These are the games played by our Rome A+ team in Asheville (Astros) last week.I live in Asheville. It was a good week!

Tuesday 9 — 10

Wednesday rain

Thursday 7 – 5 and 5 – 6

Friday 13 – 8

Saturday 17 – 13

Sunday 17 – 4

Totaling 68 – 46

Asheville has a beautiful little (emphasis on the little here) park and plays at 2200 feet which is not Coors Field but does a good imitation. Dimensions are short, most comically in right where it is but 297 feet to the wall, although a 36 foot high wall does its best “opposites week” Fenway impression. Occasional gusts of wind from the south chipped in to help a few of the balls as well.

 I’m going to concentrate on the hitters because I don’t believe any of the pitchers enjoyed their stay in Asheville this week.

Guys turning into premium prospects right now:

I touched on my 2 favorites last time but want to highlight the other position players who have some shot at reaching the show as well this week.

First up, Isaiah Drake. My writeup from last offseason quoted for each:

“Some good things happened for Drake in 2025: he stayed healthy, showed good instincts in center and cut his strikeouts down to 21% (35% in 2024). Unfortunately, all this was achieved by also cutting down on his swing which resulted in a lot of 4-3 putouts. He also established himself as a base stealing threat (46) although only at a 76% clip. He is still young and has great tools so don’t give up on him yet.”

Some better things have been happening this season as he went 15 for 28 in the series (6 games) with 6 doubles, 3 homers and 6 walks. He also, charmingly, had 3 flyballs spin out of his glove in one game. He looks a good defender otherwise and the home scorer somehow labeled 2 of them as hits 🙂 Strikeouts are back up to 25% but he is back to swinging hard all the time.

Jon Gil we touched on last time. This series saw 8 for 25 but 3 homers and 6 walks.

Eric Hartman has turned into my favorite minor leaguer and he put on a show – 10 for 24 but with 4 homers, 4 doubles and 6 walks. None of his extra base hits were Asheville cheapies either as a couple of the homers cleared the new jumbotron in left center field and were estimated at 440 feet. He is a leftie – he hit 2 balls 440 feet the other way!

Guys I have hope for:

Dixon Williams was in the winter report.

“Similar to Cody Miller, only a 4th round pick and East Carolina (which does have an excellent baseball program and plays a difficult schedule), Williams ranks slightly behind Miller based on tools (more arm, half-grade lower hit tool and less speed than Miller so he is infield only). Williams also struck out at an alarming 31% rate which I don’t expect to happen again.”

Williams missed some time after injuring his hand in spring training but is looking good now. He chipped in with a measly 10 for 17 with 7 walks. The strikeouts are still too high (23%) for a guy with his swing but he has a chance.

Last one for tonight is Logan Braunschweig.

“As  a 2025 senior sign – and a cheap one ($2500) at that – little was expected in 2025. All he did was go to Rome and put up a 400 obp with plus defense across the outfield. BA told us going in that he had one of the better hit tools in the draft this year so you can guess what he’s missing to still wait until the 9th round. That 400 on base will get your attention though and the team will give him every chance in AA to show he can do it against better pitching. After all, Myles Straw has a career.”

I don’t know if he is in a platoon or just has an owie as he missed the 2 games started by lefties. In the others he went ape, going 7 for 15 with his first 2 professional homeruns. One was cheap but he got all of the other one.

In less pressing matters we wasted a nice pitching performance by only getting 5 singles and a walk. Try again tomorrow.