B.J. Hyatt out until 2011

The Examiner posted an interview with the Astros' 2009 4th Round pick, pitcher B.J. Hyatt.

Last week, he visited Astros team medical director Dr. David Lintner at The Methodist Hospital in order to undergo labrum surgery. This injury affected his performance at Greeneville, and continued to linger throughout minor league camp in Spring Training.

Since it wasn't showing consistent improvement, Astros assistant general manager of player development Ricky Bennett decided it was time to take care of the issue through surgery.

Hyatt:
"Everything was real clean. Dr. Lintner told me the rotator cuff was perfect and that I should go on to have a long career. I felt the pain in my shoulder area last season. I'll be 100 percent by eight months and will be throwing again within four months."

B.J. Hyatt is going back to Greeneville

2009 4th-Round pick pitcher B.J. Hyatt is heading back to Greeneville after a brutal season.

It'll be interesting to see the role the Astros have in mind for Hyatt. As a starter for the Gastros, Hyatt posted an 8.84 ERA/2.17 WHIP. Ouch, right? Well, as a reliever, Hyatt dropped that to 1.64 ERA/1.36 WHIP.

Mayo, on the Astros' 2009 draft class

Jonathan Mayo has a look at the Astros' 2009 draft class:

Houston went the high-school route with their first four picks, clearly going with who they thought was the best available player in each spot instead of perhaps going with "safer" college players who could conceivably get to the big leagues faster. They did make up for that later on with a slew of college and junior-college picks. The final tally showed 27 of the 36 players signed did come from those ranks...

...And perhaps most important, the Astros didn't waste any time getting this talent going in the system. With just one exception, every pick who signed did so before June was over. If nothing beats experience, then the Astros are way ahead of the game with this Draft class.

On Jiovanni Mier:
The top high-school shortstop in the Draft class, Mier should actually be able to stay at short thanks to a great arm, smooth actions and good range. He impressed those who saw him in the Appalachian League during his debut on both sides of the ball. He hit .276/.380/.484 over 192 at-bats and looks like the Astros hitting prospect with the highest upside throughout the system.

On Tanner Bushue:
Bushue didn't get to pitch a ton even though he signed quickly because of a back injury. He did get in 22 1/3 Gulf Coast League innings, posting a 2.42 ERA and .220 batting average against, striking out 19 and walking just five. He's expected to be fine for Spring Training and it should be interesting to see how this projectable right-hander progresses when healthy.

On Telvin Nash:
Coming from the same high school as 2008 No. 1 overall pick Tim Beckham, Nash has some serious raw power. He didn't show much of it during his debut in the GCL, where he hit .218/.280/.324 with 45 strikouts in 40 games. He did show some improvement with a .259/.317/.379 August, but he'll have to tighten up his swing some so he can tap into that power potential.

On Jonathan Meyer:
Taken in the compensation round following the third, thanks to not signing 2008 third-rounder Chase Davidson, Meyer was a versatile high schooler who played the infield, caught and pitched. The Astros are developing him as a third baseman and he has the chance to be a good one. He started switch-hitting not long ago and while he's behind from the left side, it looks like it might work. He played 62 games for Rookie League Greeneville alongside Mier and hit .190/.301/.299 with 69 strikeouts in 221 at-bats.

On B.J. Hyatt:
The Astros love the pre-Draft workout and Hyatt is one who likely got taken and signed because of how he looked in his workout with the team. He's strong-armed and projectable and his stats with Greeneville as a junior-college product might point to his future role: 1.64 ERA, 11 strikeouts in 11 innings as a reliever; 8.36 ERA in 8 1/3 innings, 18 hits allowed, nine walks and four strikeouts in three starts.

Sleeper Picks:
Dallas Keuchel, J.D. Martinez, Grant Hogue, and Mike Schurz

Projected Fast-Riser:
The Astros used Boston College senior sign James Macdonald (18th round) as a reliever with Tri-City and he pitched well in that role. Should he stay there, he could get there sooner than most.

Greeneville Astros: B.J. Hyatt

B.J. Hyatt
How did he get here?: Drafted, 4th Round (2009)
Stats: 6'4", 205 lbs, Throws: Right
Age as of April 1, 2010: 21

Splits!

Split	IP	ERA/WHIP	K:BB	BAA
Season	19.1	8.84/2.17	15:12	.349
as Reliever	11	1.64/1.36	11:3	.273
as Starter	8.1	18.36/3.24	4:9	.429
vs LHB	6.1	9.95/2.21	3:7	.292
vs RHB	13	8.31/2.15	12:5	.371
Home	12	8.25/1.92	9:9	.286
Away	7.1	9.82/2.59	6:3	.432
Bases Empty	8.1	x/2.16	8:5	.333
Runners On	11	x/2.18	7:7	.362
w/RISP	8.1	x/1.56	6:4	.290
June	2	0.00/1.50	3:1	.250
July	14	10.93/2.43	7:10	.375
August	3.1	5.40/1.50	5:1	.286

Season Total
K/9 Rate: 7.0
BB/9 Rate: 5.6
Groundout/Flyout Rate: 0.72
K:BB Ratio: 1.25

/slow-whistling. This was rough. It was probably a good idea to move him into a relief role, if only for the three-game starting stint from July 7-18, in which Hyatt gave up 17 ER in 8.1IP. There's a lot to take in here, such as the tendency to give up fly balls (but only two homers), and the high walk-rate, and the high batting average against. But we're still judging a pitcher by 19.1IP, and that just ain't fair.

Citizen Steve, what say you on BJ Hyatt?
Throws hard, but without much command. Very raw, and saw limited action due to overuse in college. I expect we'll get a better picture of him next year.

Oh heck, and yes

Sweet picture in the Astros County inbox last night:
Here we have, from left to right, Grant Hogue, Aaron Bray, and B.J. Hyatt. And that's a Proof of Citizenship. Thanks to our boy, the adopted Aaron Bray. This is the first documented case of someone receiving an Astros' paycheck with a Proof of Citizenship. Download your own on the right and send it to astroscounty@hotmail.com.

Eddie's Farm: July 12

Eddie's Farm goes 1-5 yesterday in a brutal string of games. Lexington was off, Tri-City played a double header..

Round Rock
Round Rock got dropped 3-1 in a loss at Nashville - and I'm really happy (dripping sarcasm, in case any Cubs fans are reading) I missed all of these games this time around. All of the scoring took place in the 2nd inning, and the Express managed just five hits, only one for extra bases - a triple of Mark Saccomanno. Yorman Bazardo pitched 6IP, 6H/3ER, 1K:1BB.

Corpus
Outhit Northwest Arkansas 11-5, but lost 5-1. Sutil, DeLome, and Einertson had multi-hit games, but again, only one extra base hit - a 9th inning RBI triple from Brian Esposito. New Hooks signee Kenny Baugh threw 6IP, 4H/4ER, 1K:1BB, and Tyler Lumsden lowered his ERA to 7.94 with 2IP, 1H/0ER, 3K.

Lancaster
Inland Empire jumped on the JetHawks with six runs in the first two innings, and then held on to win 8-5. Multi-hit games from Shuck (2x2 with three walks), Suarez, Gaston, Clemens, and David Flores gave the JetHawks a chance, but the pitching just wasn't there. Flores and Matt Weston connected for homers and the 1-2-3 of Shuck-Suarez-Gaston went a combined 6x11 with 1K:4BB and three extra-base hits. Chris Hicks got the loss with 2IP, 7H/4ER (6 total), 2K:2BB. Shane Wolf picked up the next five innings and held the 66ers to 5IP, 4H/1ER, 5K:0BB.
Lexington call-up Ashton Mowdy closed out the game with 2IP, 3H/1ER, 5K:0BB and 2WP.

Tri-City
In Game 1, the ValleyCats scraped only four hits in a 3-0 loss to Oneonta. Brian Kemp, of course, got one of those hits, and is now hitting .347 - the only starter in yesterday's game with an average over .250. Colton Pitkin threw a 7IP complete game, giving up 9H/3ER, 2K:0BB.

In Game 2, same score, but this time six hits for the ValleyCats in the 3-0 loss. Kemp got another hit, as did Wikoff, Russell Dixon (hitting .306), Erik Castro, J.D. Martinez, and Pedro Gonzalez. Robby Donovan took the loss with 3IP, 3H/1ER (3R total). J.B. MacDonald got 4Ks in 3IP.

Greeneville
And we finally have a winner for Eddie's Farm as Greeneville had a 12-2 lead at the end of three innings - including a 7-run 3rd inning - to win 13-7 against Pulaski. Jose Altuve was 3x5, Miguel Arrendell was 2x4 with a 3-run homer and Jiovanni Mier, Nathan Metroka, and Aaron Bray all had 2RBI for the Gastros. Mier is now hitting .317. B.J. Hyatt continues to have a rough go of it, with 6H/6ER in 3.2IP, to go along with 3BB and 2HR - his ERA is now 10.45. Angel Gonzalez got the win with 1ER in 4IP to lower his ERA to 14.73.

Eddie's Farm: July 7

Eddie's Farm went 4-2 last night.

Round Rock
Round Rock's offense struggled against a rehabbing Kyle Lohse last night in a 3-1 loss to Memphis. Yordany got two of the Express' five hits - and no regular starter is currently hitting above .275. Yorman Bazardo took the loss, giving up 2ER in 8IP with 6K:1BB.

Corpus Christi
Northwest Arkansas jumped out to a 6-0 lead by the fourth inning, and managed to finish it off with a 9-2 win over Corpus. Sutil and Florentino got the only two hits for the Hooks last night. Sergio Perez went 4IP, 7H/5ER, 1K:3BB for the loss. New Hook Charlie Weatherby III gave up 3H/2ER in 2IP, Ryan McKeller went 2IP, 4H/1ER, and T.J. Burton threw the only scoreless inning for the Hooks.

Lancaster
The JetHawks blew up for four runs in the final three innings to defeat Rancho Cucamonga 7-3. Only David Flores didn't get a hit last night, as T.J. Steele was 3x5 (now hitting .359), while Gabe Suarez, Jon Gaston, Matt Weston, and Koby Clemens each had two hits. Jack Shuck hit his first homer of the season and stole his 17th base of the season in 23 attempts, and the JetHawks had three two-out runs on the night. Chris Hicks bumped his record to 8-5 with 6IP, 5H/1ER, 2K:2BB and Chris Salamida closed it out with 3IP, 2H/1ER, 2K:0BB.

Lexington
Ebert Rosario scored Eric Suttle with two outs in the bottom of the 9th to defeat Rome 1-0 last night. The Legends had five hits - three doubles, two of them Rosario's - in the pitcher's duel that saw Jordan Lyles drop the hammer on Rome with 7IP, 7H/0ER, 10K:1BB and Brian Wabick throw two hitless innings for the win. Lyles' ERA is now 2.92.

Tri-City
The ValleyCats got two runs in the 2nd, and then held on for a 2-1 win over Lowell. Russell Dixon got his 4th RBI of the season and Colton Pitkin moved his record to 2-2 with a 5.1IP, 5H/0ER, 6K:4BB performance. Antonio Noguera threw 2IP, 3H/1ER and J.B. MacDonald got his first save of the season with 1.2IP, 2H/0ER, 3K:0BB.

Greeneville
The Greeneville Astros got out to an 8-2 lead after two innings, and then had to hold on for a 13-10 win over Kingsport. Jonathan Meyer was 3x5, Grant Hogue 3x4, and Jose Altuve, Miguel Arrendell, J.D. Martinez, and Aaron Bray had two hits each. The 4-5-6 of Martinez, Meyer, and Bray went 7x15 with 3 doubles and 6RBI. The pitching wasn't much to shout about: B.J. Hyatt went 2IP, 7H/6ER, while Angel Gonzalez got the win despite throwing 1.2IP, 3H/4ER, 2K:2BB. Juri Perez and David Martinez closed out the game with 5.1IP, 2H/0ER, 6K:1BB.

Draft Day Update: B.J. Hyatt

4th round pick B.J. Hyatt is getting ready to head to Greeneville.

Hyatt:
“We wrote down a (monetary) number that if it were met, I’d sign immediately. This is like a dream come true. My next goal is to make it to the major leagues. My goal is to be able to control my fastball, to be able to work it inside and outside within the strike zone. I had a couple of mechanical flaws and I hope doing this every day I’ll be able to fix it.”


On having Tommy John surgery during his senior year of high school:
“I knew I was going to have to work real hard to get back to where I was after that surgery,. It took awhile to get back to where I wanted to be. I had to reteach myself to pitch. I just continued to work to get better.

Bobby Heck chat recap

Bobby Heck conducted a chat yesterday about the draft. Allow me to break it down for you, so you don't have to read the Chronicle. Also note that Bobby Heck let it slip they signed 3rd-Round Comp pick Jonathan Meyer.

On the Astros' best steal of the draft:
Probably Dallas Keuchel was a guy we thought dollar for dollar, although we haven't signed him yet because he's in the College World Series. He is a college lefthander in the SEC who had success, and you usually don't find him in the seventh round.

Late-round happiness:
29th rounder Garen Wright a center fielder from Putnam High in Oklahoma. He was a multi-sport athlete in high school. His size and athleticism are very intriguing. He turned down multiple Division I basketball scholarship offers. He also turned down multiple Division I baseball scholarships. He wanted to get out and play. He's a not a fast-track guy. He's more of a developmental players. We're excited about his tools and upside. It's fair to say he wasn't treated like a 29th rounder.

On 2nd-round pick Tanner Bushue:
He's an athletic kid with a natural athletic and simple delivery and good arm action. We project him to have a plus fastball and a plus curveball and to be a good strike thrower. We're comfortable at this time saying he projects as a major league starter.

On Jason Castro's progress:
He's been in Double-A for a week now and is hitting over .350. There's still more work for him to be major-league ready, but just a year ago he was in Omaha with Stanford at the College World Series and now he's halfway to the big leagues. That says a lot about the progress he's made.

On how the Astros assign players to the Single-A level:
Tri-City is geared mostly toward college players. The NY-Penn league is mostly toward college players. The Appalachian League is geared to second-year profesional players, advanced high school draft picks and junior college draft picks. The Gulf Coast League is more a first-year landing spot for players from Latin America as well as some of your high school draft who may need additional acclimation to profesional baseball.

On 4th Round pick Telvin Nash:
We see Nash as a potential power hitter with 30-plus home run potential. He was another two-sport athlete from the Atlanta Area. Griffin High school, the same high school Tim Beckham, who was the first pick in the 2008 draft. Telvin passed on some Division I football scholarships and needs to catch up as far as games he's missed in the falls when he played football while others were playing baseball.

On Danny Meszaros:
That's exciting for a kid that wen't from the 48th round in last year. Clarence Johns and I signed him in a Courtyard Hotel in Cape Cod. He went straight from there to Tri-City, had success there and has had continued success at Lexington and to Double A. I'm very proud of him, happy for him and happy for the Astros.

Best pitches:
Best fastball is shared by fourth-rounder B.J. Hyatt and 17th rounder Justin Harper, both of whom throw up to 95-mph. Best curveball is Tanner Bushue, the second-round pick. Best changeup is possessed by 7th-rounder Dallas Keuchel.

On P Mark Jones:
This is a pitcher that was dug up by our area scout Everett Stull, our area scout in the mid atlantic states who is a former major league pitcher. He thinks he has a chance to be a starter down the road. He thought he'd have a 3-4 pitch mix when it was all said and done and liked the progress he made in the spring.

Astros sign 4th Round pick

The Astros have signed 4th Round pick pitcher BJ Hyatt, and he will report to Greeneville.

Draft update: B.J. Hyatt

4th round pick B.J. Hyatt:

Hyatt never put up great numbers as far as pitching statistics go in his two years with the University of South Carolina Sumter. However, the right-hander was able to present these intangible numbers — 6 feet, 4 inches tall, 205 pounds and pitches that consistently hit 93-94 miles per hour on a speed gun — to cause Major League Baseball scouts to salivate.

Head coach Tom Fleenor, on whether the Astros drafted Hyatt on potential:
“That’s pretty much hitting the nail on the head,” said USC Sumter head coach Tom Fleenor. “If anybody can reach it it’s BJ because of his tremendous work ethic. I’m just happy that BJ is getting this opportunity.”

Hyatt:
"I’m real excited. I’m ready to get everything taken care of and start working. It will definitely be easier because all I’ll be worrying about is baseball. I won’t have to be concerned with classes. I’ll be working with professional coaches who will help me develop my skills."

On signing:
Hyatt said representatives from the Astros are supposed to be in Greenville today to negotiate a contract. He said it would take a major roadblock for him not to come to terms.

With the 131st pick...

...The Astros select Bralion (BJ) Hyatt, a 6'4" 205lb RHP from Univ South Carolina - Sumter.

Hyatt has had Tommy John surgery, but did pitch for USC-Sumter this past season. His line?

32.1IP, 33H/26ER, 31K:19BB, 7.24 ERA / 1.61 WHIP.