Baseball America has the latest round-up of minor-league tranzactionz, in which we find:
The Astros signed Jordan Kreke (You already knew this) and outfielder Jordan Brown.
Brown, a 28-year old former 2005 4th Round pick of the Indians, got 26 games with Cleveland in 2010, hitting .230/.310/.582 in 92 PAs. But he has raked in the minors, hitting .307/.365/.470 in seven minor-league seasons. In 2011, between Columbus (Cleveland) and Nashville (Milwaukee), he hit .311/.346/.466, with 47K:23BB in 460PAs.
We also learn that the Astros have released the following players:
LHP Travis Blankenship, LHP Colton Pitkin, LHP Shane Wolf, C Federico Hernandez, SS Hector Rodriguez, and OF Kellen Kiilsgaard.
As What the Heck, Bobby noted, with Pitkin's release, the Astros only have two players left in the organization from the 2007 draft - Kyle Greenwalt and Collin DeLome.
This opens up a few spots in Lancaster, as Pitkin, Wolf, and Hernandez all finished the season with the JetHawks. Hector Rodriguez ended 2011 in Lexington, while Blankenship (Tri-City) and Kiilsgaard (Greeneville) ended 2011 with the short-season teams.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
