Astros in the Arizona Fall League

Jason Castro headlines the group of players headed to the AZFL.

The great Zach Levine announced the Astros (and mostly minor league farmhands) who will be honing their game for the mighty Salt River Rafters in Arizona this autumn. Without further ado, here they are:

Jay Austin
Jason Castro
Jake Goebbert
Chris Hicks
Kody Hinze
Dallas Keuchel
Jason Stoffel
Josh Zeid

Man, that's a lot of J's.

I don't pay enough attention to the Astros' minor league system, but I can tell you this much: each of these fellas should greatly benefit from extra playing time out west. Castro- who's missed the entire major league season so far and is just now catching bullpens and taking BP- will undoubtedly want to get work in. Everyone knows that he was supposed to be the heir apparent behind the plate in Houston, and with the horror that has been Humberto Quintero and Carlos Corporan this season, fans everywhere should be happy that Castro is getting back into the crouch and preparing for 2012.

As for the other prospects on the list, I'm most interested in seeing what Hinze, Keuchel, and Zeid do in AZ. Hinze, a burly 1B from nearby Nimitz High, has been showing promise in Corpus Christi with a .297/.375/.451 line on the year, complete with 7 HR and 26 RBI in just 49 games. He was scrutinized more than the average Astros' prospect coming out of high school, simply because he was so close in proximity to the team. Keuchel was a seventh-round choice in '09 out of the University of Arkansas, where he acted as the staff ace. Splitting time between Corpus and Oklahoma City this year, he's 9-8 with a 4.25 ERA and 1.27 WHIP. Trust me, his stuff is better than his numbers indicate. Lastly, Zeid was the PTBNL in the Hunter Pence trade, and man, is the dude gigantic at 6'5" and 210 pounds. Another stuff-over-numbers minor leaguer, Zeid is just 2-4 on the year with a 6.28 ERA and 1.47 WHIP, though he's only pitched 76 innings between Reading and Corpus.

All in all, the Arizona Fall League is a much safer place to send players in the offseason, as the winter leagues in the Caribbean are quite competitive, and team executives don't have near as much control of the players they send there. The AZFL is strictly a developmental league, one that better observes such things as innings limits and the like.