Recap of the Astro's Top 20 Prospects Plus Some I Find Interesting

[Big T]

It was a very successful year for the Astros farm teams and players last season. So It thought I would have a little fun and go back over what the players were able to do during the season. I'm going to do five at a time.

1) Carlos Correa: At the very beginning of the season Carlos was struggling mightily make me question if the guy was possibly being advanced to fast. Here he is just 18 years old and playing in low A ball. Then he took off and never looked back. He finished the season with 117 games played and 450 at bats and a BA of .320. To say the least, Carlos exceeded everyone's expectations and made the move to draft him over Buxton seem a very good one despite Buxton having a very good year as well. The one thing lacking for Carlos was the Homerun ball. He only hit 9 of them. According to the scouts his power will develop and he will become a 25-30 HR type of guy. But despite the lack of homeruns, he managed 33 doubles and 3 triples so he showed plenty of gap power. We could very well be seeing Carlos in the Bigs as soon as 2015 but probably not till 2016.

2) Jonathan Singleton: To say the least, this was a very disappointing season for Jonathan. Banned for the first 50 games and when he was eligible to play he just never seemed to be able to get his swing right. He played at Quad Cities, Corpus Christy, and OKC doing progressively worse at each level. He has 110 K's to just 59 walks in 90 games 304 AB's. He struck out 1 out of every three times he went to bat. His power was down, his RBI's were down, and his OBP was down, but t could all have a direct correlation o his suspension. He also gained several pounds and many are wondering if that is what affected his numbers. To say the least, he needs to come out next season and put up the kind of numbers he had been able to do in the past or we maybe looking at a kid who going to be a bust.

3) George Springer: What an amazing year it was for George. The one question that has always and will always be asked abut him is if he can cut down on his amount of K's. He still struck out 161 times last season in 135 games and 492 AB's which is a high number, but surprisingly his K ratio decreased when he made the move from AA to AAA and his his BA, HR, RBI, OBP, and SLG all increased. He is 24 years old and it's time to see what he can do in the Bigs. He will get his shot in Spring Training. He is the prospect I am most excited about in the Astros system right now.

4) Mark Appel: Did not have as good of a season in his first year as I would have wanted him to, but to be fair it was not a bad season. He had just pitched for the Stanford Cardinal before he was drafted and then he pitched in the minors so his arm had to of been tired from not being used to the heavy workload. His K/BB ratio was 3 to 1 and while his BAA was higher than I wanted, we have no Idea if he was instructed to just throw a certain pitch to work on some things or if his stuff flattened out a little from arm fatigue but either way I'm not concerned about him. There is a reason the Astros Drafted him number one over all and that's because the guy is a undeniable talent who will be pitching in the Bigs some day and that could be sooner rather than latter.

5)Lance McCullers: He has a higher ceiling than Mark Appel but he is also a higher risk player. He had an amazing season last year at Quad Cities throwing 104.3 innings. Oh and you need to remember.... this guy just turned 20 years old in October!! He averaged more than a K per inning and had around a 3 to 1 K/BB ratio. Rarely did he pitch past the sixth inning and his didn't pitch past the fifth inning quite a few time. Not really sure if this had to do with the piggyback system the Astros had going or if he needs to increase his stamina, or if the Astros were just being careful with such a young arm. Still the guy had a great season and I hope to see him in high A ball next season.

[eagle eye]

1. Correa is an exciting prospect and it will be interesting to see his progress. Will he move up to A ball past the Low A he played this season? Probably. Can he or should he move up to AA? Only his play and the judgement of the coaches matters here. The kid will be 19 next year and if you think about that it's pretty amazing what he is doing at such a young age against older and more mature players. As for his gap power what that tells me is he is driving the ball. I'll take that all day long and the scouts are right, the power numbers will go up. By the time Houston is ready to elevate Correa to the big club the Astros should be pretty good already. He will make them better.

2.My problem with the Astros is just what is wrong with Singleton--plate discipline. I don't mind if a guy is aggressive at the plate but it's a proven fact that if you are selective at the plate and not the type of player who chases bad pitches then that player will see better pitches to hit. Taking walks not only gets you on base but it puts added pressure on a pitcher. If Singleton keeps going he will end up being Chris Carter. We already have one of those, we don't need another.

3. You can forgive some free swinging if you get some quality production and Springer is the anti-Singleton in terms of his value as a hitter. I'm sure that Houston is stressing being selective and the increase in his hitting stats at AAA might be as simple as the OKC coaches are able to connect with him better than the Corpus Christi coaches did. It bees that way sometimes. A lot of us are excited to see what Springer can do at the next level but I won't be disappointed if they keep him at AAA in 2014. I don't want to see a player rushed into situations he's not ready for and the Astros have been really good about being patient with prospects.

4. Let's wait and see what happens with Appel this off season. Again, Houston shut him down early this year for just the reasons Big T mentioned. They are being cautious in his development and they don't want a one-year wonder like Kerry Wood. I know Wood had an okay career but he fizzled too soon and it may well have been from overuse early on. I'm not sure if the way Washington has handled Stephen Strasburg but I can see they recognize they want him for the long haul and not a quick fix. I like Houston's conservative approach to their players.

5. The Lance McCullers issue is the same song, different tune as the rest of the Astros prospects. McCullers, I believe, is a good pitcher that is being brought along slowly according to the Astros player development plan. I know that we disagreed about this earlier this year, Big T, but I like the split starter system Houston uses up and down its farm system. It gives pitchers a lot more work in terms of getting quality innings to pitch without over using them, wearing out their arms. It also helps identify who is better suited to be a starter or reliever as they alternate their roles each outing. Good system IMO. You are literally developing twice the pitchers under this system. As for stamina, does anyone believe a 20 year old has stamina issues? Six innings is considered a quality start in the bigs, if you get seven that's a bonus. Look at the pitchers in this year's World Series. The starters, for the most part, pitched 6 or 6+ innings and they were done.

BTW, Big T, nice thread you've got going here. Can't wait for the next installment.

[KABrother88]

Where ya at Big T? I've been patiently waiting that next installment of analysis of our prospects lol...and ready to discuss some of the lesser known guys who may turn into something...there are a few I like