Baseball America has named the Corpus Christi Hooks as the 8th-most talented team in the minors.
It has been a long time since the Astros could assemble enough talent to fill a roster like this, but last year's trades have helped make up for the organization's minor league talent deficiency. 1B Jonathan Singleton (No. 34) and RHP Jarred Cosart (No. 50) both came over in last summer's Hunter Pence trade. Fellow Phillies' pickups SS Jonathan Villar ahd RHP Josh Zeid are joined by ex-Brave LHP Brett Oberholtzer on what may be the Astros' most talented minor league club in a decade.
Five Highest winning percentages by an Astros affiliate (stateside only), 2002-11:
2004 Tri-City Valley Cats: .667 (50-25). Hunter Pence, Drew Sutton, Ben Zobrist
2003 Martinsville Astros .646 (42-23). Felipe Paulino, Juan Gutierrez, Mitch Talbot
2004 Round Rock Express: .614 (86-54). Ezequiel Astacio, Wandy Rodriguez, Luke Scott, Willy Taveras, Fernando Nieve, Chris Sampson.
2002 Martinsville Astros: .612 (41-26). Matt Albers, Mark McLemore, Fernando Nieve
2004 Greeneville Astros: .612 (41-26). J.R. Towles, Troy Patton, Felipe Paulino.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
