I've been out of town and just saw Bregman's been moved to AAA. He'll be up when they expand the rosters if we're lucky.

As I type this, Bregman is currently 4-for-5 (2 doubles, 3 RBIs) in his AAA debut for the Grizzlies with at least two more at-bats in the game. Not a bad way to start. Proud of him. He'll be a great big leaguer soon, maybe even good enough to have his number retired at LSU one day.

His pro career won't be a reason to retire his number at LSU.

LSU approaches retiring numbers a lot differently than most schools. We're very picky about whose numbers we retire forever. Only 10 numbers across all sports are retired. Almost all the athletes whose numbers have been retired had excellent professional careers, as well as stellar LSU careers. For basketball, Pete Maravich is the greatest college player ever and had a great pro career, along with Shaq and Bob Petit. In baseball, Ben McDonald and Todd Walker won titles at LSU and had long, successful MLB careers. Brandon Larson arguably had a better college career than Walker, but didn't achieve as much MLB success, so unlike Walker (whose #12 will be retired next year), I doubt Larson's number ever gets retired.

Eddy Furniss is a notable exception to the trend of needing great pro careers, but he was one of the best LSU players ever, a 2-time national champion, and National Player of the Year in 1998, so he was really special.

One thing against Bregman is he never won a national title, but neither did any of our basketball players, so we'all see. I think DJ LeMahieu is pretty likely to get his number retired if he keeps playing so well.

your post makes my point. Todd Walker isn't getting his number retired next year based on what he did in the majors. And Ben McDonalds number is not retired based on his major league career. They are solely based on their college accomplishments.


For the other sports, its the same. LSU doesn't do it any differently than most schools do it.

Is he too good for minor league baseball yet?

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Alex Bregman, the Astros' top prospect, continues to build his case for a sooner-than-anticipated promotion to the major leagues.

Bregman belted two more home runs in Class AAA on Monday night in his first game at Fresno's Chukchansi Park. Last year's No. 2 overall draft pick has four homers and 11 RBIs in his first five Pacific Coast League games.

Since joining the Fresno team on Thursday, Bregman is batting .476 (10 for 21). Each of the five games he has started at shortstop, a position at which he is blocked in the big leagues by Carlos Correa. Bregman played 11 games at third base while with Class AA Corpus Christi. He is expected to see time there with Fresno, too.

Monday's homers give Bregman 18 on the season, twice as many as his best single-season total in his three years at LSU. He hit only four home runs in 272 at-bats with Class A Quad Cities and Advanced Class A Lancaster last year, his first as a professional.

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Imagine if Bregman was born 10-15 years ago with a lineup of Biggio, Bags, Berkman and Bregman...talk about your Killer B's (if Bregman continues to rake). Also imagine Bregman at SS instead of Adam Everett.

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Imagine if Bregman was born 10-15 years ago with a lineup of Biggio, Bags, Berkman and Bregman...talk about your Killer B's (if Bregman continues to rake). Also imagine Bregman at SS instead of Adam Everett.

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The black hole that was at SS in that era is just mind-boggling.

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Imagine if Bregman was born 10-15 years ago with a lineup of Biggio, Bags, Berkman and Bregman...talk about your Killer B's (if Bregman continues to rake). Also imagine Bregman at SS instead of Adam Everett.

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The black hole that was at SS in that era is just mind-boggling.

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Absolutely. But to be fair, it could be argued that with the exception of an aging Miguel Tejada, the black hole at SS covers the history of the franchise. Isn't Everett the career HR leader at the position if you take out Correa?

Yup and Correa is already about to break his record

It's crazy. There are so many of those old names that spark great memories of being a kid and watching the Stros, but when you really think about the history of that position, it's just not good.

Lugo
Miller
Vizcaino
Thon
Ramirez
Reynolds
Cedeno
Bruntlett
Everett
Bogar

Is there a worse position for the franchise until Correa came along?

Um...Catcher

Castro made an all star team.

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Castro made an all star team.

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That was by default

Ausmus could do nothing but call a game. Even he knew he was bad.

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"I have to keep him playing, because if he starts managing, he'll be better than me." - Astros' manager Phil Garner, joking

"Yeah, but if he keeps playing me more, he may end up losing his job anyway". - Ausmus, in a quick-witted response

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And counting Pudge as a plus catcher is a joke. He was awful with us and was eventually shipped out the same year we got him for a MiLB reliever and 2 PTBNL.

Catcher has been a black hole for this organization for years.

Ausmus was more than just a defensive catcher, even when those comments happened in 2007. He just wasn't a home run masher during the steroid era, so he was devalued. Were you a fan before the mid-00s? SS has always been awful. Much worse than catcher on most of our playoff teams. I will say that ****ie Thon had potential to be the best SS in history if not for being beaned in the 80s. Sad one there. I'd say Alan Ashby was a pretty good catcher too, but that's going too far back.

Ausmus's career slash line is .251/.325/.344 - probably the 6th best batter on the team as constructed today. He just didn't hit HRs. Ausmus (our best C) had a career offensive WAR of 8.6. Adam Everett (our best SS that spent a majority of a career here) was a .7 for his career.

