Back to the Astros’ Future

On July 12, MLB had its annual Futures Game showcasing some of the best prospects in baseball.  The Astros had two minor league players participating: Catcher Jason Castro and Pitcher Chia-Jen Lo.  While Castro is having a great season, Lo is not, but the Taiwanese pitcher was invited to fill out the World roster. The World ended up beating the US 7-5 with 4 runs in the top of the 7th

Lo pitched 1 inning, had 1 strikeout and gave up 2 walks that did not turn into any runs.  Not a stellar performance, but definitely not the embarrassing one that the losing pitcher, Trevor Reckling (Angels), had.  He ended the night with a 40.50 ERA, a loss and a blown save for two-thirds an inning of work.

Castro had an awesome game!  He had 2 at-bats, 1 hit, 1 run and 3 RBIs with a three-run homer in the bottom of the 5th inning with 2 outs.  It was a really great showing and further solidifies the Astros having found their catcher of the future.  He is tearing it up at Double-A.  So much so, that I now think it wouldn’t be a surprise for him to be in Triple-A by the end of the season.  He may be on the fast track to the majors for 2010.

Normally, I don’t like for players to be promoted so quickly, but he is really not having any problems in Corpus at the plate.  Of course, it depends on what he is doing behind the plate as well.  When I watched him play against San Antonio in June, he seemed to handle the pitching staff just fine, but had some problems guarding the plate.  He also had an issue throwing to third.  However, this was only one game and I would need to see more before I could make a decision on his catching prowess.

There is one thing that annoyed me about the Futures Game and it is that Castro didn’t get the MVP.  As per usual, they gave the MVP to someone from the winning team, and that’s the right call.  I guess I am just annoyed that if the US team had won, Castro probably would have gotten the MVP and it would have been nice for the Astros to get some recognition.

Everybody take a moment today and pray to God, Allah, Cthulhu or follow whatever ritual you believe in and ask him to please keep Drayton McClane from trading Jason Castro to another team for second half help.  Of all of the players we have in our minor league system, this is the one we need to keep the most.