Last year’s top 10 saw five of them reach the big leagues.  #1 Hirsh was PCL Pitcher of the Year and made a so-so major league debut.  Of course, we all know he was dealt to Colorado in the Jason Jennings deal. #2 Nieve, #4 Buchholz, and #9 Albers also made big league appearances. Nieve stands a good chance of being in Houston for 2007. Albers will be covered later.  Buchholz was included in the Jennings deal.  #10 Zobrist was dealt to Tampa Bay in the Huff deal and was subsequently promoted to the majors.  #3 Patton, #5 Pence, and #8 Gutierrez had very good seasons.  #6 James Barthmaier was inconsistent. And #7 Bogusevic barely got out of the blocks.  We also gave you lesser known names to watch.  We missed badly on Davis as he was released before the season started.  We nailed Estrada, Parraz, Reineke, and Torbert.  We were close on McLemore but the lefty didn’t bounce back from arm surgery quite as well as we had hoped.  We missed on Frias, Hart, Johnson, and McKeller.

As we move to this year’s top 10, you’ll notice once again that the list is dominated by pitchers.  There are five new faces on this list and a bit of shuffling around with the one’s repeating from last year. Two notes.  First, as always, we considered only prospects from full-season leagues. Second, as you’ll read more about later, there is a lack of high-end talent in the Astros system.  This led us to have a great deal of difficulty nailing down the last few spots in the top 10.  Those players we might have listed at #11, #12, or #13 could easily have been in 8-10 given just slightly different circumstances.  As you’ll see, the Astros have few if any “can’t miss” prospects in the system.  That won’t be helped by the fact that the Astros don’t have a first or second round pick in the upcoming 2007 draft.  But that will be further addressed in the 2007 draft review.  We now present to you the Minor Opinions top 10 prospects for 2007.
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