Henry Sosa got a new Kia

Ok, not exactly. Alyson Footer just tweeted that Henry Sosa, acquired in the Jeff Keppinger trade last season and until just recently pitching for OKC, has had his contract rights sold to the Kia Tigers of the KBO. That leaves a rotation spot open at AAA, so we'll likely have another roster move to report soon.

PreStros Farm Report: April 20

PreStros: April 20

Oklahoma City (12-4) 

The RedHawks completed the series sweep in Nashville (MIL) as they beat the Sounds 2-1.

Henry Sosa threw 7 shutout innings, allowing just 4 H and 1 BB. Enerio Del Rosario pitched 1 scoreless inning with 1 H and 1 K. Jose Valdez got the save with 1 IP, allowing 1 R on 1 H.

LF-JB Shuck was 2x4 with 1 R. 2B-Jimmy Paredes went 2x4 with 1 2B and 1 RBI

Man of the Match: Henry Sosa

Corpus Christi (6-8) 

The Hooks were involved in their third straight shutout, but this time Corpus came out on the winning end as they beat Frisco (TEX) 6-0.

Brett Oberholtzer dominated, going 7 innings and giving up just 3 H and 1 HBP with 8 K. Kevin Chapman finished out the final 2 innings with 3 H and 2 K.

LF-Austin Wates was 2x4 with 1 R and 1 SB. 1B-Jonathan Singleton was 1x4 with 1 solo HR. DH-Brandon Barnes went 2x4 with 2 solo HR. C-Chris Wallace was 2x3 with 1 BB, 1 R, and 1 SB. SS/3B-Andy Simunic went 2x3 with 1 RBI, 1 R, and 1 SB.

Man of the Match: Brett Oberholtzer

Lancaster (5-10) 

Fans in Lake Elsinore (SD) witnessed a rare California League pitcher’s duel as the JetHawks fell 2-1.

Wes Musick pitched a complete game in the loss, going 8 innings and giving up 2 R on 6 H, 1 BB, and 1 HBP with 6 K.

Lancaster managed just three hits in the game. DH-Erik Castro was 1x4 with 1 R. 2B-Kike Hernandez was 1x3. C-Rene Garcia went 1x3.

Man of the Match: Wes Musick

Lexington (6-10) 

The Legends battled through a back and forth game against Kannapolis (CHW) and came away with the victory 6-4.

Kyle Hallock was knocked around a bit, but held out long enough to get the win with 5 IP, giving up 4 R on 11 H and 1 BB with 4 K. Carlos Quevedo quieted the Intimidators’ bats with 3 IP allowing just 1 H and 1 BB with 4 K. Jason Chowning maintained his 0.00 season ERA with 1 IP with 1 HBP.

2B-Delino DeShields was 3x5 with 1 R and 2 SB. 1B-Zach Johnson went 2x3 with 1 BB and 2 RBI. 3B-Matt Duffy was 2x5 with 1 R. SS-Alex Todd went 2x4 with 1 R and 1 RBI.

Man of the Match: Carlos Quevedo

Tri-City (0-0) 

Season begins June 18.

Greeneville (0-0) 

Season begins June 19.

GCL Astros (0-0) 

Season begins June 18.

DSL Astros (0-0) 

Season schedule not yet posted. Opening Day June 2nd.

PreStros Farm Report: April 9

PreStros: April 9

Oklahoma City (4-1) 

The RedHawks used just one inning to beat the Sounds 4-2 Monday night. After being no-hit through four innings, OKC scored all four runs in the 5th as they batted around in the inning.

Henry Sosa pitched well through 4 innings, allowing 1 run on 4 hits and 2 walks with 4 strikeouts and picking a runner off 1st before giving way to a quartet of OKC relievers. Not all at once, of course; that would be against the rules.

The RedHawk batters managed just 5 singles all game, but thankfully they were all bunched together. LF-Fernando Martinez was 1x3 with 2 RBI and 1 BB. C-Landon Powell was 1x2 with 1 R and 1 BB. 2B-Jimmy Paredes went 1x3 with 1R/1RBI.

