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Astros Minors: The Astros Earn the 2015 Top Farm System MiLBY Award
By Eric Huysman
The Houston Astros have a good farm system; this is not breaking news to Astros’ fans who have followed these teams all year round. CTH has covered the top minor league teams all season, so next year, make sure you check in with us to keep up with the success of the Baby Stros. However, outside of Houston, it’s good to get some love from non-biased sources. With this being the year of the Astros, they have been well represented in the MiLB Awards called the MiLBys in 2015.
The notable Astros winners of the MiLBYs awards are as follows.
- Offensive Player of the Year (Staff) – A.J. Reed
- Offensive Player of the Year (Fans) – Tyler White
- Best Team – Triple-A Fresno Grizzlies
- Finished Second in best Promo – Fresno Tacos
- Best Farm System
Rankings might not have the Astros in the top five farm teams in te top prospects with the loss of Carlos Correa, Lance McCullers, Vincent Velasquez, and others to the big leagues. However, the Astros’ farm teams proved why baseball is not played on paper and played over their heads with seven teams reaching the playoffs. The last time a major league team had seven minor league teams reach the playoffs what the 2010 Seattle Mariners according to David Brown.
Let’s take a look at how good each minor league team’s year was. (MiLB.com)
- Fresno Grizzlies (AAA): 84-59/ .587 winning percentage/ won Triple-A World Series
- Corpus Christi Hooks (AA): 88-52/ .629 winning percentage/ lost in first round of playoffs.
- Lancaster JetHawks (A): 75 – 65/ .536 winning percenetage/ wild-card team, lost first round.
- Quad Cities River Bandits (A): 88 – 50/ .638 winning percentage/ first-half winner, lost in first round.
- Tri-City ValleyCats (Rookie): 42 – 33/ .560 winning percentage/ clinched division, lost first round.
- Greeneville Astros (Rookie): 34-33/ .507 winning percentage/ finished second in the West, won Appy Championship.
- DSL Astros Blue Team (Dominican Summer League): 43 – 29/ .597 winning percentage/ clinched division and lost first round.
More from Climbing Tal's Hill
- Just how much better is the Houston Astros playoff rotation than the rest?
- Houston Astros: A Lineup Change to Spark Offense
- Astros prospect Hunter Brown throws 6 shutout innings in debut
- Always faithful Astros World Series champion Josh Reddick defends the title
- Michael Conforto declines Astros’ 2-year, $30 million offer
The Astros have lost some talent over the past year, but that’s okay, because Jeff Luhnow had a deck full of aces, he could lose a few and have enough to at least have three of a kind. That’s how stacked the Astros are; they may not have the best top 100 quality, but they have a better quantity of players than most other teams. This comes from improved drafting and scouting by Luhnow and having the number 1 overall pick for three seasons in a row.
Will the Astros always have this wealth of talent they do now, probably not now that they will be drafting later in the draft? However, Luhnow will be able to work with the picks he gets to find the talent they need. The Astros strived to create a farm system that would continuously feed quality players to the Astros and replenish itself over time. It seems like Luhnow is creating a dynasty with the constant influx of talent, more is to come with the Astros.
Next: Keeping up with the Astros Prospects: Nick Tanielu
After being crushed before the season by the Cubs farm system, it is nice to finish ahead of them. We will see what 2016 brings for the Astros, and it’s farm teams.