I have come across a few items about the Astros farm system that indicate a stark change in philosophy, especially in the development of pitchers.
FASTER PROMOTIONS?
Ed Wade was on KTRH in Houston, and he indicated that some of the young arms in Lexington will be called up to Lancaster soon. There was not an indication of when or how many, but it seems bold and un-Astro like to be bringing 19 and 20 year olds to high A baseball during their first full season.
NO PITCH COUNT?
In the Corpus paper, Luis Pujols, Corpus Christi's manager indicated that there are not strict pitch counts. Two Corpus pitchers threw complete games for the Hooks in the last week. They hadn't had a complete game since 2007.
0 recs | 5 comments
When Pujols said there are no pitch counts...
I wonder if that is an Astros’ policy dictated for all minor league teams, or if this is just the policy for the Hooks. The Hooks’ pitching staff isn’t really very young. I would be more concerned if pitch counts weren’t used on pitchers younger than 21. For instance, if the 18 and 19 year olds in the Lexington rotation were allowed to throw 120 pitches, I think that would be coaching malpractice. Given that the Lexington pitches seem to start for 5 – 7 innings, I don’t think that is happening.
Also, total innings pitched in a season is another measurement which may be equal to pitches/game in importance. For a young pitcher who has been allowed to go deep in games, it might be a good idea to shut them down early if their innings on the season substantially exceeds anything they have every done.
clack - May 13, 2009
it's about time
that the Stros strat shortening the learning curve for the young guns in A ball. as for the pitch count i don’t see a problem with a kid with good mechanics to throw 115-120 pitches if he uses his legs more than his arm.
Z-Dub - May 13, 2009
Ross Seaton
is a guy that was very highly touted coming out of the draft last summer (3rd round, supplemental pick) and is off to a nice start (1.51 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, 19/7 K/BB, 35.2 IP), after doing well last summer. Ross will turn 20 in September.
Jordan Lyles is another highly touted prospect from last year’s draft (1st round, supplemental pick), and although his ERA (4.11) and WHIP (1.27) aren’t as impressive in the early going, his 35/6 K/BB in 30.2 innings is pretty impressive. He won’t turn 19 until October.
Kyle Greenwalt is the only other name that jumps out at me, and he’s off to a nice start as well (2.38 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 21/6 K/BB, 34 IP). He repeated rookie ball, but bounced back to have a nice year last year between rookie ball and short-season A ball. Interesting if he’d be called up, cause his two roughest starts on the year were his last two. He was a 20th round pick in 07 and will turn 21 in September.
Robert Bono is a guy I’m not familiar with, but is having possibly the best start of the bunch (1.91 ERA, 1.12 WHIP). He’s tossed a CG in one of his 6 starts, has only walked 4 batters to 21 K’s in his 33 IP, and unlike the other three (who have multiple of each) hasn’t allowed a HR or hit a batter yet. He didn’t have much of a stellar year in Tri-City last year, but sometimes the numbers don’t always tell the story of player development, especially with pitchers. He was an 11th round pick in 2007 and will turn 21 in December.
Looks like there is some solid pitching so far this year on that club. Hopefully in the next few years (or sooner), some of those guys will blossom into major league ballplayers. Each of them only have 6 starts, though, so bumping up a level at this point would be a bit aggressive, but if they see a guy’s “got it”, you might as well move him along. We’ll see.
littlevisigoth - May 13, 2009
BTW
this was all just observations from looking at numbers. i didn’t read the blog post below until after i wrote this, but am glad to see my assessment from the numbers is backed by direct perspective from the manager.
littlevisigoth - May 13, 2009
Baseball America Blog Post
on the Legends rotation (found this link from another fan site).
link
littlevisigoth - May 13, 2009
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