It's easy to get lost in the tress when writing daily recaps and employee of the month posts. Let's look at the forest and pick out our Astros County PreStros All-Stars, shall we? I've picked the starters, how about our readers pick the reserves in the comments.
C-Landon Powell
Powell is hitting .268/.383/.396 with 26 runs, 6 home runs, and 26 rbi. He's also thrown out an impressive 41% of would be base stealers.
1B-Jon Singleton
Singleton just edged out Mike Hessman here. Jon is hitting .269/.389/.481 with 16 doubles, 12 home runs, 52 runs scored and 45 rbi. He's doing all this as the fifth youngest player in the Texas League this season.
2B-Jose Martinez
It's tough going against Delino DeShields here, with his all ready record breaking season, but Martinez' game so far this year has been a bit more complete. Martinez is hitting .311/.366/.474 with 15 doubles, three triples, and nine home runs. He's scored 50 runs and knocked in 54. Amazingly he's performing this well having missed essentially all of the past three seasons.
SS-Jonathan Villar
Villar started slowly and had a few people worried, but he's really come on lately. He's hitting .267/.339/.385 with eight home runs, 48 runs, 42 rbi, and 35 stolen bases. Villar has also lowered his strikeout rate every month so far this season.
3B-Scott Moore
Scott has spend time at a few positions this year but has spent the majority of the season at third, splitting time with Brett Wallace. Moore has hit .318/.410/.555 this year with 26 doubles, 10 home runs, and 54 runs batted in. His success so far this year earned him a call-up to Houston.
OF-Brad Snyder, George Springer, Brandon Barnes
Snyder is hitting .309/.390/.539 with 10 home runs and 12 steals as he fights for another opportunity to show his skills at the major league level.
George Springer has seven triples and 16 home runs while hitting .314/.391/.558 in his first full season as a professional. In 74 games, he's also scored 70 runs and stolen 17 bases.
Brandon Barnes has really gained some attention this year as he's hit .321/.374/.524 over both AA and AAA after earning a promotion a little over a month ago. He has 10 home runs and 29 doubles, and his 20 doubles at Corpus are still good for fourth in the league. He's also stolen 16 bases and has five outfield assists.
SP-Mike Foltynewicz, Nicholas Tropeano, Jose Cisnero, Wes Musick, Luis Cruz
Folty has dominated in his second run through Lexington. He's put up a strong 9-2 record while posting a 2.51 ERA and 1.26 WHIP.
Nick Tropeano is proving that his success last year in short-season ball was no fluke. Between Lexington and one start for Lancaster, Trope has a 7-4 record, 2.55 ERA, and 1.15 WHIP. He's struck out 106 batters in 95.1 innings while walking just 28.
After a hiccup last year in Lancaster, Cisnero has his game back on track so far in Corpus. His record is just 5-6, but he's put up a 3.62 ERA while striking out 88 in 82 innings while nearly cutting in half his rate of homers allowed.
After struggling last year in his first season in the Astros organization, Wes Musick has rocketed up the system in 2012. After starting the season in Lancaster, Wes earned promotions to Corpus and OKC in very quick succession, going 4-4 with a 3.04 ERA along the way.
Luis Cruz is another pitcher enjoying success while repeating a level. He's gone 5-5 with a 3.71 ERA and 1.27 WHIP while displaying a strikeout rate of 8.1 per nine innings.
RP-Jason Stoffel, Jason Chowning, Murilo Gouvea, Carlos Quevedo, Jose Valdez
Stoffel is in the midst of a breakout season. In 31 games, he's notched 12 saves while posting a 1.62 ERA and 0.90 WHIP for Corpus. The key for his success this year is a drastically reduced walk rate, down to 1.9 per nine innings.
Jason Chowning was the recipient of a twitter campaign clamoring for his promotion to Lancaster earlier this season. He's struggled recently, but on the strength of his time in Lexington Jason has a 4.00 ERA on the season with 10 saves. What put him over the top for this group was an eye-popping 13.2 strikeout per nine rate.
Murilo Gouvea is a multi-inning reliever who has improved each of the past three seasons. This year he's thrown 47.2 innings in 30 games. His 3.02 ERA and 1.13 WHIP are both career bests for Murilo and he's struck out 54 against 17 walks.
Carlos Quevedo is repeating at Lexington while transitioning to the bullpen. His 4.24 ERA may not look good, but as recently as five appearances ago it was under 3.00. He earned his spot here by increasing his strikeout rate by 50% while maintaining his low walk rate. In 51 innings, he's struck out 56 while walking just 6.
Our last All-Star is Jose Valdez. Like Quevedo, his numbers don't look as good as they did earlier in the month. In total, Jose has 13 saves and 31 strikeouts in 28.1 innings to go with a 5.40 ERA. However, if you remove the three games he struggled trying to pitch through injury prior to a short stint on the disabled list earlier this month he'd be sitting pretty with a 2.77 ERA.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
