The Astros will promote right-handed pitching prospect Vincent Velasquez today, reports MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart. He will start Wednesday’s game against the White Sox, according to McTaggart.
Velasquez entered the season ranked No. 56 on the Top 100 prospect list of ESPN’s Keith Law. He currently ranks 74th on MLB.com’s list, and he also ranked 75th according to both Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs and to Baseball Prospectus prior to Opening Day. Suffice it to say, the 2010 second-round pick is regarded as one of the most promising young arms in all of baseball.
Law says that Velasquez has the aresenal of No. 2 starter, including a 93-96 mph fastball, a plus changeup and a slider that sits 82-84 mph but still needs work, as it tends to flatten out. The consensus on Velasquez is that he may rank higher on all of these lists with a better track record of health. He missed the 2011 season due to Tommy John surgery and had a pair of non-arm-related injuries in 2014 that limited him to 63 2/3 innings. McDaniel adds that his arm troubles date back even to his high school days, where he had a stress fracture in his elbow and a ligament strain during his junior year. His 2015 season didn’t begin until May 8, but in five starts at the Double-A, Velasquez has worked to a 1.37 ERA with 37 strikeouts against nine walks in 26 1/3 innings.
For the Astros, Velasquez will be the second highly touted young arm to join their rotation in the past month or so. Right-hander Lance McCullers Jr., a 2012 first-rounder and Velasquez’s Double-A teammate as recently as four weeks ago, has made a nearly seamless transition to the Majors by tossing 24 innings of 1.88 ERA ball.
The need for reinforcements in Houston’s rotation is palpable. Despite the brilliant season of ace Dallas Keuchel (1.85 ERA in a league-leading 87 2/3 innings) and that excellent effort from McCullers, the Astros have a collective 4.14 ERA from their rotation, which ranks 17th in the Majors. Collin McHugh has yet to rediscover his 2014 breakout form, Scott Feldman had an ERA of 4.80 before going down for about six weeks with knee surgery, and Roberto Hernandez has a 5.18 ERA to show for his 66 innings of work. Brett Oberholtzer, Sam Deduno, Brad Peacock and Asher Wojciechowski have all made starts as well but have produced a mix of ineffective performances and injuries to this point.
McTaggart writes that Velasquez will be taking Hernandez’s spot in the rotation, so it would seem that the 23-year-old Velasquez (he turned 23 yesterday) has a chance to nail down a permanent rotation spot with an impressive performance. Presently, he’ll join Keuchel, McHugh, McCullers and Oberholtzer in the rotation, though Feldman will be back in about five weeks and presumably step back into the rotation.
“nearly seemless transition to the Majors by tossing 24 of 1.88 ERA ball in 24 innings.”
Seems redundant.
But you got the point right?
There are a few mistakes here and there, but these guys are just bloggers, not writers.
Let me see if I understand this: “writers” don’t make typos but “bloggers” do, or something? The reason you see less typos in newspapers is that they have an editorial process that screens it out to the extent possible. We write in real-time, so inevitably more errors slip through.
Feel free to criticize anyone who writes on this (or any other) website for their actual work, but let’s not pretend there is some inherent difference between people who write primarily on the internet and those who generally have their words published first in print.
FWIW, I have spent plenty of time on the other side of the fence (legal writing generally has an even more stringent editorial process than print journalism), so I’m not just speaking as a defensive blogger (though I may also be that).
…and MLBTR still has better editing than The World Wide Leader…
Jeff cmon, legal writing is the most redundant form of writing there is and probably contains more typos than any other form of writing in existence.
You mad about being called a blogger? Personally I don’t consider this site a blog, but tim should spring for some kind of editorial staff. He sure has enough advertising space on the page to generate the $$$.
Oh shut up. There are very few typos on this site. I see more on CNN’s front page. These guys know what they’re doing, and you’re reading for free, so don’t tell them how to spend their money. It’s tedious.
Wow, they’re definitely going for it! I love it. Some of these moves might help out immediately and some might not but this is great to see.
with the likely super 2 deadline now passed, we’ll probably see a lot of teams start calling guys up. keep your trigger finger ready if you play fantasy.
We’ll see. I’m guessing he’s the best option to tread water until they can acquire a veteran or two to fill the rotation.
VV is amazing and the top pitcher in the Astros entire system (ahead of Lance McCullers and Appel) in terms of stuff. He would have been a top 50 rated prospect easy, but he has had some injury problems. If he can stay on the field, he is completely legit.
