2022 Corpus Christi Hooks (AA)

The Hooks will play 138 games this year starting on April 8. That’s up from the pandemic-shortened 120 games in 2021 and comparable to the number of games played back in 2019. That extreme unbalanced scheduled from last season is also gone. 102 games or 85% of the schedule in 2021 was played against fellow south division members San Antonio, Amarillo, Frisco and Midland. This time around only 84 games or 61% of the schedule is played against those 4 teams.

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Finally got around to pouring over the rosters, and there are a few questions – maybe I missed some transactions?

I thought Scott Schreiber had a pretty good year last year, and I do not see him on any roster.

Willy Collado was also having a decent year before injury – is he still on injury rehab somewhere?

And what about CJ Stubbs? His stock seemed to fall last year, but I expected him to be somewhere – especially given the apparent shortage of backstops.

Anyone have any news that I missed?

Schreiber was on a preliminary Corpus Christi roster i saw last week. I didn’t see Stubbs or Collado on any of the preliminary rosters. Preliminary roster or not, I have to believe that Schreiber and Stubbs must be injured. Not sure about Collado.

Here is the answer:
https://www.milb.com/corpus-christi/roster/transactionshttps://www.milb.com/corpus-christi/roster/transactions

Collado on the 60-day IL (along with Nolan Riggs) and Schreiber on the 7-day.

Schreiber has been moved to the 60-day IL along with Matthew Barefoot, who played in only game 1 before going down with injury. Anyone have any idea what the issues are? Both of these guys seemed like decent prospects.

Barefoot posted on IG last month that he underwent shoulder surgery and is out until 2023.

Thanks.

Not the Hooks but not against the Hooks either.

Bats heating up in May…

Justin Dirden (.422/.458/.672)
Enmanuel Valdez (.328/.438/ .535)
Yainer Diaz (.338/.355/.521)
Luke Berryhill (.250/.425/.467)

The 23 year old Valdez was even hotter in April. He’s currently among the Texas League leaders in BA (339), OBP (.451) and SLG (.591).

What do you think/hear/know about a couple of guys who are slightly confounding prospects to me:

Yainer Diaz as a C and Emmanuel Valdez as an IF

As far as Valdez, my understanding there’s not a lot of defensive value there. So it all rides on the bat. I’d like to see him pushed up to SL in the next couple of weeks to see how he handles AAA and whether the offensive turnaround that started in 2021 is for real or not.

Regards Diaz, I like the bat. If he has the defensive skills i think he could be a backup catcher in the bigs. As far as his work behind the plate, I’ve seen mixed reports on that.

Both guys are Rule 5 eligible this coming offseason. My guess right now is that Diaz gets protected and Valdez doesn’t.

Diaz came in a trade for somebody, right Walt?

Other piece in the Straw-Maton trade.

Oh, yeah. I had forgotten that part of it. What a good trade for us, and Straw did well also.

OF Jordan Brewer gets the promotion from Asheville. Understandable in some respects (he turns 25 on August 1) but head-scratching as he hasn’t played since May 13 and was batting just .182 in the 11 games prior to that for the Tourists.

Will Wagner also gets the bump from Asheville. Really impressive that he’s hitting AA and it’s not even a year since he’s been drafted.

Wagner DNP but Brewer DH’d tonight and was 1-4 in his AA debut with a SB.

OF Justin Dirden since May 1 is hitting 324/.401/.613 with 19 doubles, 4 triples and 14 HRs in 61 games.

His .954 OPS for the season ranks 6th in the Texas League.

Catcher CJ Stubbs promoted from Asheville. Hit .217/.347/.471 in 42 games for the Tourists. Away from McCormick Field just .140/.269/.193.

This was a necessity promotion, not a merit one. With Lee in MLB, Diaz to Sugarland and both N. Rodriguez & Berryhill on the IL things are getting thin behind the plate.