Man of the Match: Henry Sosa

Corpus Christi (3-2) 

After being down 4-1 in the 6th inning, Corpus stormed back to win 7-4 on a walkoff 3R HR by Jacob Goebbert

Starter Jake Buchanan battled through 5.1 innings, giving up 4 runs on 8 hits and 1 BB with 6 K. Kevin Chapman threw 1.2 scoreless innings allowing 1 hit with 3K/1BB and went 1x1 at the plate with a single. Josh Zeid finished the game for the win with 2 no-hit innings with 3K/1BB.

LF-Austin Wates continued his assault on AA pitching as he went 3x5 with 1 R. CF-TJ Steele was 1x4 with a 2R HR and 3K. RF-Jake Goebbert went 2x5 with 2R/3RBI and 1 HR.

Man of the Match: Jake Goebbert

Lancaster (1-4) 

Lancaster got their first win of the season at Rancho Cucamonga as the shutout the Quakes 6-0.

Wes Musick pitched well through 5 scoreless innings as he gave up 4 hits and 1 BB with 6K. Pat Urckfitz, Kirk Clark, and Jorge De Leon finished out the shutout.

1B-Rafy Valenzuela was 2x5 with 1R. DH-Telvin Nash went 3x5 with 1 2B and 1R/1RBI. 3B-Jonathan Meyer was 3x5 with 2R/3RBI, 1 HR, 1 SB, and 1 error.

Man of the Match: Wes Musick

Lexington (1-4) 

After battling back from an early 6-1 deficit, Lexington lost another heart-breaker 8-7 in 11 innings.

Starter Kyle Hallock lasted just .2 innings giving up 2 hits, including a Grand Slam, with 4 BB. Nicholas Tropeano came on in the 4th inning and turned in 5 strong innings as he gave up 1 run on 4 hits with 1 BB and an outstanding 10 K. Dayan Diaz struck out the side with 1 BB in his 1 IP. Luis Cruz took the loss after pitching 1.2 innings with 2 K, 3 hits, and the fateful final run.

2B-Delino DeShields went 2x5 with 2 R, 1 BB, 1 2B, and 1. SS-Alex Todd went 3x6 with 2 2B and 2R/2RBI. 1B-Zachary Johnson was 3x5 with 3 RBI.

Man of the Match: Nick Tropeano

Tri-City (0-0) 

Season begins June 18.

Greeneville (0-0) 

Season begins June 19.

GCL Astros (0-0) 

Season begins June 18.

DSL Astros (0-0) 

Season schedule not yet posted.

Roster finalized

So Alyson Footer tweeted that:

*Henry Sosa has been outrighted to OKC, where he'll join the rotation.
*Travis Buck's contract has been purchased.

So here is your 2012 Opening Day roster:

Rotation
J.A. Happ
Lucas Harrell
Bud Norris
Wandy Rodriguez
Kyle Weiland

Bullpen
Fernando Abad
David Carpenter
Rhiner Cruz
Wilton Lopez
Brandon Lyon
Brett Myers
Fernando Rodriguez
Wesley Wright

Catchers
Jason Castro
Chris Snyder

Infielders
Jose Altuve
Matt Downs
Marwin Gonzalez
Chris Johnson
Carlos Lee
Jed Lowrie*

Outfielders
Brian Bogusevic
Travis Buck
J.D. Martinez
Jordan Schafer

*Should Jed Lowrie hit the DL with that jacked-up thumb, Brian Bixler will take his place.

A handy little note from Brian McTaggart

Brian McTaggart just tweeted out a helpful little note:

As the Astros continue to trim roster in next few days, remember Wright, Bogusevic, Schafer, Sosa and Harrell are out of options.

So, this means that they would have to pass through waivers before getting officially sent to Oklahoma City. If another team claims them, well, they'll just have to work something out.

