Quick update on Ethan Frey in this morning’s Baseball America newsletter:
3 Likes
In Baseball America’s May update to their T100, the Astros have a T100 guy again: Xavier Neyens, coming in at number 100. This is mostly thanks to other prospects graduating from the list as they’ve made the majors, but Neyens is having a promising start to his first pro season. There’s no question he’s striking out too much, but there’s no question .286/.421/.558 is a damn good slash line, either.
Of note: most of his reps this year are coming at 3B rather than SS. This is expected; I can’t recall anybody saying before the draft that he would be able to stick at short.
2 Likes
MLBpipeline has updated their top 100 and the Astros have TWO on the list !!!
Kevin Alvarez is #80
Xavier Neyens is #100
How long has it been?
3 Likes
He’s nowhere near the T100 discussion but Asheville catcher Jason Schiavone is off to one of the best starts in all of baseball. With another homer last night he’s got 17 on the season and is now hitting .272/.444/.781. He’s also striking out in about a third of his plate appearances, very on-brand for the Astros system these days.
11th rounder in 2024 out of James Madison. The results were terrible in his first two pro seasons (.175 hitter across 2024-25, albeit with great walk rates) before he exploded this year.
Since Schiavone hasn’t ranked on any Astros prospect lists to this point I don’t think there are any written reports online on his skills behind the plate. He splits time between C and 1B; not sure if they don’t see him as a long-term C or if they just use those 1B starts to keep him rested.
2 Likes
Schiavone is having an insane start to the season. But the Asheville Tourist who’s surprised me in all the best possible ways this season is Cole Hertzler (5th Round pick in 2024 out of Liberty). He has 40 K’s in just 27.1 innings. If he keeps pitching like this, I have to think a promotion to Corpus is imminent.