Former G-Stros in Minor's Mini Camp

The top talent in the system has been invited to report to camp early for a minicamp. Brian McTaggart posted the list of invitees yesterday. Here are those who were invited along with the year(s) they appeared in Greeneville:
 Ruben Alaniz (2010)
Michael Foltynewicz (2010)
David Martinez (2009)  
Lance McCullers Jr. (2012)
Vincent Velasquez (2010)  
Roberto Pena (2010)  
Carlos Correa (2012)  
Chase Davidson (2011)
Jonathan Meyer (2009)
Jiovanni Mier (2009)  
Rio Ruiz (2012)

In addition to those players a few other players will be participating some since they reported early to camp. Two of those are former G-Stros Telvin Nash (2010) and Ruben Sosa (2011 & 12)

What To Watch For In 2012 - Former G-Stros First Basemen

There are more former G-Stros at first than there were last year but the majority are a bit long in the tooth for the levels they were at last year.   Here is what I am watching for from them this year.

First Base
Koby Clemens - (2005 - 25- AAA) -  Signed a minor league free agent deal with the Blue Jays.  Where will he land when spring training breaks?  Las Vegas (AAA) or New Hampshire (AA)? Will he be at 1st or 3rd? 

Chase Davidson - (2011 - 22 - SS A) - Hit .335 in 43 games with Greeneville before a brief promotion to Tri Cities.  Saw only 10 games at 1B in the 2011 season.  How will he hit when he faces more age appropriate competition? Can he cut down on the K's?

Kody Hinze - (2008 - 24 - AA) - Made the two level move last year, blistering Lancaster and putting up solid numbers in AA.  Is the best defensive first baseman in the bunch, with a career .991 fielding percentage.  Can he increase his power numbers against advanced pitching?

Marcus Nidiffer - (2010 - 25 - Low A ) Was released by the Astros and later signed with the Angels last year.  They moved him back to catcher, where he played in college.  He hit .230 for Cedar Rapids in the Midwest League.  Will he get a shot to play ball again this season or will he be considered to old for the level? 

Telvin Nash - (2010 - 21 - Low A) Made the move to 1B last season and was off to a great start at he plate when he broke the hamate bone in his hand. He is the best prospect of the bunch.  Just how many prodigious HR will he hit in Lancaster this year?  Can he stay healthy?  Can he reduce the K's?

Rafael Valenzuela - (2010 - 24 - SS A) The NDFA out of Arizona missed part of 2011 with injury but hit a solid .316 in 31 games with Tri Cities. In his minor league career, he has 42 games at 1B and 37 at 3B. Will he get a shot at full season ball in 2012?   Which side of the diamond will he land on?


Jesse Wiersbicki - (2011- 23 - Rookie) Played 37 of 45 games at 1B for the G-Stros in 2011.  He hit .265 and had five HR.  Will he get to jump to full season ball in 2012?  Can he continue to show good OBP (358 in 2011) against advance competition?

Projected placement of those in the Astros organization. Last year, I was two out of three.

Oklahoma (AAA)
Hinze 

Corpus Christi

Lancaster (HiA)
Nash
 
Lexington (LoA)
 Davidson
Valenzuela 

Extended Spring Training
Wiersbicki

Blast from the past
2004 G-Stro Ole Shelton was still playing indy ball in 2011.  He hit .304 for the Saint Paul Saints.

Jordan Scott Called Up

Jordan Scott has played his last game as a Greeneville Astro this season. We learned this morning from his twitter account that he has been called up to Tri Cities for their last two series.

Jordan went 0-4 last night, dropping his season average to .337. He dropped to 3rd over all in the league, just ahead of former teammate, Chase Davidson. Davidson finished the his time with the G-Stros at .335. It is possible, depending on how a few other players fair tonight, that they could become the first pair of G-Stros to finish in the top 5 in batting average in the league. They would be just the 2nd pair to finish in the top 10. Last year, Chris Wallace (.310 - 6th) and Marcus Nidiffer (.303 t-7th) were the first pair to finish in the top 10.