Henry Sosa the Two Pitch Pitcher

Henry Sosa had a solid but unspectacular major league debut for the Astros this season. Sosa got by primarily on a fastball and slider combination thrown at the low ¾ arm angle that allowed for a decent amount of movement on his fastball. While there are a few starters out there who get by with a 2-pitch repertoire, most of them profile better as a reliever than a starter. In his 53.1 innings pitched with the Astros this year Sosa threw a fastball or a slider 97.3% of the time. With that in mind I was curious to see what other pitchers who utilize a similar arm angle as Sosa throw, and how often.

Due to the fact that there was no easy way to separate all of the different lower 3/4 arm angle pitchers I decided to pick 10 of them to look at in detail. The chart below shows the results based upon percentage of the different pitches thrown over the course of the pitcher’s career. All pitch-type data was gathered from Fangraphs.com.

Pitcher	Fastball	Slider	Cutter	Curveball	Changeup	Split-Finger
Carlos Zambrano	67.60%	13.40%	6.80%	1.40%	3.20%	7.60%
Roy Halladay	47.50%	0.70%	22.90%	22.60%	4.40%	2%
Chris Sale	54.80%	34.50%	N/A	N/A	10.80%	N/A
Daniel Hudson	62.90%	14.60%	0.30%	N/A	22.10%	N/A
Edinson Volquez	57.30%	3.20%	N/A	12.50%	27.10%	N/A
Kevin Brown	74%	16.10%	0.40%	0.10%	7.20%	2.20%
Derek Lowe	67.60%	15.90%	1.80%	3.50%	11.20%	N/A
Jake Peavy	57.70%	18.10%	9.60%	2.90%	11.70%	N/A
Jeremy Bonderman	61%	30%	N/A	0.50%	8.40%	N/A
Michael Pineda	62.20%	31.50%	N/A	N/A	6.30%	N/A
Total Average	61.26%	17.80%	4.18%	4.35%	11.24%	1.18%
Henry Sosa	61.50%	35.80%	N/A	0.10%	2.50%	N/A

Looking at the averages, the above group threw a fastball or slider about 79.06% of the time, which is about 18.24% less than Sosa. There were 3 other pitchers besides Sosa who threw a slider more than 30% of the time (Chris Sale, Jeremy Bonderman, and Michael Pineda.) Besides the fastball and slider the next most utilized pitch was the changeup which was thrown on average 11.24% of the time. Sosa threw his changeup 2.5% of the time, which was the least out of the pitchers sampled. No other pitcher on the list had a 3^rd pitch that was thrown less than 5% of the time besides Sosa.

 This does not mean that Sosa has to learn a 3^rd pitch to be successful as a starter, but the lack of a 3^rd pitch may limit him to a back of the rotation type starter. Looking at the pitcher’s who throw from a similar arm angle the changeup may be Sosa’s best chance at adding another pitch to his arsenal. However, due to the fact that he throws with kind of a slingshot sort of motion similar to Carlos Zambrano he may have more success picking up a split-finger fastball or a cutter. Whatever the pitch may be, adding another one could go a long way in determining how successful he can be. The cards may be stacked against this happening though, given the fact that he is already 26 years old. What we see could very be what we get out of Henry Sosa. If he is successful in adding another pitch then he could make what seemed to be a weak haul in the Jeff Keppinger trade turn out to be a pleasant surprise for the Houston Astros.

Winter Ball updates!

Looks like the Juvenile Court Clerk will be busy this off-season, as Winter Ball rosters were announced.

Jose Altuve - Venezuela
Henry Sosa - Dominican Republic
Jimmy Paredes - Dominican Republic
Jonathan Villar - Dominican Republic
Brian Bogusevic - Dominican Republic
David Carpenter - Dominican Republic
Brett Wallace - Dominican Republic
Carlos Corporan - Puerto Rico
Koby Clemens - Puerto Rico

Wallace and Carpenter will play for Escogido, who will be managed by Tony DeFrancesco, OKC's manager.

Levine's Notebook is chock-full of goodness

Information-wise, anyway. Among the nuggets:

*Tommy Manzella will always be partial to the Astros.

*Henry Sosa will start Monday night against the Cubs.

