Joel Roza brings The Depression

Well, it's a mix between depression for the Hooks, and optimism for the fans.

Roza:
When I first got this gig, the first thing I wrote about was the bridge that Corpus Christi, and Double-A in general, forms between the lower minor leagues and The Show and how vital this place was, and would be, to so many ballplayers. Thanks to the Ryan-Sanders team, we get to witness ballplayers in their developmental stages and root them on as our own if and when they reach the pinnacle of their careers elsewhere. On top of that, we get to watch these players develop in a world class, top notch ballpark that holds a high reputation throughout the country.

On the odds of making it to The Big Club:
Only 18% of all minor leaguers ever make it to the big leagues. That’s an enormous fail-rate and one that these players all face on a day-to-day basis.

On the reality of being a minor-league outfielder for Houston:
Yordany Ramirez, Brian Bogusevic, Drew Locke, T.J. Steele (low-A as of 2008), Jon Gaston (high-A as of 2008) and Collin DeLome are all legitimate talent. The odds of at least one of them being major-league ready within the next two years are pretty high. However, unless they change to an infield position or the Astros trade away talent at the big league level, there’s no way they’ll make it to Houston. Carlos Lee is virtually untradeable while Hunter Pence and Michael Bourn are huge talents and still under team control.

On Drew Locke:
He’ll be 27 in February, so two years seems to be a decent bet. He’s doesn’t qualify as a “prospect” at this point and he’s not rated in the Top 10 in terms of total organizational talent. The odds of him becoming anything more than a brief September call-up in Houston are slim to none at this point. He could however make it onto a low-budget major league roster if he continues his solid play. All in all though, his chances don’t look good. He blossomed too late and we won’t know until this season gets cooking if last season was a fluke or not.

There are a lot of other notes, and you should really read the article, but it's a pretty stark reality for the minor-leaguers.