Round Rock had the night off and Salem was postponed due to weather, so only two games to recap tonight. Both of them had Astros Farm teams on the losing end of the stick.
Lexington
Legends batters struck out 12 times, Greensboro got 13 hits. That adds up to a 7-4 loss for the Legends.
Corpus Christi
When you play in an 8 team league, you are going to see the same pitchers often. The Hooks hope they don’t see Vince Mazzaro any more this season. With his 7 2/3 strong innings last night, he brought his record against the Hooks to 3-0 in 4 starts allowing 3 earned runs and striking out 22 batters. Here is his scouting report on the Hooks batters.
“I know they’re free swingers and I just wanted to run my two-seam (fastball) and try to get early contact with them,” Mazzaro said. “My change-up was working pretty well tonight and so was my slider for the out pitch.
“I just go out there every night and tell myself to throw strikes, run my two-seamer in and get ground balls and stuff like that. Tonight, the umpire gave me fastballs away. So my game plan was to go with fastballs away until they made adjustments and then go inside.”
You want answers?
Greg Rajan of the Corpus Christi Caller answers the top 10 questions regarding the Hooks and the Astros farm system in todays edition of the Caller. Here is a sample.
Q: Houston scouting director Bobby Heck recently described the Astros’ minor-league system as “thin.” Is it safe to say this year’s draft is a critical one?
A: Is breathing important? It pretty much goes without saying the Astros need to hit a grand slam, not just a home run, with this draft to help replenish their system. Owner Drayton McLane loosening the purse strings wouldn’t hurt, either. According to Baseball America, with last year’s draft debacle, the Astros became the first team since the 1980 Yankees to fail to sign a player before the fifth round. A large reason for that was McLane’s reported reluctance to go over slot money (i.e. MLB guidelines) for draft picks. That must change.
Draft Expectations
Bobby Heck sets his goals for the 2008 Amateur Draft that starts today.
“I’d like more than four (big leaguers) and should with the two extra picks we have up top,” Heck said. “Obviously, beyond the number of four would hopefully deem it a quality draft. You’d like to hit on every guy.
“There’s been drafts that have come up with 15 big leaguers, and the average over time is four. There’s been some drafts that have none, and that would be a complete disaster. The return I expect to get is more than four big leaguers from this.”
You can follow the draft in the Bus Ride today.