*Jordan Schafer will go on a rehab assignment next week.

*Brad Mills is worried about Wilton Lopez:
“We’re in a situation where his velocity is there and arm strength is not an issue and health is not an issue. We’re seeing we’re not quite getting the movement, whether his velocity is so good he’s throwing through the movement or it’s a mechanical thing.”

Sosa on his way to Arizona

Henry Sosa - acquired in the Jeff Keppinger trade - will pitch tonight against Arizona, edging out bullpen candidate Aneury Rodriguez.

Since coming over from the Giants' organization, Sosa has thrown a total of 25.2IP, allowing 21H/6ER, 20K:7BB for the Hooks and RedHawks. He's had one start for OKC, throwing seven shutout innings at Las Vegas on August 5, meaning he's on regular rest tonight.

The Anuerysm has pitches better of late, strictly out of the bullpen. In nine appearances in July and August, he has thrown 12.2IP, 8H/3ER, 10K:1BB.

Even More Tranzactionz!

There was a whirlwind of activity following yesterday's Tranzactionz post, so let's break it down as follows:

Promoted

Wesley Wright, Jeff Fulchino: From OKC to Houston
Henry Sosa: From Corpus to OKC

Sent Down

J.A. Happ: From Houston to OKC
Brian Esposito: From OKC to Corpus

DL'ed

Enerio Del Rosario (Houston)
Jimmy Van Ostrand (Corpus)
Jason Chowning (Lexington)

This had to happen. J.A. Happ, I mean. In his last eleven starts, the Astros are 1-10 (not that it really matters), but he has also allowed 78H/50ER, 48K:32BB in 55.2IP. Yes, in eleven starts, he's thrown 55.2IP. He's been quite unlucky over that stretch, suffering from a .391 BABIP, but he's only throwing 59% of his pitches for strikes, as well. He's not fooling anyone, either - only getting 7% swinging strikes, and 28% line drives.

Alright, now, Henry Sosa. He's already made his OKC debut - throwing 7IP, 5H/0ER, 3K:3BB on Friday night. This is something we can justifiably be excited about. Opponents were hitting .222 against him in three Corpus starts, with 17K:4BBin 18.2IP.

Tranzactionz!

Here's some Tranzactionz for you:

Aug 6:
Jamaine Cotton called up to Tri-City.

Aug 5:
Corpus pitcher Henry Sosa called up to OKC
SS Jose Vallejo sent to Lancaster from Corpus
Miguel Arrendell sent to Tri-City from Lancaster

Aug 4:
David Flores called up to Corpus from Lancaster
Jio Mier activated from Lancaster's 7-Day DL
Chris Epps called up to Tri-City from GCL Astros

Updated rosters

In light of the recent influx of prospects, here's a rundown of where they went on Eddie's Farm:

Keppinger trade

Henry Sosa - Corpus
Jason Stoffel - Corpus

Pence trade

Jarrod Cosart - Corpus
Jonathan Singleton - Lancaster
Josh Zeid - Corpus

Bourn trade

Juan Abreu - Oklahoma City
Paul Clemens - Corpus
Brett Oberholtzer - Corpus
Jordan Schafer - DL

Eddie's Farm: July 26

Oklahoma City (46-58)

OKC had a 9-5 lead (after a 6-run 2nd inning) on Nashville, but Nashville scored two runs in each of the last three innings (8th, 9th, 10th) for an 11-9 win over OKC. The RedHawks used seven pitchers in the game: Brad Hennessey, who allowed 7H/5ER, 4K:1BB in 3.1IP; Wesley Wright and Casey Fien had your only scoreless outings; Gervacio, Arguello, and Fulchino each allowed an earned run, and Ross Wolf took the loss.

Brian Bogusevic was 3x5 with a 2B, BB, SB and RBI. Wladimir Sutil was 3x4 with a double. Koby Clemens was 1x4 with a solo homer, 2RBI, and 2BB. J.B. Shuck didn't get a hit, but drew three walks.

