Lexington Legends
“We’ve got some guys that can hit the ball real well,” (manager Jack) Lind said. “I don’t know how that’s going to translate into power, but we’ve got some guys who have the potential to drive in runs and hit the ball hard.”
“We’ve got pretty good speed,” Lind said. “(Josh) Flores, I think, is our best runner. He’ll probably be leading off some. And we have two or three guys who have the ability to steal.”
Catcher J.R. Towles, shortstop Tommy Manzella, second basemen Eric King and Wladimir Sutil and center fielders Flores and Mitch Einertson should provide defensive strength up the middle, sez the Lex skipper.
“Our outfield will kind of rotate around,” Lind said. “We’ve got some guys with good arms in the outfield.”
“We’re sort of untested in the starting pitching department,” (Lind) said. “But they all pitched well the last five or six days of spring training, so that was a good sign. I think our bullpen will be OK. We don’t have a true closer, but that’s OK. We can use the relievers kind of on a rotating basis and see who falls into that job.”
“One thing I’ve noticed since I’ve been with the organization is that the Astros draft a lot on makeup in players, and we really do have a good group of guys,” (Manzella) said. “We’ve only been together now for about a week down in spring training, but I think it’s going to be something where we’re going to gel together pretty well.”
CC Hooks
Closer by committe (apparently) at Corpus…
This says the closer out of the Hooks bullpen will come from a group of four righties: Paul Estrada, Jailen Peguero, Aaron Williams and newcomer Jon Skaggs. Williams does have the most experience, having notched 35 saves at Salem and Lexington the last 2 seasons. Peguero and Estrada have both done a bit of closing in the past, though nowhere near as extensively as Williams. Skaggs, the former Rice star and #1 pick of the Yankees, is being converted to a reliever by the Astros after working almost exclusively as a starting pitcher in his previous five injury-plagued seasons as a pro.
“It’s good to have those options,” (manager Dave) Clark said. “Do we have a set guy? No and we might not have one all year. But we like what we’ve seen from all of these guys.”