Scott's Appy League batting average will be the highest for a G-Stro in the history of the franchise. Chase Davidson's will be the second highest. He will have just enough plate appearances to qualify for the league leaders. He had 188 plate appearances before being called up; 184 are needed to qualify for league leaders.

Record Not To Get Excited About
With last night's loss, the 2011 G-Stros obtained the franchise's 300th loss and also secured their spot as having the second worst record for the season. The 07 team holds the record for the fewest wins with their 17-51 record. The current edition is sitting at 25-42 with one to play. The 09 team finished 27-40.

G-Stros Record Watch - Best Season Batting Average

As this season wraps up, I started looking at how this years numbers compare to previous years. Jordan Scott, with three games left, leads the 2011 edition of the G-Stros with a solid .340 average. Let's see where that stands compared to previous seasons. The average listed required that the player played in over half of the teams games. I will also include what transpired in the rest of their career.

2004 - .316 Antonio Garcia (44 games) - The big 1st baseman returned to Greeneville in 2005, his third season in the Appy League. He was released before the 2006 season started.

2005 - .335 Josh Flores (59 games)- The speedy CF had a great year in the Appy League and was considered one of the top prospects in the Appy that season. He quickly climbed up the system ladder, playing half of the 2007 season in Corpus Christi. Then in a freak accident in the off season, he slipped on some ice and damaged both knees. He missed all of the 2008 season. He came back in 2009 and then was injured again. When he returned in 2010, he wasn't the player he had been before all the knee injuries. He was released during the 2010 season and is now playing indy ball for the Joliet Slammers of the Frontier League.

2006 - .314 Ronald Ramirez (57 games) - The shortstop from Columbia went to Lexington to start the 2007 season and was off to a hot start when he was injured. He never got his bat back after that. He made it to Lancaster in 2009 but was released before the 2010 season.

2007 -.273 Ebert Rosario (59 games) - The lanky 3rd baseman came back to G'ville in 2008 and improved his season average to .304 in 47 games. He then steadily climbed the ladder to Lancaster where his development stalled. So in 2010, he was sent back to the GCL to learn how to pitch. He is with the Tri Cities ValleyCats this season pitching out of their bullpen.

2008 - .306 Albert Cartwright (39 games) - Cartwright was sharing time at second with a young Jose Altuve. He edged Rosario by .002 for the best average bragging rights in 2008. He moved on up to Lexington in 2009 where he struggled but something clicked in 2010. He started in Lancaster but after hitting .319 in 92 games, he was promoted to AA. During the off season, he was traded to the Phillies for relief pitcher Sergio Escalona. Cartwright then tore his Achilles tendon during spring training and he has missed the 2011 season as a result.

2009 - .324 Jose Altuve (45 games) - It was a surprise to see Altuve back in G'ville for the 09 season. He had hit .284 in 08. Since then, he has shot to Houston in just two seasons. He is the starting second baseman and quickly becoming a Houston Astros fan favorite.

2010 - .310 Chris Wallace (47 games) - Wallace started the 2011 season in Lexington but was promoted to Corpus Christi after he hit .285 in 66 games. He has had some learning to do in CC where during the month of July, he hit .272 with 5 HR. He suffered a right wrist injury and has not appeared in a game since 8/3/11.

Other players who finished with an average over .300:

2004 - .308 Mitch Einertson (63 games)
2005 - .333 Eli Iorg (35 games)
2006 - .306 Steve Brown (54 games)
2010 - .303 Marcus Nidiffer (43 games)
2010 - .303 Hector Rodriguez (43 games)
2011 - .335 Chase Davidson (43 games)

So if Scott plays in all three games the team has left, and gets four at bats a game, he just needs three hits to have the highest single season average for any player who has played in Greeneville. If he doesn't pull it off, Josh Flores will continue to hold the record by percentage points over Davidson.

Chase Davidson is Appy All Star

Congratulations to Chase Davidson for his selection as the First Baseman on the 2011 Appy League All Star Team. Davidson is making the most of his professional start with the G-Stros. He hit .335 with 11 HR, 13 Doubles, and an impressive 8 of 9 in stolen bases in 43 Appy League games. While Davidson looked good at the plate and played a solid first base. Where he stood out was with his base running. He gets impressive speed out of his 6'5" 222lb frame.

