The Houston Astros made it official, today. Prized first base prospect A.J. Reed was officially invited to their big league camp when players report to spring training in February. While this is not much of a surprise, it is validation for the slugger that dominated Minor League pitching at all levels in 2015.

The 22-year-old Reed (6'4, 250 pounds) is coming off a year that saw him hit .340 with 34 homers and 127 RBIs in just 135 games. Reed also sported a .432 on base percentage and .612 slugging to combine for an eye-popping 1.044 OPS.

Not surprisingly, Reed took home the 2015 Minor League Offensive Player of the Year award. The last two players to win that award were Kris Bryant (’14) and Joey Gallo (’13). The Astros selected A.J. Reed in the second round of the 2014 MLB Draft out of Kentucky. He led all of college baseball in home runs that season and was recognized as the nation's best power hitter.

The Astros allowed starting first baseman Chris Carter to become a free agent a few days ago by not offering him an arbitration eligible contract.

A.J. Reed has led every level of baseball in home runs for a season: High school, college, minor leagues.
Now he's ready to tackle the Major Leagues: A.J. Reed knows this will be his biggest challenge but he's ready for it.

“I want to prove that I belong,” Reed said. “That I can be a big league ball player, that I belong with the Houston Astros and fit into their culture. I think I have a pretty good idea what it takes to become a great player. I’ve just got to work hard in the off-season and look forward to the opportunity. I don't want to let the Astros down. They believed in me by drafting me."



I don't know what excited me more. A.J. Reed being invited to spring training or the good music being played during that batting practice. But honestly, I'm just as excited about A.J. Reed as I was for Carlos Correa going into last year.

The Astros probably regret waiting until early June to call up Correa (who put up monster stats as a rookie). Correa's late call up cost him a 30 HR, 100 RBI season as a rookie shortstop in 2015. He still led all shortstops in the Major Leagues in home runs this past year. He also hit two long balls in the postseason against the best team in the business right now, Kansas City Royals.

I hope A.J. Reed starts at first base on opening day 2016 in April as a rookie. The only other option we really have with experience playing first base is Jon Singleton. Evan Gattis played a couple games at first base, also left field, but mostly DH'd last season.

The Astros have been lacking a great first baseman since Lance Berkman retired. And to be honest, Berkman was a natural outfielder who made the switch later in his career because of bad knees. The last natural first baseman the Astros had who was all-star caliber and a great hitter was Jeff Bagwell.

I was kind of hoping the Astros could sign Texas native Chris Davis in free agency (expensive first base option) and then DH A.J. Reed as a rookie in 2016 but then Evan Gattis would become the odd man out. Although I think Reed would probably be an upgrade over Gattis at the plate.

Given the young team they already have it probably makes sense just to give Reed every opportunity to win the first base job this spring. The Astros should spend their free agent dollars on trying to add an upgrade in the starting rotation (Cueto, Kazmir re-sign? Who the heck is left?) and obviously we need one or two good relievers. Late-inning guys who can throw the heat. The Astros only had one reliever in 2015 who could consistently throw hard (94 MPH or higher) and that was Josh Fields.

We've done nothing in free agency so far which is disheartening to some degree. But the Astros future lies within their prospects. Former first overall pick, pitcher Mark Appel, could also make the big league team this spring. It was unfortunate he had some injury setbacks and then Lance McCullers surpassed him as the team's best pitching prospect but Appel will have his opportunity soon.

I'm just worried people will start to catch on to the young talent the Astros have. I was hoping they would fly under the radar a little while longer and burst onto the scene in 2016 or 2017, and then become a really good team for a 10 or 12-year period. But given their success in 2015 they won't be overlooked going into the 2016 season.

Oh God! Dallas Keuchel and Jose Fernandez would be unfair.
I'm assuming we'd almost surely have to give up Lance McCullers in a Fernandez deal.

Jayson Stark ✔ @jaysonst
Sources: Mystery team making "very strong" bid for Jose Fernandez. Other clubs believe it's the Astros. More soon at http://espn.com/
10:18 AM - 8 Dec 2015

Here's the link.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/14320064/unidentified-fourth-team-enters-trade-talks-miami-marlins-ace-jose-fernandez

If we can pair another Ace with Keuchel at the top of the rotation and add one or two hard-throwing relievers we'll be ready to win the American League sooner rather than later. We were six outs away from eliminating the World Series champion Royals. We just couldn't hold that damn 6-2 lead in the top of the 8th in Game 4.

The thing is, Lance McCullers is a future ace. The young kid is special. He was in line to pick up the win against the Royals in that Game 4 that would have sent us to the ALCS, but the bullpen blew the four-run lead with six outs left to get.

No team in the AL really scares me at all. Maybe the Texas Rangers because they owned us in 2015.
The Astros just need to relax and be patient. All this talk of adding superstars is ridiculous.

Trust the young talent! But if they add a big name and give up the farm I'll be okay with it as well. LOL

This post was edited by Madmartigan on Dec 8 2015 12:22pm

For Jose Fernandez, The Astros should offer the Marlins a package centered around Lance McCullers and George Springer (the Marlins want a good young outfielder as a major need), sprinkled in with three or four of our best prospects not named A.J. Reed.

I'd just give them the best offer out there. No team can top what the Astros can offer if they really wanted him in a trade.

I know the Marlins wanted Carlos Correa but unfortunately he's untouchable at this point.

A few off-seasons ago the Astros expressed interest in trading for Giancarlo Stanton. As the Cardinals hacking reports indicated. Jeff Luhnow was told by the Marlins front office that Carlos Correa and George Springer would have to be included if they were even to entertain the thought.

Hopefully now we can offer the Marlins all they want for Jose Fernandez (just not Carlos Correa or A.J. Reed).

McCullers and springer alone is already too much and you wanna throw in 3-4 more top prospects not worth it at all

Good thing he's not a gm rofl

Fernandez is coming off major surgery too springer is a real deal phenom in the making

I'm not a big Springer fan.

I don't think he'll ever be superstar.

This post was edited by fuzzy159 on Dec 9 2015 03:41am

Ryan would ruin the Astros if he had any bit of input.

E: also wtf, so quick to give up Springer who has shown success in the majors, but won't even give up a prospect who doesn't have one game in the majors.

How soon we forget of all the failed prospects.

This post was edited by xVitality on Dec 9 2015 07:56am

Jon Singleton 2.0

The fallacy of prospects