Man, they’re bringing “let the kids play” to a whole new level.
They are hungry in Houston, bringing up all the talent. No pressure kid!
We suffered through multiple 100 loss seasons, and that was after the former owner depleted the farm system, chased away the veteran broadcasters, whom we loved, and forced us to watch guys like Clint Barmes and Bil Hall. We needed Luhnow, bad to come in here and turn this thing around. I don’t want to ever seen young guys rushed and overworked and ruined, like Prior and Wood, but I think management has a handle on things. We’re feeling pretty good so far!
And, of course, we still have a ton of work to do, obviously. The team BA is very weak and it is early. Anything can happen. We are not expecting miracles in H-Town. We just want to have some hope.
You jerk! I had mercifully forgotten about Bill Hall.
Yeah, sorry, man. That was pretty thoughtless. Hey, I wonder what Kaz Matsui is doing now.
Just having a little fun, I think its great, and love seeing these announcements.
Oh absolutely! All in good fun, but I have to agree: The thought of Bill Hall kinda made me queasy, as well. Valsquez looked pretty decent. A little shakey, but impressive.
Interesting contrast in approach between the Twins and Astros. As they jockey for 1st place in the AL (seems strange to say) the Astros have been fairly aggressive with their prospects while the Twins have stayed the course. Will be interesting to see how it plays out for both clubs, perhaps both or neither will work. Long term both clubs look promising but I’ll be rooting for them this year.
You have to wonder if the Astros are showcasing some of these guys for trades. When you hoard prospects like they have you literally can not keep them all. Obviously Correa seems to be a no go but I would be shocked if either McCullers or Velasquez isn’t moved before season’s end.
Really? Why? They seem to have better stuff than Peacock or Oberholtzer- why would you trade good youth when it’s also cheap and under control?
If the stros as still rolling come July they will almost certainly be in the market for Hamels or Cueto
Don’t tell David Moriarity that. Hamels is going to the Rangers.
If McCullers and Velasquez pitch well, the need for a Hamels or Cueto will be substantially less. They’ll probably be shut down by the playoffs, so I think the Astros might be interested in a veteran rental to pitch in the playoffs (if they’re still rolling), but a rental wouldn’t require McCullers or Velasquez.
Those guys aren’t going anywhere. This isn’t a showcase for anything. We are not “one or two players away” from anything. Those were the mistakes of the previous management team here in Houston.
The Astros have a great young core and are going to be good for a long time. However, it’s never good to overlook proven post season talent. Hamels is a World Series MVP. Granted that was years ago but he proved he can pitch when it matters. That is valuable on any team.
The Astros system is deep enough that they would be foolish to not go after Hanels
Love seeing teams call up more than one of their top prospects during a single season.they done called up like 3 or so.
It is going to be interesting to see how Hinch, on the field, and the “youngsters” on the field, settle into the months of June and July. The Astros are on a 4-game skid, and the call-ups of the pups may be the front offices’ way of injecting a little “life” back into the club. Granted, early, some guys were playing over their heads, as baseball is a sport where you must adapt quickly, because the veterans will. I would guess the young Astros come back down to earth somewhat, but could still surprise a lot of people. Seems to contrast the Twins, where Molitor just let his players play, even from the rough start. Interesting styles.
I think a LOT of the astros recent woes can be traced back to Lowrie going down. Not immediate, but losing his bat- it’s potential average- and his glove had long term ramifications. Villar’s glove has lost them games and doesn’t have the bat to make up for it.
Now, If Gattis can keep heating up, Springer can get up to .250 or so, marisnick and tucker stay where they are… lowrie comes back and plays 3rd/first… carter- well, I don’t know what to do with him. He can carry you if he starts hitting… but I don’t get the feeling that’s going to happen any time soon.
If correa can hit .240 and have a good fielding %, that’s a plus to this team. If this guy pitches to a 4 era, that’s a plus to this team. It all means more wins. Even though the astros are in the lead, there’s a lot of room for improvement. I think these guys can help.
What do you think is going on with Carter? He seems to have really reverted this year.
I have no idea- but I was a proponent of trading him this off season when his value was high.
He had a slow start last year too (OPS of .599, .784, and .631 the first three months versus .521, .759, and .903 this year). If he doesn’t maintain his hot June, I imagine Singleton gets a shot soon.