Last year, The Bus Ride started a series of interviews with the guys who bring many of us the games from the minor league parks. The voices we hear on the radio or for many of us these days, the voice out of the computer speakers. We want to help you get a feel for the person behind the voice and a taste of what they may be thinking as you are listening.  Since Lancaster joined the Houston Farm System this season, we thought we would invite the play by play announcer for the JetHawks for a trip ‘round the bases. Jeff Lasky, the radio broadcaster for the Lancaster JetHawks, agreed to an email interview with Spikesnstars.com.  Lasky was indentified by the Los Angeles Daily News as the 8th best sports play by play guy in the region. He came in just behind Dodgers play by play guy Charlie Stiner.

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The SnS 2008 Top 10 turned out to be generally, well, not good. J. R. Towles, our #1, was given the starting catching assignment for the Astros to start the season, and he flopped. After 2 months Towles was basically a mess at the plate and behind it. For his troubles he was demoted to AAA Round Rock where he failed to distinguish himself. Our numbers 2 (Paulino), 3 (James), 6 (Flores), and 8 (Perez) spent all or parts of the 2008 season on the shelf. Numbers 5 and 10, Reineke and Parraz respectively, are no longer with the organization. Tommy Manzella, #4, had a mostly respectable 2008 season, as did #7 Sammy Gervacio. #9 Yordany Ramirez lived up to the hype in the field but had lots of trouble at the plate.

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Welcome to the Bus Ride 2009, SpikesnStars original contributor content.  This is place for all things minor leagues for the Houston Astros.  The Bus Ride is your primary source for minor league articles including draft reviews, top tens, minor league interviews and analysis.  We want to give you Astros minor league information as an introduction if you’ve not followed the young players coming up and resource information you can use once they make the show.  The Astros have minor league affiliates in each level of minor league baseball (AAA, AA, high-A, low-A, short-season-A, and rookie league).  AAA is populated by just about every kind of player from prospects to hangers-on to roster filler to guys with mlb experience hoping to make the big club.  AA is usually populated by advanced prospects and roster filler.  From A-ball on down you’ll find prospects of all sort hoping to develop into major league material.  The short season-A and rookie level leagues generally play from late June to early September whereas the full season leagues will play from April to September.  Because prospects are always developing a simple look at their statistics may not tell you the whole story, so We’ll try to dig a little deeper for you and pump sources to provide you more than just boxscore views of the kids.  Stick around, we think you’ll like reading about the 2009 version of your Houston Astros farm system.

Spikesnstars.com continues to secure interviews with all of the Houston Astros minor league affiliate broadcasters. This the the first of our interviews with the short season teams. Steve Wilhoit, voice of the Greeneville Astros, agreed to an email interview with Spikesnstars.com. The interview has not been edited for content but formatted for the website. Join us as we go ‘Round the Bases’ with Steve Wilhoit. Read the rest of this entry »

It was just three years ago we were looking forward to a new regime managing the players of the Houston Astros.  Following a rapid decline from the Astros high of a World Series appearance in October of 2005, owner Drayton McClain cleaned house by firing General Manager Tim Purpura and attempting to install Astros President Tal Smith as GM.  Instead the Astros hired former Phillie GM Ed Wade to fill the Astros General Manager spot.  Upon entering the picture Wade was expected to make whatever changes were necessary to improve the Astros both at the major league level and at the minor league level.  He pulled off a number of trades, further thinning the already thin Astros farm system in the process.  He also offered arbitration to the two players whose signing by another team would give the Astros a draft selection in the supplemental first round thus providing Wade further opportunities to restock the once vaunted farm system.  Trever Miller’s signing with Tampa Bay gave the Astros the 38th pick in the draft.  Mark Loretta however chose to accept arbitration and return to the Astros.  Another change Wade made was to bring in Bobby Heck as director of amateur scouting.  Heck was previously involved with the Brewers very well thought off minor league scouting system.  Together these two are expected to return the Astros minor league system to the top of the developmental heap.

The questionable nature of last year’s draft has been discussed ad-nauseum in the Bus Ride Discussion Forum, the TZ, and elsewhere so we’ll just say that last year under former GM Purpura the Astros had to wait until the third round to select their first draftee.  This year, however, looks more like the 2005 draft when the Astros had seven selection in the first five rounds.  This year the Astros, thanks to a dismal 2007 season, had the 10th selection in the draft and the 10th selection in each regular round thereafter.  They also had a selection, as mentioned, in the supplemental first round.  Additionally they had a selection in the supplemental third round thanks to not signing last year’s first pick Derek Dietrich.  In total that’s seven selections in the first five rounds.  As a sign of how seriously the Astros are taking this draft, Heck has said he personally scouted the potential first and second round picks.  With the exception of the 2004 draft the drafts from 1999-2005 appear to have been terrible with little talent making its way to the majors or being used in a significant trade.  Wade and the Astros know they cannot afford another dismal draft.

To begin their reclamation project Heck went on record before the draft that he will be looking for up-the-middle players in the draft, especially early.  They cetainly held to that as they selected 45 of the 52 players from up-the-middle positions.  Specifically they drafted 7 catchers, 1 first baseman, 3 second basemen, 3 shortstops, 1 third baseman, 0 leftfielders, 7 centerfielders, 3 rightfielders, 2 unspecified outfielders, 12 righthanded pitchers, and 13 lefthanded pitchers.
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We continue of series of interviews with the guys behind the microphones who bring us the minor league games through our radios and computers. Wrapping up the full season teams is Jason Benetti, the voice of the Salem Avalanche. Jason agreed to an email interview with Spikesnstars.com. The interview has not been edited for content but has been formated for the website. Let’s go for a trip around the bases with Jason Benetti.

First Base

Spikesnstars.com – We would like to give our readers a sense of where you came from and how you got to where you are now. Please describe for our readers your journey to land behind the mic in Corpus Christi. Specifically other teams you have called for and any other work if applicable away from the mic that may have helped lead you to your current role. Read the rest of this entry »