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John Sickels: Houston Astros Top 20 Prospects

By Yoni Pollak

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February time is the next wave of several prospects lists that are published. We already had Baseball America and Chris Crawford publish their top Astros prospects lists and we’ll be posting several more as they are published over the next month.

John Sickels is the “prospect guru” over at SBNation’s Minor League Ball. He posted his top 20 prospects list earlier last week. He’s usually a bit different than the other evaluators, taking stronger stances on some prospects while being not so high on other top prospects.

Note: Will only take a sentence for each prospect. For Sickels’ complete thoughts, click here.

Previous Lists:
FanGraphs Top 10 List
Baseball America Top 10 List
Chris Crawford Top 15 List

Top 20 Prospects

1. Carlos Correa – Grade: A

"Perhaps the top position player prospect in all of baseball, a multi-tooled, multi-skilled shortstop with excellent makeup who can hit for average, hit for power, steal bases, and play sound defense."

2. Mark Appel – Grade: B+

"Performance does not always match the stuff but he seems like he can be a fine number three starter."

3. Michael Feliz – Grade: B+/Borderline B

"Aggressive grade but this is an arm I believe in, Midwest League observers very positive about current stuff (up to 96, plus breaking ball) and projection for more."

4. Vincent Velasquez – Grade: B/Borderline B+

"Plus fastball, plus change-up, breaking stuff has potential, excellent dominance ratios."

5. Domingo Santana – Grade: B

"Loads of potential, continues to hit well against older competition but contact issues were glaringly apparent in short major league trial."

6. Brett Phillips – Grade: B

"Fine overall athlete who does a lot of things well, future power development is uncertain but he’s not punchless."

7. Josh Hader – Grade: B

"Everyone praises live body and 90+ fastball, reports vary on his curve and change."

8. Lance McCullers – Grade: B/Borderline B-

"More dominant in relief outings and some see him as a closer, but I think I would let him start a while longer to see if he can make that work."

9. Derek Fisher – Grade: B/Borderline B-

"Across-the-board tools, should eventually show more power to go with batting average and running skills, possibly one of the steals of the ’14 draft."

10. Teoscar Hernandez – Grade: B-/Borderline B

"Tools are all good or better, similar issues to Santana but with more speed and less power."

11. Colin Moran – Grade: B-/Borderline B

"Defense is better than expected but reports on his overall package have taken a downward tick since college."

12. Tony Kemp – Grade: B-/Borderline B

"Not sure how he fits in Houston but he’s been excellent so far and has lived up to what he did at Vanderbilt."

13. J.D. Davis – Grade: B-

"Can hit for power and average, needs more defensive polish but tools should work there, could end up being a better player than many drafted in the first two rounds."

14. A.J. Reed – Grade: B-

"Impressive power, will have to see about contact, nice trio of advanced college hitters with Fisher and Davis."

15. Conrad Gregor – Grade: B-/Borderline C+

"Fine glove, not as much home run power as Reed, will have to prove he can show sufficient pop against advanced pitching."

16. Nolan Fontana – Grade: C+

"Marginal tools with spectacular feel for the game, good defense, excellent eye for getting on base."

17. Max Stassi – Grade: C+

"Fundamentally sound defensive catcher although injuries have lessened his tools and overall impact."

18. Danry Vasquez – Grade: C+

"Pretty swing, makes contact, doesn’t strike out much, young. Still interesting."

19. Preston Tucker – Grade: C+

"Not toolsy but has always hit for solid power, could be valuable role bat."

20. Kyle Smith – Grade: C+

"Stuff is average/fringy but advanced pitchability and strong makeup give him a chance to exceed physical expectations."

My Thoughts

More from Houston Astros

  • Big fan of this list. Really like the aggressive ranking of putting Feliz at 3.
  • Obviously the trades of Michael Foltynewicz, Rio Ruiz, and Andrew Thurman pushed some prospects higher.
  • I personally would probably have taken Vasquez out at #18 and put Asher Wojciechowski there. He should be battling it out for the #5 spot.
  • After #20 the Astros really have about 5-10 players that would likely make many other teams’ top 20 prospects lists.

Again, I really do like this list and it would probably look very similar to my own list.

Stick with House of Houston as we will continue to breakdown several other lists as they continue to be posted from all around.

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