tucker – 1/4, HR(4), K OPS of .937
Brady Rodgers – 5IP, 5H, 1ER, 4K 1.61 ERA in 22.1 innings pitched
Jorge De Leon – 1.2IP, 1H, 1K
High A – Lancaster Jethawks (12-6) Win 9-4
One of the most exciting tandems in the system continued their dominance and the offense blows it out big in the 9th inning to steal one from Inland Empire. I wonder if Luhnow is just trying to defy physics by putting so much great pitching in Lancaster that it turns into a pitchers park. Kyle Smith and Lance McCullers went tonight and were very good again. Although those six runs in the ninth helped quite a bit as the Jethawks were down 4-3 heading into the final frame but proceeded to collect 3 triples, a double, a home run and single from Correa to complete the inning cycle.
2B Tony Kemp – 3/5, 2B, 3B, K AN OPS OF 1.006! In 72 ABs.
SS Carlos Correa – 2/4, BB, K
OF Danry Vasquez – 2/4, 2B, BB
OF Teoscar Hernandez – 1/5, 3B (6), BB, 3K
OF Dan Gulbranson – 2/4, HR(1), K
Single A – Quad Cities River Bandits (7-10) Loss 6-7
The Bandits couldn’t ever stop the bleeding regardless of how many runs their offense was able to string together. Michael Feliz continues his disappointing start to full season ball but the bats did wake up a bit.
1B Conrad Gregor – 3/5, 2B
LF Brett Philips – 3/5, K
OF Tanner Mathis – 2/5, 2B
OF James Ramsay – 2/4, BB, 3B, SB (7)
Evan Grills – 5IP, 4H, 3ER, 4K, 1HR
Michael Feliz – .2IP, 2H, 2ER, 2BB 5.59 ERA so far, but just under 10 innings.