Appy Astros G-Stros End of July Report

We have the first 40 games of baseball under out belts in Greeneville. The G-Stros are mired in last place in the Appy League West but there are bright spots. Let's look and see what the first 40 games tell us and who we need to be watching for the next 28 games of the season.

Hitters:

Ernesto Genoves is a 20 year old catcher from Venezuela. He has exceeded expectations with his bat this season. After hitting .278 last year in 23 games with the GCL Astros, he is hitting .373 in Greeneville in 20 games. He has shown the ability to get on base at a .462 OBP clip and is slugging a solid .627. He is second on the team in doubles, HR and extra base hits.

Chase Davidson (21 years old - 1B) is the leading slugger on the team. He leads the team with 9 HR, 10 doubles and 20 extra base hits. He is hitting .313 on the season and thanks to his 21 walks, he has a OBP of .411. He has struck out 43 times in 128 AB.

Jordan Scott (19 years old - LF/CF) is hitting .320 during his time with Greeneville this season. He snapped a 9 game hitting streak last night. He leads the team in hits and has been a consistent source of runs at the top of the line up.

Ariel Ovando (17 year old - RF) while his playing time has been limited by dings (He played in 20 out of 30 games in July). His developing nicely. He is learning a great deal in a hurry. He is hitting .269 but 7 of his 21 hits have been for extra bases. What he does in August will be interesting to watch.

Others to keep eyes on:
Jesse Wierzbicki - Old man of position players catching up to Appy League.
Darwin Rivera - Struggles in field impacting his bat, can he turn it around?
Garen Wright - showing improvement over his 2010 GCL numbers but has been missing time with a bum shoulder. Will he get to see many more at bats this summer?
Josh Magee - Hit .133 in 9 games in June. Hit .232 in 21 games in July. Finished July hitting in 6 of 7 games. Is he putting it together for August?
Luis Alverez - starting to show signs he is returning to the form he was in in 2009 prior to the knee injury.

Starting Pitchers:

Rookie ball stats are pretty useless. You get players with a wide variety of ability and at a wide variety of development. For pitchers, I have found it helpful to drop their best & worst outings from their stats to get a better picture of what the true stat might look like. For more on my rational, check out my post that looked at the 2010 pitching staff where I explained the Appy Astros Adjusted Scoring System (3A2S).

Luis Ordosgoitti is a 19 year old from Venezuela. He had been stellar through his first five starts. The last two showed some struggle. He was placed on the 7 day DL and then sent down to the GCL when Adrian Houser was brought up. His demotion caught me off guard, I am hoping it is just a rehab type of assignment. At this point in the season, his ERA is 4.37 but he has just walked 3 batters and fanned 32 in 35 IP. When you take out his best & worst starts, his ERA drops t0 3.67.

Chris Lee was the highest round draft pick from 2011 (4th) on the team prior to Houser's arrival. Lee has struggled with control, walking 18 batters in 25 innings. Though he showed some progress from his two starts in June (6 BB in 3 2/3 IP) and July (12 BB in 21 1/3 IP). He appears to struggle more with his control out of the stretch than in the wind up. His ERA is currently 6.84. His 3A2S ERA is 6.48.

Tyson Perez is the 21 year old pitcher out of Stanford drafted in the 17th round. He has been inconsistent which is not unusual for Rookie Ball. He currently has a 5.63 ERA through 8 starts. He started August with his best start of the season going 5 innings giving up no earned runs on four hits. When you take out his best start and worst start (8 ER in 1 1/3 IP) of the season, his 3A2S ERA drops to 4.21. He has less than one walk a start on the season.

Richardo Batista is a LHP repeating the Appy League this season at 19 years old. He has been outstanding at times with two starts being scoreless through 5 innings. Then he has also been very average not even getting to the 5th inning in 4 of his 7 starts. He tends to nibble when he pitches. If it is a free swinging team, he is good to go. If they are patient, he goes deep in counts and batters are walked. The key for Batista is throwing his curve for strikes. ERA 5.58/ 3A2S ERA 5.02.

