Getting to Know Your 2013 Greeneville Astros

[Note from AppyAstros: This is the beginning of some cross posting work I am doing with WhatTheHeckBobby?.  I am thankful to Jayne for giving me the opportunity to expand my audience.]

The coaching staff is here. The clubbie is stocking the club house. The players are getting settled in their lodging for the next few months. Let's learn a little bit about the guys who will wear the G star on their caps this season.

This preliminary roster that was released only shows 22 players.  I would expect more drafted and non-drafted free agents (NDFA) to join this group as we approach the start of the season. 


PITCHERS                  
Alan Abreu (GCL) - This is a great story.  Abreu was signed as a non drafted free agent out of Lander University by the Astros after a private workout in September of 2011 as a pitcher.  They signed this guy who:

"never pitched in his two years at Lander. Nor did Abreu pitch for Eastern Kentucky University, where he played his freshman year. Abreu didn't even pitch in high school. Believe it or not, he never even pitched in little league ball."

The right handed pitcher posses a 95 MPH fastball and is still learning to pitch. He was effective but not dominant in the GCL with just eight strike outs in 20 innings but still had a low 2.70 ERA.  

Tyler Brunnemann (40th Rd 2013) - Brunnemann was the final draft pick of 2013 for the Astros.  He is out of Hardin Simmons University in Texas.  The righty throws in the low to mid 90's with a curve, a change and is developing a slider. Pitching in tough situations shouldn't bother him much since he has already faced having a non-malignant brain tumor removed when he was 11!

William "Austin" Chrismon - (26th Round 2013) - Chrismon spent his first two college seasons at East Carolina before transferring to Christopher Newport University.  He is the first player from CNU to be drafted.  In one outing this season, the right hander struck out 18 batters in eight innings.

Enderson Franco (GCL) - The 20 year old right handed pitcher from Venezuela comes to Greeneville after spending two years in the GCL.  He has pitched mostly as a starter and really improved his control in 2012, cutting his walks from 3.3/9 innings to 1.4/9 innings.

Jandel Gustave (GCL) - A 20 year old from the Dominican Republic.  Appears to have good stuff with 22 Ks in 28 innings but struggles with control with 27 walks.  Let's hope the young righty learns to harness the stuff.

Krishawn Holley (GCL) - A 39th round pick in 2009 by the Astros. He made just one appearance in the GLC in 09 due to signing late.  He has spent the last two years in the GCL with limited action. When he has pitched, his numbers are impressive.  In 31 innings as a pro, he has an ERA of 1.45 with 24K and a WHIP of 0.968.   An intriguing right handed pitcher that I am excited to see in person.

Sebastian Kessay (22nd Round - 2013) - A lefty from Scottsdale Community College, Kessay fanned 98 in 72 innings this season.

Chris Lee (Greeneville) - This will be the 2010 4th round pick's third time to be in Greeneville.  He has struggled to stay healthy. The lefty threw just 8 2/3 innings in 2012.  Here's hoping the third time is the charm.

Jordan Mills (28th round 2013) - Was surprised to hear his name called on draft day.  The tall (6' 5") left handed pitcher throws a fastball (88-92), a slider and a change up.

J.D. Osborne (36th Round 2013) - Another left handed pitcher, Osborne was a fifth year senior with Wofford prior to being drafted.  He made 27 relief appearances for the Terriers with 37 strikeouts in 33 1/3 innings pitched.

Frederick Tiburcio (Greeneville) - The second of our returners this season.  Tiburcio showed flashes of promise last season.  He struck out 55 batters in 58 1/3 innings pitched.  He is a 22 year old right handed pitcher from the Dominican Republic.

CATCHERS
Ricky Gingras (Greeneville) - Gingras returns to Greeneville where he showed some pop hitting three HR in 29 games last season.  He and Alfredo Gonzalez will split most of the catching duties.

Alfredo Gonzalez (GCL) - The 20 year old from Venezuela showed significant improvement in his second year in the GCL.  He raised his average from .172 to .244 and cut his passed balls down from 15 to 9.  He threw out 37% of base stealers in 2012.