Neither has been a position of strength for us historically like some others, so we are arguing details. These two positions have been awful. 2B, CF, LF, and 1B have historically been our best positions by far. RF pretty good, then 3B decent with Ensberg/Caminiti in the last few decades.

SS and C are way behind, an I say SS has been much much worse. SS probably feels worse too because of the top-quality players you routinely see there. We have had to see Larkin, Ripken, A-Rod, Jeter, Vizquel, Garciaparra, etc. all be great players. Then the next level with people like Edgar Renteria were killing us too while we were trotting out junk. Catcher is much more limited - Pudge, Piazza, Molina, Varitek... Maybe Mauer. I am probably missing one.

I actually typed catcher after the original question but edited it before posting. I gave a little credit to Biggio starting out there, but even without him, I just think the catcher list is a tiny hair better than shortstop. Granted, that's a very low bar.

Ausmus
Mr. Morales Ashby
Biggio (kind of)
Eusebio
Gattis (TBD I guess)
Castro
Conger
Quintero
Servais
Taubensee (better after he left... reds? phillies? don't remember)
Bako
Zaun
Pena

I feel like I'm forgetting a name somewhere, but regardless that's a pathetic list given the number of years included. What's really lacking is the headliner or potential headliner, which is one advantage for SS with Correa. But beyond the top guy at each position, I give a slight edge to catcher over the crap we've been trotting out there at short for so many years.

****ie Thon could have been a stud if not for Mike Torrez plunking him in the head and breaking his left orbital bone and screwing up his depth perception, really was a shame.

Mitch Meluskey

Good God that list is horrible

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Neither has been a position of strength for us historically like some others, so we are arguing details. These two positions have been awful. 2B, CF, LF, and 1B have historically been our best positions by far. RF pretty good, then 3B decent with Ensberg/Caminiti in the last few decades.

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I think 3B has been pretty good (relatively speaking - again, with few headliners unfortunately). Cammy and Ensberg are probably the best two, but there's a decent group behind that. And by decent, I mean they weren't embarrassing.

Garner
Castilla
Lamb
Berry
Lowrie
Spiers
Magadan (I won't cheat and look it up first, but I have a feeling I remember him as being better than he was)

Ok, that's not a fantastic list either, but not terrible.

** I had to look before posting - Magadan hit .313 with Houston. But only 42 bombs in 15 years? Why did I think he was better than that?

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Mitch Meluskey

Good God that list is horrible

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Ha! Forgot about Meluskey. Coworker just reminded me of Raul Chavez. If that's not the trump card over shortstop, I don't know what is.

Definitely much more serviceable than either SS or C. Still not as good as RF (Hidalgo, Bell, Pence, now Springer). 2B, CF, LF and 1B are self-explanatory if you ask me.

Agree 100%.

And now I'll excuse myself for a moment to go down the rabbit hole of Dave Magadan's career. I can't believe I remembered him as being a dangerous addition to our lineup at one point. Maybe I just thought he had a cool name.

Back to the original topic, the issue with Bregman being called up is not because of Bregman. The problem becomes who do you sit for him? Valbueno has finally been playing very good 3rd base the last month of the season. How do you sit your 3rd baseman who is playing the best month of baseball in his entire life? Granted, hitting .250 range and 11 home runs is not all-star numbers, but his level of play has warranted him to stay at the position until he at least goes cold. It's awfully hard to sit a hot hitter for a rookie who could easily come in and not hit well to start off his career.

Also, with AJ Reed just getting a shot, it will take a while for the Astros to determine if Reed should stay in the bigs. If Reed struggles going forward they may shift Val to 1B, which opens up a spot at 3b for Bregman. However, if Reed produces at 1st and Val continues to prove steady at 3b, it will be a very tough situation finding a position for Bregman to play. It seems like the Astros are very good at finding guys just good enough to keep playing, but never good enough to solidify their position for the season. (Valbuena, Rasmus, Gattis, McHugh, Fiers)

If Bregman can hold down 3B, you can find a buyer for Valbuena. The fact he's heating up only increases his value.

Valbuena, Singleton & Preston Tucker
- for -
Zach Wheeler

Let Wheeler rest his arm the rest of the year and start fresh next year. Singleton is at best your 3rd choice at 1b behind Reed & White and Tucker will soon be passed by Cameron, Fisher, T.Hernandez and his younger brother. Might as well get something for him before you get raided in Rule V.

I would give him a shot to platoon and at third and left field just to get his bat in the lineup. Not sure we have a full time position for him this year based on how things look right now.

Tucker won't be passed by Cameron anytime soon...

Bregman started the futures all-star game at third base tonight and batted second. He has a triple and a double in two AB's and fielded a tough hop and started a double play. He just scored the first run.

Joe Musgrove started and had a clean inning.

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Bregman should be brought up after the all star break.

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Since AAA..

14 hits in 38 PAs...8 of this hits are DBLs or HRs.

Slashing .389/.421/.889

Yes.

As early as this weekend.

Today