Jose Perdomo is a 19 year old RHP from Venezuela. He put up outstanding numbers in the GCL last year. The Appy League hasn't been so kind. He currently totes a 9.00 ERA in 5 starts. His 3A2S ERA is higher at 9.52. The one bright spot in his numbers is he still has more K's than IP (21/ 18). He has not pitched since 5/18 but isn't on the DL. There may be an issue they hope rest will fix be it physical, mental or mechanical.

Jermain Cotton is repeating the Appy. He has made four starts and four relief appearances. However, he has not had a relief appearance shorter than four innings, though he has had two starts shorter than three innings, I am lumping him in with the starters. Cotton throws pretty hard. His ERA for the season thus far is 5.76. His 3A2S ERA is 4.81. He appears to be more comfortable in long relief as his relief ERA is 2.76.

The one to keep an eye on for the last month of the season is Adrian Houser who had a solid start in his first Appy League outing. He was drafted in the 2nd round this year.

Relief Pitchers:

The bullpen has improved as the season has come along. There is some maturity in the pen and some of the top performers are some of the oldest players on the roster. Let's look at a few of the highlights.

Jeremiah Meiners is a 22 year old LHP who was drafted in the 40th round in 2010. He has fanned 23 batters in 24 innings and only walked four. He has held opponents to a .204 batting average. His ERA is an even 3.00 on the season.

Matison Smith is a 23 year old RHP who was a NDFA signed in 2010. He has finished a team leading 9 games for the G-Stros and has 2 saves. He only had three walks through his first 19 1/3 IP before giving up two in his last outing. In fact, his last two outings have taken his ERA from 2.12 to 3.38. It will be interesting to watch how he does the rest of the season.

Steve Martin is a 23 year old RHP out of Texas A&M who was drafted in the 37th round this year. He has appeared in 8 games and has a 1.38 ERA (2 ER in 13 IP). Opponents are hitting just .098 against him. He has not allowed a hit in 5 of his 8 outings.

Rodney Quintero is repeating the Appy this year after only making three appearances in 2010. The 21year old 25th round draft pick from 2010 has show some promise this year by not allowing an earned run in six of his 11 outings and striking out 24 batters in 19 1/3 innings. However he has also been very hittable at times giving up a total of 19 hits in 19 1/3 IP.

Zach Dando is a 20 year old drafted in the 32nd round this year. He had a rough first outing of the season but has bounced back with a solid 2.95 ERA in July. He has 22 strike outs in 19 1/3 IP.

James Propst is a 22 year old drafted in the 38th round this year. He has been inconsistent mixing six scoreless outings with three outings where he gave up three or more runs. He has fanned 29 batters in 25 IP.

Eye Witness Report - Ordosgoitti = Wow

Last night I got to see Luis Ordosgoitti pitch. He is an impressive 18 year old (9/22/92) right handed pitcher from Venezuela. In his second start, he went 6 innings, giving up one run on just three hits and a walk. He had faced the minimum through four innings on just 30 pitches. He kept Kingsport batters swinging and grounding out. He induced nine ground balls in the first four innings. One of those sneaked through for a hit to center but the rest were gobbled up by infielders. Third baseman Darwin Rivera was busy making five assist in the first four innings.

Ordosgoitti should have gotten out of the game without a run scoring. A routine double play ball was hit to Chan Moon at second who got the force out at second by tossing to shortstop Alex Todd for the put out. However, it appeared Todd had difficulty pulling the ball out of his glove to turn the double play. The runner beat the throw. Ordosgoitti walked the next batter and the next batter singled in the run.

After the game, I heard one of the local reporters talking about how the Kingsport players and managers were raving about how Ordosgoitti's pitches had a great deal of movement on them. He left the game with a 3-1 lead. That lead grew to 5-1 but alas, Ordosgoitti got his second no decision of the season. Each time, he pitched well enough to win.