Cristian Moronta (Greeneville) - The 23 year old from the Dominican Republic returns to Greeneville for his third season.  It is likely he will likely see limited game action and will be the bullpen catcher.  However, he brings some maturity and leadership to the team.  He received the 2011 Oscar Pedron award for leadership. 

INFIELDERS
Edwin Gomez (GCL) - Signed last season after being released from the Tigers system.  He was drafted in the 4th round of the 2009 draft and had made it as far as A ball before being released.  He is a 21 year old from Puerto Rico who primarily played first for the GCL Astros but has history playing the corner outfield spots. That may come in handy with just three outfielders on the roster thus far.

Angel Ibanez (Greeneville) - Ibanez finished strong last season hitting .305 in 24 games in August. The 22 year old was drafted in the 28th round of the 2012 draft.  He primarily plays third. 

Jack Mayfield (NDFA 2013) A non drafted free agent signed out of the University of Oklahoma, Mayfield plays mostly 2nd base.  He hit .254 in 2013 with seven HR in his senior season.

Darwin Rivera (GCL) - This is Rivera's second trip to Greeneville.  He came here as an 19 year old and struggled in the field committing 30 errors. He spent last year in the GCL and hit well (.310) and made just 15 errors at 3rd.

Juan Santana (GCL) - He is a 19 year old out of the Dominican Republic who plays the middle infield positions.  He hit .268 with 12 doubles for the GCL Astros last year. 

OUTFIELDERS
Wallace Gonzalez (GCL) - Drafted in the 29th round of the 2011 draft, Gonzalez has spent two seasons in the GLC prior to coming to Greeneville.  He showed more power in his second season raising his slugging percentage almost 100 points.  Expect to see him manning the corner outfield spots.

Tanner Mathis (NDFA) - Mathis was drafted by the Astros in 2012 out of Ole Miss, but chose not to sign.  After not getting drafted in 2012, he signed on with the Astros as a non drafted free agent.

Marc Wik (Greeneville) - Drafted in the 21st round of the 2012 draft, Wik played mostly left field in Greeneville last season, though he did play in right some and got a few games at 2nd.  He started hot at the plate last year but faded as the year drug on. 

Wik, Marc

The New Players Guide to GreenEville 2013 Edition

(Updated from last year's post because well things change)

I am very excited for opening day for the short season being less than a week away.  Today, the players are supposed to be rolling in to town and getting settled before the season begins. This year, it looks like most of the  players will be making their first trip to the Greeneville, I thought I would give them an inside look at the town, the fans and some unsolicited advice about your time in Greeneville and some ways to occupy you friends and family when they come to visit this summer.

GreenEville
The first thing you need to know is the big E is important here.  Locals take pride that we are the only city in the country to have the e between the n and the v.  That is because it is named for a person not the color.  The person the town is named after is the revolutionary war hero Nathanael Greene.  There is also a nuclear submarine named after the town, the USS Greeneville - it was the one that hit the fishing boat a few years ago if you remember the controversy. 

History
Several big names have called Greeneville home and you will hear folks talk about them.

Davy Crockett was born in Greene County.  There is a state park on this birthplace site in the east end of the county.

The 17th President Andrew Johnson moved here as a young person and started his political career here.  There is a national historic site here.  It is a great place to send your parents when they come visit while you are at practice.  He is also buried in the national cemetery.

There are other cool history geeky kind of things to do and see in Greeneville. My favorite is the cannon ball church. Actually it is Cumberland Presbyterian Church on the corner of Church and Main.  But because it has a civil war cannon ball stuck in its front wall, everyone just calls it the cannon ball church. 

For baseball history, check out the little museum outside the front offices at the stadium.  You get a flavor of baseball in Greeneville.  You will learn about Greeneville's major leaguers Dale Alexander, who hit .331 over five seasons with the Tigers and the Red Sox, and about Rance Pless.

The latest big name to hail from Greeneville is the Country Pop group The Band Perry.  Last season, they were the local bobblehead.

