The sked:
The schedule is heavily weighted with fellow South Division opponents (# of games): Amarillo (24), Frisco (18), Midland (24) and San Antonio (36). So 102 games or 85% of the schedule against just 4 teams. Yikes.
Hope I get to use this.
As ridiculous as that entire thing is, those hats are pretty cool.
Extremely aggressive placement for Pedro Leon and shocks the hell out of me. McTaggart had a tweet saying Leon will play shortstop 80% of the time which means Grae Kessinger shifts to (I presume) 2B.
Some other notable assignments here:
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Hunter Brown is arguably the top pitching prospect in the org and his being assigned to the Hooks seems to reflect that. The 5th round pick from '19 has just 23 innings of professional experience and that was at short season Tri-City
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Nowhere near the same level prospect-wise as Leon and Brown but Hunter Peck here is interesting. Signed as a NDFA last summer out of an NAIA school (Georgia Gwinnett). The Astros are certainly taking a sink or swim approach with him with a AA assignment for his first professional experience.
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CJ Stubbs reached low -A in his draft year with just 19 games at QC so a fairly big jump for the former USC Trojan (and if you somehow missed it Garrett’s brother). It’s sort of eyebrow-raising that the 10th rounder from 2019 gets assigned to AA while the 1st rounder from that same draft gets slotted at hi-A ball. I’m speaking of course of top catching prospect Korey Lee who’ll begin the year at Asheville.
Lesser names (hate using that term) new to org:
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Joe Record was a minor league phase Rule 5 pick this past winter. The former 28th round pick of the Twins reached hi-A in 2019.
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Norel Gonzalez is an older Cuban player (turns 27 in June) and is a 1B/LF type. I wouldn’t expect much as JJ Matijevic will likely get most of the starts at 1B
Feels like there are a lot of high floor guys on this roster. Suppose that’s not terribly surprising considering how much the system has been depleted of higher level talent the last few years.
I thought Leon was a CFer? No?
Seems the org still has every intention of turning him into a SS. Will be interesting to see how it works out.
From the “Pedro Leon” thread:
I remember the posts about working out at SS, but I did not think/know he would be starting there.
Some other notable assignments here:
- Nowhere near the same level prospect-wise as Leon and Brown but Hunter Peck here is interesting. Signed as a NDFA last summer out of an NAIA school (Georgia Gwinnett). The Astros are certainly taking a sink or swim approach with him with a AA assignment for his first professional experience.
Continuing of string of strong professional debuts from last year’s draft/NDFA class, Peck goes 2 scoreless innings tonight while K’ing 5 and picks up a save in the process.
Enoli Paredes reported to CC today for his rehab stint.
And looked good too (video in tweet):
#Astros Enoli Paredes throws a scoreless inning – including this punch out – in his first rehab appearance. pic.twitter.com/KMyBlWm66N
— Corpus Christi Hooks (@cchooks) May 6, 2021
Rough start to the season for him as well. Just 1-27.
The whiff rates of some of the Hooks’ hitters in the early going are just horrendous. Pedro Leon (41.5%) and the OF trio of Chandler Taylor (41.9%), Ross Adolph (40%) and Marty Costes (36.4%) along with Stubbs (33%) are the worst offenders.
Wonder if there has been any attempt yet at an explanation? This looks to be a team malady thus far.
The 6th rounder from 2017 is back from whatever was ailing him as he sees action for the first time in 2021. Hit .250/.306/.520 in 27 games for the Hooks in 2019.
I was glad to see that too, though 4 Ks and a BB were not encouraging.
Felipe Tejada (22 Ks in 14.2 IP with a 1.02 WHIP) promoted from Asheville.