It’s time to take a look at the Astros’ notable NRIs. This is a pretty interesting collection: we’ve got some interesting organizational soldiers, some hot prospects, and some veterans looking to latch onto another team in their journeyman careers.
LHP Gustavo Chacin—Few would’ve put money on a Chacin sighting in 2010, but we actually got 44 of them, and the lefty wasn’t all that bad, with a 4.04 FIP. While his “signature” cutter still doesn’t fool anybody, batters look for it so much that Chacin’s other pitches actually work out quite well. His 2.48 FIP vs. LHB in 2010 indicates that he can he a solid situtational guy to lefties if called upon.
1B Koby Clemens—Roger’s kid refuses to fade away. At first, he was a novelty. Then, he was an interesting prospect once he converted to catcher. And then, once forced to move to first base, Clemens responded by bashing 26 homers in Double-A last season. He strikes out a lot, but also takes his walks, and Clemens seems to be one of the few Astro hitters who didn’t get completely flummoxed by the jump from High-A Lancaster to Double-A. He’s likely to start 2011 in Triple-A, but if Brett Wallace struggles, Clemens could be up quickly.
C Carlos Corporan—Corporan has one career MLB plate appearance, in 2009 with the Brewers. He’s 1-for-1, so he must be great, right? Actually, he hasn’t been much of a hitter in his minor league career, but Corporan had an offensive breakout in 2010, playing for Arizona’s Triple-A affiliate. A year after hitting .201/.250/.279 for the Brewers’ AAA squad, Corporan posted a .290/.356/.514 line. He needed that, since he’s a slightly-below-average defensive catcher and hadn’t done much offensively in years. It’ll be interesting to see if his breakout carries over to 2011, starting with, of course, spring training.
1B Brian Dopirak—I’m rooting hard for Dopirak, a former top slugging prospect in the Cubs organization who fell apart, suddenly came back to life in the Blue Jays organization, and then struggled again in his first full year in Triple-A. Now 27, Dopirak desperately needs plate discipline–he hit .274/.309/.454 in Triple-A last year. He makes decent contact for a slugger, and his ridiculous power is still there, but he’s got to stick with the approach that allows him to best deploy it. Dopirak’s in the right organization to get a chance, but he’s going to need to get off to a great start in spring training and carry that performance over into the season if he wants a long look in the bigs.
RHP Casey Fien—Fien’s only gotten 14 innings in the majors to establish himself, which is a shame, because he’s earned a longer look with his Triple-A performance. His two-seam/cutter/slurve repertoire isn’t going to wow anyone, but Fien throws strikes and gets a swing and miss here and there. Houston’s always looking for free talent, and Fien could be a nice find (pun not intended).
OF Jon Gaston–Gaston is a cautionary tale to those of us who see big numbers anywhere and assume the guy putting them up is destined for stardom. Lots jumped on the Gaston bandwagon in 2009, since he bashed 35 homers and hit .278/.367/.598. But the warning signs were everywhere–he played in the most hitter-friendly park in the minors, struck out 164 times, and had hit .193/.292/.285 the year before. Double-A and a neutral park caught up to him in a big way, as Gaston hit just 13 jacks in 2010 while failing to slug .400. Already 24, he’s not much of a prospect anymore, and he’ll need to get back on track in a hurry. He did cut down on the whiffs in 2010, for what it’s worth.
RHP Sammy Gervacio–Just a year after dominating the bigs for 21 innings, Gervacio had six terrible relief appearances and then missed essentially the rest of the year with arm troubles. His violent delivery probably has a lot to do with that, and throwing his slider more than his fastball can’t help either. Still, if he’s healthy again, Gervacio should be back to his dominant form and could slot into a high-leverage relief role again, just like he did in 2009. It’d be a shame if he didn’t get his stuff back, because he’s a lot of fun to watch.
INF Anderson Hernandez—Hernandez is really only on here because he’s played a number of games in the majors recently: he’s neither particularly interesting nor particularly likely to get much more MLB time. The career .241/.300/.314 hitter put up a weak .220/.286/.266 line last year, and while he’s a solid defender at second base, he’s stretched at short and doesn’t have much experience anywhere else. Now 28, he’ll need a Luis Rodriguez-style offensive breakout in Triple-A to get back on teams’ radars.
OF Andrew Locke—Locke isn’t much of a prospect, mainly because he’s 28 next week, but he does have solid track record. He hit .311/.365/.477 in High-A in 2008, .338/.389/.531 in Double-A in 2009, and .277/.336/.476 in Triple-A last year. Obviously, he was very old for all three levels, but Locke has a good deal of power and decent contact ability, never striking out over 20% of the time. You’ve got to give Locke credit for perseverance, and his bat has a chance to play in the bigs, but he’s not a good defender and has a reverse platoon split that doesn’t lend itself well to normal usage patterns.
RHP Jordan Lyles—One of baseball’s top pitching prospects, Lyles made it to Triple-A as a teenager and pitched solidly there last year. A polished 20-year-old with a huge arsenal of solid or better pitches, he could mature into a Zack Greinke-esque rotation rock on a team that may have a lot of question marks around him in coming seasons. Astros fans should be psyched for his arrival, and it’ll be interesting to see how he fares against big league competition this spring.
OF J.D. Martinez—Martinez has done nothing but hit since being drafted in the 20th round of the 2009 draft, posting a .343/.404/.553 line…and he never even got to play in the ping-pong environment of High-A Lancaster. While he slowed down a bit after jumping from Low-A to Double-A last year, he still hit well, and is clearly on the prospect map at age 23. While he’s not a bad corner outfielder, he’s not really much better than average either, so he’ll need to keep hitting–if he does, he could be on the big league squad by season’s end. He’s another prospect to be excited about, though not as much as Lyles.
INF Oswaldo Navarro—Navarro hit well in Triple-A last year (.271/.361/.424), but went 1-for-20 in the majors, though he did walk more times (5) than he struck out (4). A versatile defender, the 26-year-old could have some utility use, although his ’10 stint in AAA was the first time he’d hit in years, much like Corporan. In fact, he’d never before slugged over .333 in four other shots at the level. Let’s see him hit like that again; if he does, he’s probably a useful spare part. Navarro’s the sort of guy who could really boost his stock (whether you subscribe to ST stats or not, it’s true) by hitting .350 this spring.
RHP Jose Valdez—This lanky power pitcher is now 28 and has yet to crack the majors, but teams continue to gamble on his live arm. Valdez’s lean build doesn’t lend itself to durability, particularly given his sketchy mechanics, but when healthy, the reliever’s usually been good for 8-10 K/9–in fact, he’s been in that range every year since 2007. He missed almost all of last year, but threw well in 16 1/3 minor league innings. He’s the sort of guy who could come out of nowhere to do solid relief work–if he’s healthy, watch out for Valdez.