Let's Eat
Greeneville is not a very big town but there are plenty of places to eat, unfortunately most of them are not open after the games.  Here are your options after games:  Applebee's, Waffle House, fast food drive through (McD's, Wendy's, Taco Bell, DQ, etc) and Tipton's Cafe. 

If your folks or girlfriend are in town and they are looking for good lunch spots.  Let me recommend some local flavor - The Sandwich House (best burgers-but warning it is cash only), Salsa's (best mexican), The Bean Barn, Top Choice BBQ, and Peggy Ann's Bakery.  There are other local places that are good too (Amy's Kitchen & Aunt Bea's) and it is a shame many players don't get eat at these places because they don't fit the ball players schedules but most are with in a mile or two of the hotel where the players stay.

For Saturday morning breakfast, I highly recommend The Farmer's Daughter.  It is about 15 minutes out of town but this family style restaurant will fill you up with good southern cooking.  They also serve lunch and dinner Friday-Sunday.  (Cash or check only).  While you are out there, Moms & Grandmas often enjoy going through the Mountain View Bulk Food store next door. The locals call it "the Mennonite store".  They have great fresh baked items, a wonderful deli and spices and baking supplies in bulk.

If you are a coffee person, the Creamy Cup is very close to the stadium and they have good lemonaid as well. 

For something nicer, Brumley's inside the historic General Morgan Inn in has a great lunch and weekend brunch. The General Morgan Inn is also a great place for parents to stay when they come into town.  A bit pricey but beautiful. It is worth a walk through just to see the inside of the lobby.

The Fans
Greeneville has won the league attendance title every year since the team arrived in 2004.  There are season ticket holders who know there baseball and there are folks who go just one time a year when someone they know is going to be on the field before the game.  Most of the regular attenders are very friendly and will strike up a conversation with you.  There is no formal host family system in Greeneville.  However, some families might invite you over for a meal.  Accept the invite if you can.  A free home cooked meal is never a bad thing.

A little unsolicited advice
There are some players who played in Greeneville and you will hear fans talk about them with reverence.  It is not so much what they did on the field, it is how they treated the fans.

If you are the guy who is warming up the right fielder and collects the balls from the guys warming up, please don't throw a ball to the kids who are begging like street children in a third world country.  They are like stray cats.  Feed them once and they never go away and more will come.  Kids will be hanging around the dug out bothering you the whole game if you do it one time. The fans who sit in those sections appreciate your cooperation with this.

Foul balls are different, I don't know why but they don't tend to draw the attention of ball beggars as much.  So feel free to throw foul balls up to kids.

On autographs, the first manager in Greeneville, Tim Bogar, told his players, "Sign every autograph you can, one day, no one will want your autograph." While this is good advice, I want to add to it.  Sign the autographs that will make the other persons day the most.  Kids first and guys with a duffle bag of stuff they plan to sell last.  For many kids, they only come to a few games and you have just made their day with an autograph.

Again, welcome to Greeneville! The next two and a half  months will be a whirlwind.  I wish you the best of luck.  See you at the park!

PS that little town you drove through when you got of of I-81, Moshiem. It is pronounced MossHyme not Mo Shium (I learned that when I moved here just over 10 years ago).

Former G-Stros on Tri Cities Roster

The tentative 2013 Tri-Cities ValleyCats roster was released over the weekend.  It is a good mix of players stepping up from other short season teams and newly drafted players.

Here are the former G-Stros who are on the ValleyCats roster at this time:

Tanner Bushue
Kevin Comer
Adrian Houser
Michael Feliz
Christian Garcia
Andrew Walter
Ernesto Genoves
Luis Alvarez
Jose Fernandez
Chan Moon
Michael Martinez
D'Andre Toney

Here are the players that haven't been assigned to a club yet who might wind up in Gville today when players report.  Some of these might be released.

Zachary Dando
Erick Gonzalez
Joseph Musgrove
Francis Ramirez
Frederick Tiburcio
Ricky Gingras
Angel Ibanez
Marc Wik

There are other players who were listed on the Tri-Cities roster on the team's website who are not listed on the tentative roster.  They will either be returned to another level or be released.

