Wednesday's Rundown

Great.

Freakin' great.

How in the world do you foul a ball OFF YOUR FACE??!!!???

The Astros had two positional prospects that could help them this season: Chris Johnson and J.R. Towles.

Johnson suffered a broken hand/wrist in the second game of the season when he was hit by an errant pitch. While the Astros nor the Round Rock organization have commented on this, he hasn't played in a game since the injury. Now, Towles gets hurt after being arguably the hottest hitter in the organization through the first few weeks. Did I mention he also plays a position that the Astros would love to get more help from at the big league level? Yeah...sometimes baseball frustrates me to no end.

All I can say is that Mark Saccomanno better watch out. The 29-year old was recently shifted back to third base. I can only imagine this is to get him ready for a call-up, since his 17 RBIs rank him third in the PCL. He's definitely due for an injury...

If that wasn't bad enough, apparently I am the jinx of all jinxes. Remember how I've been singing the praises of Jason Castro? He's 0 for 12 in his last three games. Jeff Icenogle? Lasted 3 1/3 innings last night and gave up 5 runs in a 11-4 defeat. Jonathan Gaston and Brian Pelligrini? 1 for 10 and 1 for 8 respectively over the past three games. I don't think I'm getting any Christmas cards from these guys.

Jay Austin is 4 for 12 with two walks, a run scored and an RBI in his last three games. He also stole one base and was caught stealing once.

A pair of up and down starts for Jordan Lyles and Ross Seaton. Lyles (1-2) pitched 4 1/3 innings on Tuesday night, striking out six while allowing nine hits, four earned runs and a walk. His ERA sits at 4.85 right now, but his Fielding Independant Percentage is at 2.43. Basically, FIP looks just at what the pitcher controls and adjusts the ERA based on that. Coincidentally, his BABiP is at .425, which means he's been unlucky on batted balls this season.

Seaton (2-1) picked up his second win by pitching 5 2/3 innings on Wednesday afternoon. The righty from Sugar Land had his third straight start allowing only one earned run. He also struck out 6 and faced 24 batters, both season-highs. His GB/FB ratio improved some over the past two starts, but his FIP is at 4.40, off-setting his 1.62 ERA just a bit. No question, he's been very good and starts like Wednesday's will go a long way to keeping him at this high level of success.

In Seaton's victory, Daniel Meszaros picked up his fifth save of the season. Henry Villar, a 22-year old pitcher from the Dominican Republic, has also been stellar in relief for the Legends. In 9 2/3 innings, Villar has struck out 16 batters while walking four. He hasn't given up more than three hits in any of his four outings and has a solid 8/5 ground ball/fly ball ratio. Villar is listed as 5-foot-11 and 150 lbs., which is tiny compared to most of the Astros farm hands but you can't argue with his results.

Now for the highlight reel: Mitch Einertson hit his second home run for Corpus on Tuesday....Tommy Manzella had a run-scoring triple, his first of the season....Andrew Locke got his 14th RBI of the season, tops on the team....Collin DeLome hit his Texas League-leading fifth home run, and has raised his batting average to .265. The uptick is due in large part to an increase in line drives this week....A belated note on Steve Brown, outfielder for Lexington. Brown was placed on the 7-day DL last week and has not appeared in a game since. No word on what the injury was.

Tomorrow, I'll try and have a run-down of performances compared to the leagues in which they play. Till then...