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Astros Farm Report: Hooks’ Michael Feliz Makes Two Debuts

There have been a couple of oddities regarding the Corpus Christi Hooks in the last week. A rain-shortened game resulted in a combined no-hitter between two pitchers. An Astros top prospect made debuts in both the Texas League and Major League Baseball. It seems that the only constant factor has been the Hooks 7 1/2 game lead over the Rockhounds (Athletics).

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Michael makes major moves. OK, alliteration is not my strong suit.

Michael Feliz

, however, is a pretty good pitcher. Feliz entered the season as the Astros #5 prospect and begun the season in Lancaster. After surviving the pitcher-friendly environment there with a 4.41 ERA in 32 2/3 innings, he was promoted to Double-A. Feliz only blemish through 4 innings was a solo home run. Other than that, Michael was great with seven strikeouts and 0 walks in his Texas League debut.

A couple days later he was en route to Houston. No, it was not for a bullpen session. Feliz came up to make an appearance out of the bullpen. In Saturday’s loss to the White Sox, Feliz allowed a leadoff double prior to retiring the next three men he faced. He even recorded a strikeout. Prior to Brett Oberholtzer returning to the Astros on Monday, Feliz was then optioned back down to Corpus. Oh, he’s 21 years old.

Chris Devenski and Josh Hader combined to throw the first no-hitter in Hooks’ history. A two-out walk in the first inning prevented Devenski’s line (5 IP, 1 BB, 4 K). Josh Hader followed with a walk to begin the sixth inning. However, the game went into rain delay after a ground out. Eventually, the umpires’ called the game with 4-0 score over the Naturals (Royals).

The Hooks added an outfielder, Danry Vasquez, to their roster. For those of you scratching your head trying to figure out why his name is familiar, it’s because the Astros traded Chad Qualls (edit: it was actually Jose Veras) for him during the 2013 season. Vasquez had done very well for the Jethawks with a .315/.365/.370 line but is just 2 for 18 so far with the Hooks.

As a team, however, the Hooks have continued their winning. They took two games in each of their 3-game sets against the Naturals (Royals) and Travelers (Angels). Overall their 4-2 week brought their record to 33-16 and remained 7.5 games ahead of second-place in the Texas League South. The week ahead features a rematch of the last week with the Naturals and Travelers coming into Corpus for 3-game sets.

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