Man of the Match: Brian Bogusevic

Corpus (40-61)

Early returns on Henry Sosa have been great as Corpus whoops San Antonio, 11-1. Henry Sosa - who came over in the Keppinger trade - threw 7IP, allowing 3H/1R (0ER), 9K:1BB; and has yet to allow an earned run in 14IP for Corpus. Danny Meszaros and Jason Stoffel threw hitless/scoreless IPs.

J.D. Martinez was 3x5 with a homer and 2RBI, and Jimmy Paredes was 3x5 with an RBI and his 28th stolen base; Kody Hinze was 2x3 with a walk and a two-run homer. Jonathan Villar (RBI), Jon Gaston (RBI), and Emerson Frostad (2B, BB) had two hits each.

Man of the Match: Henry Sosa

Lancaster (38-63)

Off.

Lexington (46-56)

Savannah scored two runs in the bottom of the 6th, and that was all they needed in a 2-0 win over Lexington. Ruben Alaniz took the hard-luck loss, throwing 6IP, 3H/2ER, 4K:2BB. Brian Streilein threw 2IP, allowing 3H/0ER.

Delino DeShields, Telvin Nash, Mike Kvasnicka, and Ben Orloff had your hits. Nobody walked, but there were 11 strikeouts by Savannah pitchers. Nash (3K), DeShields (2K), and Ben Heath (2K) struck out multiple times.

Man of the Match: Ruben Alaniz.

Tri-City (15-22)

Off.

Greeneville (12-23)

Greeneville scored three runs in the top of the 9th, but fell short at Johnson City, 8-7. Ricardo Batista allowed 7H/6ER, 0K:4BB, 3WP in 2.1IP; Danilo Del Rio allowed 2H/0ER in 3.2IP, and Steve Martin allowed two runs (one earned) in 2IP.

Jordan Scott (2B, RBI, BB), Ruben Sosa (2B, 3RBI), Jesse Wierzbicki (2B), Chase Davidson (2B, 2RBI), and Jose Monzon (2B) had two hits each. Chan-Jong Moon was 0x1 with 3BB and two runs scored.

Man of the Match: Ruben Sosa

GCL Astros (9-22)

The Astros withstood a late charge and beat the Cardinals for an 8-6 win. Michael Feliz threw 2IP, 3H/2ER, 1K:0BB; Evan Grills came in for 4IP of relief and earned the win by giving up just 3H/0ER. Brad Dydalewicz allowed 2H/1ER in 1IP, Justin Gill allowed 2H/3R (2ER), 0K:1BB in 0.2IP, and Zach Hardoin (0.1IP), and Blake Ford (1IP) didn't allow any hits.

Yonathan Mejia went 4x5 with 2RBI and a stolen base; Javaris Reynolds went 3x6 with a stolen base; Chris Epps (3BB, SB) and Kevin Gonzalez (3B, 2RBI) got two hits each.

Man of the Match: Yonathan Mejia.

Xavier Cedeno sent to Oklahoma City

Not quite sure what Dallas Keuchel has to do to get some love, but our buddy Greg Rajan let everyone know that, to make room for Jason Stoffel, the Astros have sent Xavier Cedeno up to Oklahoma City.

Henry Sosa is currently injured, but when he gets back, another move will have to be made, and Sosa will work out of the rotation.

Xavier Cedeno: 108.2IP, 98H/46ER, 109K:42BB, 3.82 ERA/1.29 WHIP
Dallas Keuchel: 108.1IP, 100H/38ER, 63K:25BB, 3.16 ERA/1.15 WHIP

The only thing I can see is the strikeout rates, but at least someone is moving up...

The First Domino Falls: Keppinger traded

Let's get 2012 underway, shall we? The Astros have traded Jeff Keppinger to the Giants for RHPs Jason Stoffel and Henry Sosa. Jose Altuve's contract has been purchased, and he is on his way to Houston, where Mills promises:

I can tell you he's playing second base tomorrow. He's my second baseman. We didn't bring him here to sit him."

Let's come back to that, because I want to end this on a high note.

The two pitchers the Astros got in return for Keppinger are Jason Stoffel and Henry Sosa.