Quick Notes:

Chase Davidson's HR to center was a fly ball that barely cleared the fence. The Kingsport CF thought he had a chance to catch it and crashed into the wall pretty hard.

Garen Wrights' HR was a line shot to left that got out of the park in a hurry. It was one of three hits on the night for Wright.

Darwin Rivera was a busy man. He had six assist and made one put out. He also made the error that allowed the then go ahead run to score. He made a throw that skipped and Davidson couldn't scoop it. A more experience first baseman might make that play but a better throw gets the out. A couple of times, he double clutched before throwing making plays closer than they needed to be.

There was a batter interference call last night. In the 8th with runners at 1st & 2nd, Luis Alverez laid down a sac bunt. The ball hit him in the back one step from first base. The home plate umpire threw up his hands for a dead ball saying that Alverez was outside the first base running lane. It was very close. That play took what would have been worse case scenario 2nd & 3rd with one out or best case scenario base-loaded with no outs and made it 1st & 2nd with one out because the runners had to return to their original bases. Thankfully the Kingsport pitcher threw a pick off throw into center field and the runners advanced to 2nd and 3rd anyway.
Yep, this is rookie ball. The double steal in the 1oth was actually a pick off. Greeneville had the man on first picked off and in a run down. The runner at third broke for home and the throw home was too late. Therefore, both runners get credit for a steal.

Opening Night 2011

The G-Stros got blown out on opening night. The final was 13-4, with the Bristol Sox getting the win. It is interesting to not that the Astros have 13 position players born in the 1990's on their roster, where as the B-Sox just have 5. This is a young G-Stros team and they will have to grow up fast to hang with the older competition they will face.

The line up held one surprise. Jordan Scott was added to the roster from the Lexington Legends and got the start in LF. Scott was the 14th round pick out of Robinson High in Greer, South Carolina last year. He hit .301 in the GCL last year and had hit .277 in 14 games at Lexington this year.

The positives from the night include:

Chase Davidson appears to like the wood bat. He went 2 for 3 with a triple and a HR.

Ariel Ovando went 1 for 4 with a swinging bunt single and a RBI. He also had an outfield assist from RF.

The areas for improvement include the defense. Three errors were made by the middle infielders (Todd 2, Magee 1). These errors allowed 5 unearned runs to score.

The G-Stros will board the bus for Bristol again tonight to try to even the series.

First Look At 2011 G-Stros

Last night, thanks to the rain out of my son's games, we got to go check out the G-Stros first practice of the season. While you can't tell a great deal about the team from the drills and BP, it is nice to see the guys you have been hearing about live.

One of my favorite things is getting to see and hear the reactions of the players to Pioneer Park. I got to talk to Garen Wright a little and his tweat pretty much summed up his take on the park.

First Observation: Like new manager Omar Lopez. Very hands on in his instruction. While working on pick off moves, a player was struggling to get the timing down. He took the player's spot, took a throw from the 2nd baseman and ran the runner down with a swipe tag to the jersey. Players loved seeing the manager get involved that way. During infield drills, saw him with several players over to the side giving more instruction.

Second Observation: Ariel Ovando looks like a ball player. I had to leave before he took BP. All of his movements in the field look effortless. Didn't look out of place as a 17 year old hanging around a bunch of older guys.

Other Observations:

Chan Moon looks smooth at SS. He also appears to be very gregarious.

Chase Davidson hit several line drives to RF during the few rounds of BP we got to see. Hit one HR over the right center field wall. He will be working at 1B this season. He took all drills there and looked fine. I understand he hasn't played there since HS.

Darwin Rivera looks very good at third base. Smooth footwork and strong arm.

Luis Alvarez looks to be back from his knee injury. Moved well running down the line to 1st on drills with all his gear on.

Ruben Sosa is short. Listed at 5'7". My son's observation, "Maybe we have another Altuve". He doesn't have the strong lower half Altuve has.

Garen Wright looks very athletic. Will be interesting to see how he develops.

It was exciting to see action on the field at Pioneer Park. I am looking forward to my first chance to see them live on Friday night.