I have been tracking the Astros minor league system since their rookie affiliate move to Greeneville in 2004. This year, 4 players from that team were promoted to Houston. That sounded impressive to me but I had no frame of reference so I went back and checked the promotion rates of the rookie league teams in the Astros system back to 1991.

I found that this is the first time 4 players have been promoted to Houston from the same team in their careers much less in the same year. There have been teams that have put 7 players in the majors (95, 96 & 97). The only team to put 3 players in Houston unis prior to the 2004 Greeneville team is the 1996 GCL Astros, who placed Wade Miller (99), Tony McKnight (00), & Jerome Robinson (02). That is 3 players in 3 different years.Read More

Pat Dye, former Auburn football coach and ignorer of NCAA rules, once said “Hindsight is 50/50”.  As the 2007 draft approaches, let’s use some hindsight on the 2004 draft and see if they did 50/50.

The players from the 2004 draft have 2 ½ seasons under their belts.  It is still early in their development, especially for the high school and college freshman picks.  Consider this a mid term progress report on how the players from the 2004 draft are developing.  Remember progress report grades can still be brought up or down depending on how you do the rest of the grading term.Read More

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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The 2006 draft has been described by many as a significantly down year for top talent.  Many of this year’s first round picks would have expected to go in the second round or later last year.  Be that as it may the Astros came in with a first round pick for the second year in a row.  Last year they took left-handed pitcher Brian Bogusevic with their first pick.  This year the Astros brain trust talked about wanting to add more lefty hitters and pitchers.

Prior to the draft the Astros added three players to their minor league total.  They signed Ryan Owens from the Citadel as a fifth year senior free agent.  Owens, a left-handed pitcher threw 96 innings allowing 105 hits, 47 earned runs, 41 walks, and struck out 82.  He finished the season with a 4.41 ERA.  Also, the Astros signed two DFE draftees from last year.  Andrew Darnell, round 35, hit .386 in 176 at-bats.  He recorded 68 hits, 19 doubles, 1 triple, and 13 home runs.  He walked 20 times and struck out 33 times.  Reid Kelly, round 33, threw 83.2 innings allowing 70 hits, 20 earned runs, and 35 walks while striking out 70.  He finished the season with a 2.15 ERA.
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We would like to start this top 10 list with a brief recap of last year’s top 10.  Our top 3 from last year, Burke, Astacio, and Taveras all made contributions to the big club.  We all know what they did so we’ll move on.  We don’t believe there were any surprises in our 4-10.  Amongst our other highlights:  We took a lot of flak from folks for excluding Einertson.  But, we’re sorry to say we were right on him.  His off-field problems caught up with him at the higher level.  We were correct about Barthmaier, Gutierrez, and Sutil.  We missed on Diaz, Maysonet, Jimerson, and Parraz.

This year’s top 10 sports 5 new faces.  There was some shuffling of those repeating our list.  You’ll find after the top 10 a list of lesser known players who we believe are one’s to watch.
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