Castro Invades Corpus Christi

(Quite possibly my best headline ever…)

In case you missed it, Jason Castro was moved to the Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks on Sunday.  His numbers with the Lancaster Jethawks have been great and the Astros want to move him up to give him a chance to experience a quicker speed of the game.

“We’re going to evaluate him on a daily basis. But I think realistically he’s going to benefit more from being in Double-A this year with a little bit better pitching staff, where the speed of the game is going to be a little different,” assistant general manager Ricky Bennett said.

This is a great move for Jason and a positive step for the Astros’ future.  They wouldn’t have moved him if they didn’t think he could handle it and obviously they think he is ready at and behind the plate.

“We’re very excited about where he is in his development process,” said Bennett.  “He’s handled every challenge we put in front of him. His game-calling is better, his blocking is better, his throwing has been outstanding and he’s ready for another challenge. We are ready to move him through the system.”

It also gives Castro a chance to work with former big league catcher and current Hooks manager Luis Pujols.  It’s always a good idea to get a veteran to talk to a rookie especially if it is a catcher.  I am sure Jason will soak in a wealth of information. Of course, there is the worry that they are moving him up too fast, but they will know pretty quickly if it was too soon.  My bet is that Castro will do well.  The next question is: Will Castro be at Triple-A by the end of the season?

“We’re going to evaluate him on a daily basis. But I think realistically he’s going to benefit more from being in Double-A this year with a little bit better pitching staff, where the speed of the game is going to be a little different,” said Bennett.

In other words… no, he will not be in Round Rock for the 2009 season, but don’t forget that Houston is wanting Castro to compete for the starting job next year for the Astros.  I’m not sure how he will do that if he doesn’t play in Triple-A.  Promoting him straight from Double-A would be a huge mistake.

2009 MLB Draft

The draft begins tonight at 5 PM CT.  You can watch it on the MLB Network or online at MLB.com. The Astros have the 21st pick overall and, as usual, the brass is saying that they will pick the best player available.  It drives me nuts when they say that because I don’t believe that they don’t have any idea as to what they are looking for.  (If they don’t, then we have big issues unless the plan is ‘we need help everywhere’ or ‘what does it matter? Drayton is going to trade them away anyway’.)

What do the Astros need?  We have some good arms and bats in Single-A, but not enough to put together a big league roster and some of them will end up being trade bait.  In my opinion, we need pitching.  Badly.  (We need offense too, but Not As Badly.)

On Monday, Astros assistant general manager in charge of scouting Bobby Heck met with the media to discuss the Astros first pick in the draft.  He didn’t say anything that would tell us who they will pick, but he did say that the draft had alot of high school pitching and was lacking in college bats.  He also said that they probably wouldn’t be looking at catching.

“Where we’re at as an organization it’s still adding a depth of quality to our organization. If there’s one thing that we might walk past, all things being equal, is catching. Jason Castro is on his way to Double-A right now and there’s a lot of young catching we like in our system. If I have two players at positions that are side by side and one’s a catcher, I’d opt for another position.”

At MyMLBDraft‘s mock draft, they show the Astros taking Mike Trout who is a centerfielder from Millville High School in New Jersey.  Mike has a good work ethic and he moved from pitcher to shortstop to outfield last year when scouts told him he had a better future in the outfield. Trout was named the 2009 Gatorade Player of the Year in New Jersey

“He can run and he can throw,” the scout said. “He certainly could walk into the big leagues and run and throw with a lot of the guys that are playing there now. But he couldn’t walk into a big league game today and hit or hit with power. It’s something that he’s going to have to learn.”

This goes against my feelings that we need more starting pitching, but as we have seen by my terrible predictions in the past, I am not a draft expert.  Keep in mind that this is a mock draft. It doesn’t really mean anything past the first couple of players. MLBDraftSite has the Astros taking pitcher Matt Hobgood.  The Sporting News has Houston drafting pitcher Rex Brothers. NowPublic has them taking outfielder Tim Wheeler.  So it really is anybody’s guess.

For a great article about Bobby Heck’s thoughts, be sure to visit Brian McTaggart’s blog.  He also talks about Jason Castro’s move to Corpus Christi.