Houston Astros Minor League Week In Review: 6/23 – 6/29

Houston Astros MiLB Week In Review

Most have probably realized by now that Enrique Hernandez is legit and is having a great season and could be making an impact with the Houston Astros sooner rather than later. He continued that success this week with some great numbers. If you didn’t catch it, here is an interview I did with Hernandez:

Astros Future Interview: Enrique “Kike” Hernandez

There were some other great performances this week as well. Here are the numbers.

AAA: Oklahoma City Redhawks (44-40) went 2-4 this week.

• Enrique Hernandez, 2B: .375 BA (9-24), 5 R, 3 2B, RBI

• Domingo Santana, OF: .385 BA (10-26), 5 R, 3 2B, 2 HR, 5 RBI

• Austin Wates, OF: .316 BA (6-19), R, 4 RBI

• Preston Tucker, OF: .304 BA (7-23), 2 R, HR, 5 RBI, SB

• Marc Krauss, 1B: .429 BA (9-21), 6 R, 3 2B, 2 HR, 5 RBI

• Nick Tropeano, RHP: 8.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 9 SO

• David Martinez, RHP: 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 SO

• Mike Foltynewicz, RHP: 5.0 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO

As I mentioned above Hernandez is having a great season. He is hitting .332 with 15 2B, 7 HR, 27 RBI in 66 games in AAA. Domingo Santana continues to impress in AAA. As a 21-year old he is hitting .301 with 22 2B, 13 HR, 51 RBI this season. It’s really nice to see Preston Tucker get on a hot streak. He has struggled in his limited time in AAA but did hit his first AAA homerun this week.

There weren’t many good pitching performances for OKC this week. Tropeano gave up 3 runs early and then settled in nicely. He has had a great season but without little fanfare. On the season he has a 2.38 ERA in 87 IP, 61 H, 22 BB/81 SO. Folty didn’t put up a great start but the strikeout numbers were nice. He has had a few bad outings in a row but hopefully he can get it going.

AA: Corpus Christi Hooks (38-43) went 2-3 this week.

• Tony Kemp, 2B: .304 BA (7-23), 5 R, 2B, 3B, RBI

• Andrew Aplin, OF: .363 BA (8-22), 3 R, 2B, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 2 SB

• Delino DeShields, CF: .316 BA (6-19), 5 R, 2 2B, 4 RBI, 5 SB

• Leonardo Heras, LF: .438 BA (7-16), 2 R, 3 2B, 6 RBI, 4 SB

• Thomas Shirley, LHP: 5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO

• David Rollins, LHP: 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO

• Luis Cruz, LHP: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO

• Kyle Smith, RHP: 3.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO

Tony Kemp made his debut with Corpus Christi this week and did pretty well. It’s nice seeing him get on base and scoring runs as CC really needed that. Delino has been slumping recently but put together a nice week. Seeing him hit a few XBH and steal bases is always a plus. He is now hitting .241 on the season with 30 SB in 57 games. Leo Heras really broke out too. He has still been walking but finally got the bat going this week. He is only hitting .228 but he has 7 2B, 5 3B, 3 HR, 30 BB/35 SO and 12 SB this season.

It seems every single week I put Thomas Shirley on this list but every week he is deserving. This is evident by his ERA which is 1.79 in 80.2 innings this season. I did an article on Rollins and Shirley this week and both performed great. Rollins has a 2.57 ERA with 10 BB/42 SO in 42 innings pitched. Although Smith gave up 3 runs he still has great strikeout and walk rates (50.2 IP, 11 BB, 58 SO) in AA.

A+: Lancaster Jethawks (48-33) went 2-5 this week.

• Conrad Gregor, 1B: .400 BA (12-30), 7 R, 5 2B, HR, 7 RBI

• Chan Moon, SS: .318 BA (7-22), 4 R, 2B, 2 HR, 6 RBI

• Rio Ruiz, 3B: .286 BA (8-28), 4 R, 2B, HR, 4 RBI

• Danry Vasquez, RF: .318 BA (7-22), 2 2B, 3B, 2 RBI

• Josh Hader, LHP: 5.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 SO

• Mark Appel, RHP: 5.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO

• Gonzalo Sanudo, RHP: 6.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO

Gregor has done nothing but hit since being promoted to Lancaster. He is hitting .391 with 11 2B, 6 HR, 27 RBI in 28 games for Lancaster. The move to promote Moon paid off immediately when he had 2 HR and 6 RBI in his 4th game with the team. Vasquez has slowly been moving his average up and now it is at .283 with 20 doubles.

Hader has been so impressive this season and I really think he is ready for AA. He has a 2.24 ERA in 76.1 IP and 82 SO this season as a 20 year old. Though Appel wasn’t dominant it was nice for him to have a good outing. The last 3 innings of that outing were great according to reports.

A: Quad Cities Riverbandits (40-39) went 4-3 this week.

• Jon Kemmer, OF: .500 BA (11-22), 4 R, 3 2B, 4 RBI, SB

• Brett Phillips, CF: .318 BA (7-22), 3 R, 2B, 4 RBI, 3 SB

• Ronnie Mitchell, OF: .363 BA (8-22), 2 R, 4 RBI, SB

• Christopher Lee, LHP: 5.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 SO

• Evan Grills, LHP: 4.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 SO

• Andrew Thurman, RHP: 5.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO

• Edison Frias, RHP: 5.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 SO

Jon Kemmer has quietly put together a good season for QC. He is hitting .311 with 15 2B, 4 HR, 17 RBI in 46 games. Brett Phillips is probably one of the more underrated prospects in our system. After another strong week he is hitting .305 with 12 2B, 10 3B, 4 HR, 37 RBI, 15 SB in 73 games.

Lee has a tough stretch but put together a nice start this week. Evan Grills has a 2.76 ERA in 71.2 IP this season. Though Andrew Thurman‘s ERA isn’t as low as we would like to see his peripherals (23 BB/66 SO in 67.2 IP) look pretty good.

A-: Tri-City Valleycats (10-7) went 4-3 this week.

• Bobby Boyd, OF: .407 BA (11-27), 5 R, 3 2B, RBI, 2 SB

• Mott Hyde, 2B: .300 BA (6-20), 2 R, 2 2B, 2 RBI

• Ariel Ovando, OF: .318 BA (7-22), 4 R, 2B

• Troy Scribner, RHP: 4.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO

• Brandon McNitt, RHP: 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 SO

• Blaine Sims, LHP: 5.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO