Houston's Minor-League free agents

Baseball America has a handy little post with all 30 Major League teams' minor-league free agents. For our purposes, here are the Astros' minor-league free agents (with statistical context provided to you, free of charge, by Astros County):

Luis Alvarez
Alvarez has spent his entire career with the Astros, debuting as a 17-year old in the Venezuelan Summer League. The catcher played at four different levels in 2013 (Tri-City, Quad Cities, Lancaster, and Corpus), hitting .282/.340/.511 in 41 games.

Michael Burgess
Burgess spent 2007-2010 with the Nationals' organization before sliding over to the Cubs for 2011-2012. He landed with Corpus in 2013, where he hit .203/.278/.378 with 12HR in 98 games.

Cody Clark
Cody Clark - perhaps the most heart-warming story of 2013 - is a minor-league free agent. When Castro went down with the knee cyst and Max Stassi got plunked in the coconut, Clark - who had been in the minors since 2003 (645 games/2337 PAs) got called up. He didn't hit all that well, but he threw out seven of 13 base runners.

Sergio Escalona
Escalona threw in 49 games for the 2011 Astros, posting a 2.93 ERA/1.27 WHIP in 27.2IP as a LOOGY. He missed all of 2012 due to injury, and only threw 15IP in 2013 for Corpus, where he posted a 6.60 ERA/2.07 WHIP.

Murilo Gouvea
Gouvea came to the Astros from the White Sox in 2009, and did not pitch in 2013. For Lexington, in 2012, Gouvea was 2-7 with a 3.71 ERA/1.17 WHIP, with 87K:29BB in 77.2IP.

Cameron Lamb
24-year old Australian reliever Cameron Lamb threw for three Astros affiliated in 2013 for a total of 58.2IP, with a 4.60 ERA/1.52 WHIP with 40K:23BB. Oddly, his best stretch was 19 games for Lancaster, where he had a season-best 3.95 ERA/1.35 WHIP.


Che-Hsuan Lin
Lin came over to the Astros last off-season after spending his career in the Red Sox organization. He got three hits for the Red Sox in 2012 (two in his 2012 season finale against the Yankees). For OKC in 2013, Lin hit .234/.356/.309 with an impressive 56K:60BB. He's a career .253/.349/.339 hitter in the minors. 

Jose Martinez
Martinez, an infielder who spent most of his time in 2013 at 2B, played in 81 games for OKC hitting .282/.316/.410. He's a career .278/.326/.408 hitter between the Cardinals and Astros organizations. The Batguy wrote a nice thing about him in April 2012.


Carlos Quevedo
Quevedo has spent his entire career with the Astros' organization. In 2013, he threw 85IP between Lancaster and Corpus - but 81.2IP of those came at Double-A, where he allowed a 3.53 ERA/1.21 WHIP, with 59K:20BB and 14HR. He has a career walk rate of 1.5 BB/9 and a 4.64 K:BB ratio.

Former Astros on the list include:
Edwin Maysonet (CHC), Brian Bixler (NYM), Fernando Martinez (NYY), Travis Buck (SD), Jason Jaramillo (SEA), Travis Blackley (TEX), Jimmy VanOstrand (WSH) and Jason Michaels (WSH).

40-Man Roster changes

Aha! Now we have some tranzactionz of which we can speak, so let's see where we are now:

Outrighted off the 40-Man Roster:
Cody Clark, Phil Humber, Brandon Laird, Matt Pagnozzi

Added to the 40-Man Roster:
Jon Singleton, Raul Valdes

Declining Phil Humber's 2014 option will be probably the easiest move The Law Offices of Jeff Luhnow will make all off-season. The choice was, (a) Buy Humber out for $500,000 or (b) give him $3m to pitch in 2014. Seeing as how Humber posted a 7.90 ERA/1.74 WHIP in 54.2IP, allowing batters to hit .322/.375/.575. Humber made 17 appearances (seven starts) for the 2013 Astros, and had just two in which he didn't allow a run. The Astros were 1-16 in games Humber pitched.

It will be interesting to see if the Astros bring him back as a potential bullpen arm wait wait wait let me try to explain. Righties hit .189/.289/.349 (albeit with an insanely low .205 BABIP) against Humber, and his 7.90 ERA is a little misleading, since his FIP is 5.02 and xFIP is 4.61. Those aren't great numbers by any means, but if Humber can come in as a righty specialist, maybe there's some value there. I doubt other teams are lining up to inquire about Humber's services.

Raul Valdes, though, was picked up yesterday as a waiver claim from Philadelphia, Valdes, a 35-year old lefty reliever had the worst season of his four-year career in 2013 (while coming off the best season of his career). In 35IP for the Phillies, Valdes allowed 42H/29ER, 37K:8BB for a 7.46 ERA/1.43 WHIP. But Valdes really only had three bad outings:

April 5 vs. KC: 2IP, 7H/4ER
April 17 @ CIN: 3.1IP, 6H/5ER
And his lone start of the season on July 27 at Detroit in which he threw 3.2IP, giving up 12H/9ER, 3K:0BB.

Valdes is one of those pitchers whose secondary numbers are far better than his traditional stats. While, yes, his ERA was 7.46, his FIP was 4.39 while his xFIP was 3.74. He's probably not as good as his 2012 indicated - the 2.90 ERA (which is close to his 3.03 xFIP) was benefited by a .214 BABIP which regressed so hard in 2013 (.357 BABIP).

Cody Clark compares Springer to Wil Myers

In this here Notebook, we find that catcher Cody Clark has some high praise for George Herman (Babe) Springer, comparing him to Rays outfielder Wil Myers:

He's got unbelievable ability. I played this game a long time...and I haven't really seen that ability. The only guy I could maybe compare him to was Wil Myers, who was with us last year. Very similar players. Springer can run better than Wil. As far as power and the way they swing the bat, those two guys are better than everybody else I've seen.

He's got a point. In 2012, Myers put up a .987 OPS between Double-A NW Arkansas and Triple-A Omaha (where he played with Clark) with - hey - 37 home runs. Myers is hitting .286/.352/.446 in 59 games for Tampa Bay this season. That would be very nice.

Cody Clark is getting promoted

Judging from a few tweets over the last few hours, and now confirmed by OKC play-by-play man Alex Freedman, Max Stassi will head to the 7-Day DL with a mild concussion, and Cody Clark will serve as the backup catcher in Houston.

This will be Clark's, who will be 32 next month, first call-up to the Majors, having been drafted by the Rangers in 2003 out of Wichita State and logging 645 games behind the plate in 11 seasons. For Oklahoma City this season, he's hitting .217/.258/.273 in 44 games.

Update: From the Astros:

The Astros have placed rookie catcher Max Stassi on the 7-day concussion disabled list, General Manager Jeff Luhnow announced today. 

Luhnow also announced that the Astros have selected catcher Cody Clark from Corpus Christi (AA) to replace Stassi on the Major League roster. Clark, who will wear #39, will join the Astros today in Houston. 

Stassi, 22, sustained a mild concussion after being hit by a pitch in the face while batting in the 8th inning on Wednesday night vs. the Rangers in Arlington. As a result, he underwent X-rays and a CAT scan at the Medical Center of Arlington, which revealed no facial fractures. He underwent tests for a concussion on Thursday in Houston. Stassi's DL stint is backdated to yesterday. 

Stassi was 2x6 with an RBI in his first two Major League games this week vs. the Rangers after being selected from Corpus Christi on Tuesday. At Corpus, he hit .277 in 76 games with 20 doubles, 17 HR and 60 RBI with a .529 slugging pct. Stassi was the TOPPS Texas League Player of the Month for July (.333, 11 HR, 24 RBI, .782 SLG, 1.186 OPS).
This will be the first Major League stint for Clark, who appeared in a combined 46 games at Corpus (2g) and Triple A Oklahoma City (44g).