Top Dynasty Keepers – Hunter Brown And Yainer Diaz

Welcome back to another week of Top Dynasty Keepers.

With the calendar flipping over to September, it can only mean one thing in the baseball world – roster expansion! For teams that have been out of contention for weeks or months, this is a chance to reward two prospects having great seasons on top of the many top prospects who have already been called up to the minors.

But for a team like the Houston Astros, this is a chance to not only reward two prospects who have had outstanding seasons but to see if they can possibly offer some help down the stretch or even in the postseason.

CHANCE TO PROVE THEMSELVES

With the rosters expanding to 28 players starting Sept. 1, Houston added right-handed pitcher Hunter Brown and catcher Yainer Diaz to the major league roster. Brown is the club’s top prospect and is currently ranked 71st in the Top 100 Prospects list by MLB.com while Diaz is the team’s No. 3 prospect.

Both players dominated the competition in the minors, Brown all season at AAA Sugar Land and Diaz at AA Corpus Christi before moving up to Sugar Land.

The Astros entered Saturday with an 11-game lead over the Seattle Mariners in the AL West standings. Thanks to that large lead, it gives the club a chance to see what Brown and Diaz can do on the major league level – a chance they may not have received if the lead was one or two games.

Let’s dive in and see why the Astros promoted Brown and Diaz.

HUNTER BROWN

If there is one thing the Astros scouting department has done well over the years is finding hidden gems at smaller colleges. Brown is one of those hidden gems. Houston drafted Brown out of Division II Wayne State in 2019 in the fifth round.

Brown’s first two seasons with the Warriors was split between time as a starter and reliever before taking on the role of staff ace his junior year. As a freshman and sophomore, he posted ERAs of 4.85 and 4.33 with WHIPs of 1.49 and 1.47. Command for Brown was a big issue as he walked 4.4 batters per nine innings his freshman year and 3.6 per nine as a sophomore.

But Brown turned things around in 2019 as he turned into the staff ace. In 14 starts he went 9-0 with a 2.21 ERA and 1.184 WHIP, striking out 114 hitters in 85.1 innings. He allowed only 62 hits but still walked too many hitters at a rate of 4.1 per nine innings.

Turning Pro

After being drafted, Brown signed with the Astros and finished his 2019 season at Low-A with Tri-City. There he appeared in 12 games, making six starts, and showed a glimpse of why the Astros drafted him. In 23.2 innings of work, he struck out 33 batters, a rate of 12.5 per nine innings. But with the strikeouts came 18 walks, an unsightly 6.8 per nine walk rate.

Brown’s 2020 season never happened due to COVID, but he didn’t just sit around. Instead, he threw off a homemade mound to work on commanding his pitches, which includes a fastball that can hit 99 mph. Scouts grade his fastball and curveball at 65 on a 20-80 scale and his slider at 55 with a below-average changeup (45).

Improved Command

The Astros started Brown at AA in 2021. At Corpus Christi, he started 11 of 13 games and went 1-4 with a 4.20 ERA and 1.50 WHIP. He recorded 79 strikeouts in 49.1 innings of work (13.9 K/9). But command was still an issue for Brown as he walked 29 hitters, a BB/9 rate of 5.3.

But that didn’t prevent the Astros from promoting Brown to AAA Sugar Land. He finished the season making eight starts out of his 11 appearances and was better at AAA than at AA. He went 5-1 with a 3.88 ERA and 1.33 WHIP for Sugar Land. His strikeout rate dropped a little, down to 9.7 per nine innings. However, he also lowered his walk rate to 3.7 per innings.

This season Brown simply dominated AAA hitters thanks to a fastball that sits in the mid-90, a power curve that he throws in the low 80s and a hard slider that he throws in the mid 80s. Before his promotion, he went 9-4 with a 2.55 ERA and an impressive 1.09 WHIP. He struck out 11.4 hitters per nine and walked only 3.8 hitters per nine while giving up only 70 hits in 106 innings of work for an opponent batting average of only .188.

What is his 2022 Role?

Brown will make his debut on Monday when he starts against the Rangers. But his role down the stretch will mostly like see him used as a reliever with the chance to be used in some high-leverage situations. Brown showed what he could as a reliever in his last outing in the minors. He entered the game in the middle of an inning and proceeded to throw 3.1 hitless innings while hitting 99 mph with his fastball.