Assorted Round Rock and Oklahoma City Hitter Notes

In a few previous posts, I looked at some of the players I saw in a game between the Rangers and Astros' AAA affiliates. In this post, I'll look at some more players I had notes for but didn't belong in separate posts.

I wrote about Chris Mcguiness from a Pitch F/X perspective in a previous article, and while he spent a short time in the Majors, he spent most of the year in AAA, where he hit reasonably well, but perhaps not as dominating as you would hope a 1st baseman to be in the minors. When I saw him, he seemed to pull off too soon on many pitches, even fastballs. He did hit a couple of balls hard though.

 Robinson Chirinos was acquired by the Rangers from the Rays, but was initially in the Chicago Cubs system. He did see a little bit of time with the MLB team this season. Behind the plate, he showed a strong and quick arm behind the plate, but a bad throw gave runner a free base

At the plate, Chirinos had a decent season, but didn't have real eye-popping number:

Joey Butler has also received a small amount of MLB playing time, but not enough to evaluate. He has spent nearly the entirety of the last three years at AAA, where he has put up nearly identical numbers each year, hitting very well. When I saw him, he was selective, but often seemed like a 4A mistake type hitter. He does have nice build and beat out what looked like a routine out

Jonathan Singleton is one of the top prospects in the Houston Astros system, but had a really frustrating season in AAA following a drug suspension. He is just an impressive mound of muscle on muscle, so you can see why he is an attractive prospect from a physique standpoint. At the plate, I noticed that his legs are split pretty far and he was way too antsy and aggressive at times. He was also late on a slider, seeming to just misjudge the pitch. Singleton had a huge swing and I didn't see great bat speed. He had some bat control though as he was fooled baddly on a slower breaking ball but kept the bat in the zone to make contact. He chased another slow curve and pulled it reasonably hard, doing a good job just to make contact. However, he was blown away by a 88 MPH fastball. He stole his first and only base of the season in the game I saw.

Another at-bat:

Marc Krauss got some time in the big leagues with the Astros this year but really struggled. He was acquired by Houston in a trade with the Diamondbacks for Chris Johnson and had a really nice season in AAA. You can see the raw power just on the fouls. He was initially a bit ahead and then got blown away, striking out on a pitch down the middle. In a later at-bat he was blown away by a 88 MPH fastball, though he did a good job of staying alive with fouls

Che-Hsuan Lin was acquired on a waiver claim from the Red Sox and despite walking more than he struck out, he struggled in AAA this year. He dropped the bat to work counts to start off at-bats. I still like the bat speed, but his pitch recognition wasn't great and his lack of punch really showed.

Jose Martinez was originally a Cardinals' minor leaguer, and struggled in AAA at a similar rate as Lin. He was a little ahead of breaking balls despite slowing down his bat. At 2nd, he didn't make a good read on a line drive.

Carlos Perez was acquired by the Astros in the J.A. Happ trade and struggled with the bat in AAA this year. Behind the plate, he has an easy quick release. He didn't appear to be a great reciever, though his starting pitcher didn't seem to help him. He misjudged some bouncing pitches, and also flat out dropped a ball.