What? Not Wandy Again? T-Buck? Zeke?
AAA: Round Rock 7, Salt Lake 2 - Jason Hirsh pitched a pair of hitless innings before being pulled in anticipation of his first major-league start on Saturday against the Padres. Mark McLemore followed with four one-hit innings of relief to earn the win. JR House led the way again, 2-5 with a pair of RBIC and Cody Ransom socked his 18th home run. Eric Bruntlett, who apparently was considered more of a major-league player than Ben Zobrist, is now 2-14 since being demoted to Triple-A.AA: Tulsa 5, Corpus Christi 4: Josh Anderson (this week's feature on MILB.com) was 3-5, and Hunter Pence and Walter Young each homered, but it was not enough to sustain the Hooks' recent winning streak, as Pence struck out with the bases loaded in the ninth inning.
High A: Lynchburg 4, Salem 3 - Frankie Caraballo's 2-run homer in the bottom of the ninth left the Avalanche a run short at home. Tip Fairchild had another strong start for Salem.
Low A: Lexington 4, Columbus 1 - The Legends' return to Applebee's Park was marked by a rare win. Nice start by Ryan McKeller, and Sam Gervacio continues to thrive in the closer's role (2.15 ERA, 10 saves, 71 IP, 45 H, 79 K). Eli Iorg continued to pleasure Lexington fans with a two-run triple. Koby Clemens made a pair of errors at the hot corner, giving him 15 in 68 games.
Short Season A: Tri-City 4, Oneonta 3 - Tri-City opened up a 3.5 game lead over Oneonta. Chris Salamida was the big story, pushing his record to 6-1 with five effective innings.
Rookie: Greenville and Bristol were rained out.
Zobrist/Talbot Watch: Ben Zobrist had another nice game for the Devil Rays in Seattle, going 1-3 with a walk against Felix Hernandez. He stole one base, was caught stealing once and made his first defensive error. He also made a sparkling play in the field gunning out Yuniesky Betancourt on a slow roller in the third base hole. The walk was a particularly impressive at-bat, going down 0-2 to King Felix and working his way back to a full count, fouling off a couple of nasty pitches and then earning a free pass, which lead to the Rays' first run.
Mitch Talbot was superb for the Biscuits (7 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 11 K). Not bad for a "throw-in".
Aubrey Huff was benched against LHP Paul Maholm.
posted by Scott | 9:20 AM
6 Comments:
zobrist/talbot aren't coming back, let em go man! purpura isn't hunsicker, as we're finding out with each crucial decision, but trades happen some bad some good. why not put a jeriome robertson trade watch up, cause that one is going pretty well imo. there's way better talent that weve lost over the years than these guys (yes im looking at you shillinsantanabreaugarcia)
Getting 10 W's (including 4 CG SHO) down the stretch from the Unit in '98 justified the price paid (Garcia, Guillen and Halama).
Getting two months of Aubrey Huff barely made sense in and of itself simply because he did not fit a 'need' position, though the Astros had a handful of them. Paying the price of Zobrist and Talbot for him poured antifreeze in the open wound.
I agree that Johnson helped enormously, but he could just have easily performed terribly and not been worth it. The potential for him to do what he did is why we grabbed him, same thing with huff. he's traditionally a great hitter who puts up numbers that would make him out second best hitter behind berkman and he's a second half player. He's is not performing up to what we had hoped for so far yet the price we paid for him was not that high (2 AA players who would never see the light of day on our roster) In evaluating the trade I agree with all the sites that say the trade was even and perhaps a little in the astros favor.
Now looking back, the johnson trade was good during the season but ultimately meaningless since our season ended to the possesed-by-cy-young kevin brown. Freddy Garcia's and Carlos Guillen's careers as astros would be far most effective that one early exit from the playoffs with Johnson, yet that trade is largely considered to be a success.
Our need position was positionless, just plain offense was needed and huff provided the potential t bring that missing piece to the table. He hasn't been a Beltran yet but he still has the potential to be a part of a wild card surge. Lopsided trades can be found all over the place in hind sight, just ask the proud recipient of Jeriome [and 2/3 of tonights astros starting outfield;)]
I think your insight and passion for the astros is amazing and I find your site very informative and full of well informed opinions (such as the hirsh bizarreness), I just don't agree with the concept behind the 'huff trade' watch. Keep up the good work ;)
Them's fightin' words, Anonymous. Scott will meet you in the Minute Maid Park players' parking lot tomorrow night at 11 p.m. Two men enter, one man leaves. I'll be the guy in the chaise lounge giggling uncontrollably.
Well apparently Huff didn't need anyone to defend the trade today, what a performance! He's one off from the Astros team record for rbi's in a game with 6 as I type this!
I wish I could go to MMP :( I moved to LA last year and missed being at home for the World Series run, after attending every playoff game since 1997! Just bad luck eh? I'll finally have to go register here I guess...didn't think I'd end up being a regular, but the quality of analysis throughout the farm system has me hooked ;)
Thought you guys might like this, it's a perfect treat for any Astros fan:
http://www.astrosdaily.com/media/
Thanks for the comments. Adam Everett is one of the three or four worst position players in baseball in terms of offensive production. Ben Zobrist is an excellent offensive prospect and was a steady, though not spectacular SS. He is already getting rave reviews for his daily approach and plate discipline in TB, and after an 0-10 start, he has been outstanding at the plate. He should have been called up, at the latest, when Bruntlett got his 10 days stint at SS.
We'll agree to disagree about Huff. He has had a great night tonight, but I think that you are quite wrong about Talbot and Zobrist; not only would they eventually 'see the light of day' on the Astros roster, Zobrist should have been there already.
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