Scott Zuloaga-correction - he retired last off season, he just hadn't been taken off the roster.
Euris Quezada
Cristian Moronta
 

Draft Digging

After looking at the results of the 2013 Astros draft, I was taken aback by the small number of high school players taken.  But when I dug deeper, I realized I shouldn't have been shocked.  In the last six drafts, here is the percentage of high school players drafted by Jeff Luhnow. 

2007 (Cardinals) 16% (8/51)
2008 (Cardinals) 16% (8/51)
2009 (Cardinals) 14% (7/50)
2010 (Cardinals) 21% (11/52)
2011 (Cardinals) 24% (12/50)
2012 (Astros) 27% (11/41)
2013 (Astros) 23% (9/40)

So it looks like 2012 was actually that odd year.  The Astros only signed 4 of the 11 high school players drafted in 2012.  If they sign half of the nine this year, the number of younger players in the system may be about the same.

It appears that the trend for Luhnow drafts is that the number of HS players taken will be somewhere around 15-25% depending in the depth of high school players in the draft that year.

The number that has really dropped off has been the number of JuCo players drafted by Luhnow and company. Did the reduction of rounds 41-50 impact this?

2007 - 8
2008 - 7
2009 - 9
2010 - 6
2011 - 8
2012 - 4
2013 - 2 

A Tale of Two Drafts

The real evaluation of  a draft is what happens four to five years down the road.  Let's look back at the Cardinals draft from 2009 to see how effective Jeff Luhnow and his staff were with that draft. Then we will look at the Astros draft from the same year and see which draft team you prefer. The Cardinals had the 18th overall pick and the Astros had the 20th overall pick. The Astros also had a compensation pick as well for not signing their 3rd round pick in 2008. So they had 51 picks total.

Cardinals 2009 Draft

Breakdown of players drafted/signed:
High School - 7 drafted, 5 signed, 4 active (MLB, Hi-A, 2-LoA)
Junior College - 9 drafted, 9 signed, 4 active (2-MLB, AAA, Hi-A)
College - 34 drafted, 30 signed, 8 active (3-MLB, 2-AAA, AA, Hi-A, Lo-A)

The major leaguers who are included in this draft are:

Shelby Miller (1st rd-HS)
Joe Kelly (3rd rd - College)
Matt Carpenter (13th rd - College)
Trevor Rosenthal (21th rd - JC)
Matt Adams (23th rd - College)
Keith Butler (24th rd - JC)

The Cardinals signed 44 out of 50 of their draft picks (88%) and still have 36% of those signed still active in their affiliated ball. That is 32% of the players that drafted both signed and unsigned.

Astros 2009 Draft

Breakdown of players drafted/signed:
High School - 19 drafted, 9 signed, 6 active (3-AA, Hi-A, 2-Extended Spring Training)
Junior College - 5 drafted, 3 signed, 0 active
College - 27 drafted, 24 signed, 4 active (2-MLB, 2-AA)

The MLB players included are:

Dallas Keuchel (7th rd - College)
J.D. Martinez (20th rd - College)

The Astros signed 36 out of their 51 draft picks (71%) and still have 28% of those signed active.  So basically 20% of the players drafted are still in affiliated ball today. Those who are active are at much lower levels than the ones in the Cardinals organization.

Just another reminder of why I am glad we have Jeff Luhnow leading the Astros as GM.  I believe the 2013 draft will be much closer to the Cardinals' 2009 draft than that Astros' 2009 draft when we look back in 2017.

JR Towles To Have Thumb Surgery

Former 2004 G-Stro J.R. Towles will miss some time due to surgery on his thumb. The injury occurred on June 8th when he tagged a runner out in a collision at the plate.  After a MRI didn't show anything and he still couldn't move his thumb, he was sent to a hand specialist who recommended surgery.  It is unknown how long Towles will be out of action.

Towles had started the season with the Cardinal organization in AAA.  He was released and signed by the Dodgers and was playing for Alburquerque (AAA) when the injury occurred.