FCL Astros fell to 1-8 with a 9-4 loss to the Marlins today. While winning baseball games would be nice, getting acclimated to a new country and culture would probably be much higher priorities for some of the guys/kids on that roster. Camilo Diaz went 3-5 with a triple and scored two runs, while Jose Luis Varela allowed a solo homer (the only hit he allowed) and struck out three in three innings.
Astros have room for another handful of prospects in the DSl before their season starts in early June. I also noticed their stateside roster count is down to around 160 once 60 day IL’s are removed, so they probably won’t have to make a big round of releases when the draft gets here.
Jackson Nezuh and Ethan Pecko continue to be a formidable duo for Fayetteville. Nezuh: 5 IP, 3 H, ER, BB, 6 K Pecko: 4 IP, 3 H (solo HR allowed), BB, 3 K Xavier Casserilla and Kenni Gomez drove in 2 each in the Woodpeckers' 6-2 win in Kannapolis.
Jeron Williams homered again (4) in the second game of Asheville's doubleheader with Rome. In his second plate appearance of the 1st inning, he cleared the bases with a double. Jose Guedez allowed a run on four hits, walked one, and struck out six in five innings of work.
He looks like a big leaguer when you watch him. I am not saying he is a savior or even a long term fixture in the Astros rotation - but it’s pretty clear he is bound for the big leagues if he doesn’t get hurt.
For Blubaugh to do that in ABQ is impressive. Good to see him get it turned around after some pedestrian starts upon joining SL.
Some notes on Ullola - he's thrown 526 pitches in the Texas League this season. When you filter by a 300 pitch minimum, Ullola has the third lowest z-contact rate in the league following Ky Bush and Helcris Olivarez. He's also 13th in CSW% using that same filter and around the top 10 in whiff%/SwStr%. He and Brown have both been very good this year with Ullola being harder to hit straight up (lower z-contact rate) but Brown has been better at inducing chase swings.
Meyers is good defensively if you like rag arm OF'ers that are gunshy in the OF. Meyers is the type of guy that the nerds love, but it doesn't really translate onto the field, There's a reason Meyers has been splitting time out there. I would rather give Loperfido/Leon a chance out there and keep a guy that's a proven playoff performer like Chas over Meyers.
I hope so. Not that it isn't true for every team, but we definitely need more pitching with Hunter Brown having really struggled since the 2nd half of last year, and Arrighetti not having a great start to his career (Not that he won't turn it around). Such a big part of long-term success is developing or finding pitching. We've done great at that from Keuchel to Valdez to Javier/Garcia.
Agreed. Brown has just been downright disappointing. He is probably headed for the pen when everyone is healthy if he doesn't turn it around. He likely would be a very good reliever, but his command is awful. As for Arrighetti, I expected early struggles because his command/control isn't great at this point. He walks too many and falls behind in the count. He has not been up too long and has looked better recently, we will have to see how he does going forward. For all the talk of Acuna, Albers and the offense in Atlanta - Brown did a very good job developing pitchers.
Some notes on Bloss - using Ullola as a baseline, Bloss does not have near the swing/miss with his stuff (e.g., 8% worse for whiff rate, 10% worse for Z-contact), does not get hitters to chase as well either (9% worse chase swing rate), and has been a little worse overall at the "non contact" aspect of pitching (e.g., 4% worse CSW%). Interestingly considering I believe Ullola is known for lacking command, Bloss also does a worse job of avoiding the middle of the zone (6% worse heart%). Bloss has dominated by basically giving up zero quality contact as he has a .130 wOBACON and hasn't allowed any walks. He has done a good job this season of minimizing chase/waste pitches which are particularly bad for him compared to Ullola who is better at inducing chases. As for contact, it seems he has succeeded by having the line drives he has yielded be caught and by limiting the number of fly balls bay generating a large number of pop ups to accompany a fair number of ground balls. The pop up thing gives me pause as that is typically associated with FB specialists and not guys who also generate a healthy number of ground balls. While I like that Bloss has been able to pitch in the zone without getting roughed up I would want to see more swing/miss before getting too excited. Suppressing walks is a real skill but contact management specialists are few and far between. We tried signing one of the premier ones in Baez and that was probably the one instance where a relief pitcher acquisition totally blew up in Click's face. fyi, these stats come from @TJStats on twitter. Well worth a few bucks a month if you're as much of a degenerate about this stuff as me.
Luis Rodriguez, the pitcher who came over from the White Sox in the Corey Julks deal, allowed a hit and struck out four in 2.1 innings in the FCL and got the win in his Astros org debut.