About Jason Stoffel. He'll be 23 in September, a 6'2" 225lb RHP drafted by the Giants in the 4th Round of the 2009 draft. He's a reliever - in 32 games for Double-A Richmond, Stoffel has thrown 31.2IP, 34H/14ER, 31K:16BB for a 3.98 ERA/1.58 WHIP. FanGraphs lists his FIP at a more friendly 3.36, and is also suffering from a .347 BABIP.

Not eight hours ago Stoffel was profiled by MiLB, where we find he was a history major at Arizona, and enjoys military history.

Richmond pitching coach Ross Grimsley on Stoffel:
"He has an overpowering fastball at times. Sometimes he can be erratic. He will fall behind and throw a fastball down the middle, but everyone does that at times. He gets too quick in his delivery at times."

Henry Sosa is a 6'1" 205lb 25-year old RHP from the Dominican Republic. He's been in the Giants system since 2006, and spent his time in Triple-A Fresno, also as a reliever, but has been in Double-A Richmond as a starter for the last six games.

As a starter for Richmond, Sosa has thrown 34.2IP, allowing 38H/12ER, 29K:8BB for a 3.12 ERA/1.33 WHIP. His FIP for Richmond is 2.33 (for those of you concerned about that 10.41 ERA for Triple-A Fresno, his FIP is "just" 5.90). Opponents are hitting .258 off of Sosa at Richmond, and that's with a .328 BABIP.

Sosa had been DFA'd back on May 26. And no one claimed him off of waivers. For what it's worth.

A couple of things about this trade:

1. We can be happiest for Jose Altuve.

One year ago, Altuve was in Lexington. He was coming off a 2009 where, between Lexington and Greeneville, he had an .838 OPS. People (you know who they are) had only really heard of him after he hit .408 for Lancaster, and showed that it wasn't exactly a fluke in 35 games at Corpus. If anyone knew of him, it was because he's 5'7" (and by "5'7"" we of course mean, "5'5""). And then he got to the Futures Game, and The Baseball Conglomerate acted like Pavement fans who say, "Oh yeah, I saw them play Neumo's. Whatever."

By all accounts, Altuve is a great person, and a great ball player. And at least he made it before Jean Segura.

Now we know the Astros are willing to promote from Double-A. I've seen your tweets. You're upset that J.D. Martinez is still in Corpus. But if you call him up, where are you going to put him? On the bench? I'd rather he play every day in Corpus than get Bogusevic'ed in Houston. But, if the Astros deal Bourn or Pence (or both), there is now the precedent that a J.D. Martinez sighting could come to pass now that the Astros pulled the first block out of the Jenga cube.

2. We can also be happy for Jeff Keppinger.

Keppinger said he wanted to stay in Houston, but come on. What else is he going to say? So feel free to just ignore that. But Keppinger didn't publicly complain when Ed Wade romanced the pooch and signed Bill Hall. Despite having a career year in 2010, Wade apparently never felt comfortable with Keppinger in the lineup. So good for him for upgrading his station (although Anywhere would be an upgrade over the Astros).

3. We can be disappointed with Ed Wade.

Seriously, with the relievers? (I know, Sosa is back to being a starter). The Tigers and Indians were thought to be interested in Keppinger, and possibly the Brewers, as well. This was the best deal available? It's the type of deal where we won't know the outcome for a few years, but neither Sosa nor Stoffel were in Sickels' Top 20, Baseball America's Top 10, Baseball Prospectus' Top 20, or FanGraphs' Top 10 prospects list.

To be fair, when Wade traded Pedro Feliz for David Carpenter, we thought, "Okay, whatever." And that has turned out pretty well.

4. This was not a salary dump.

But to call this deal a "salary dump" is ridiculous. The Astros are saving about $900,000 and an arbitration year. Or what Carlos Lee makes in about nine games. The real salary savings are going to come with Lee (don't hold your breath), Myers, Wandy, Bourn, or Pence. Keppinger's trade is hopefully the first of many.

But let's watch the little guy do his thing.