Miguel Ullola seems to be taking to his role as a RP. Since the switch he’s thrown 5 innings with 7k, 2bb, 0r. Last night his fb was up to 97.8mph.
This move was overdue. Ullola never was starter material, but the reps he's gotten as a starter has probably given the dev team the confidence that he'll be able to repeat his mechanics in shorter stints... without too many complications. I mean, he'll always be wild, but Ullola has proven that he can miss bats, and when opposing hitters, by some miracle, get the bat on his pitches, they really haven't done much with them.
Astros prospects age 20 or younger with >160 wRC+ in High A since 2006: Kyle Tucker Nehomar Ochoa Jr.
I have conveniently ignored the fact that Tucker did that over 275 pa whereas Ochoa has all of 14 pa so far.
Jason Schiavone just hit his 20th home run of the year for Corpus. Trevor Austin has two solo shots for the Hooks to give him 9 for the season.
Santa and Ullola being hits for the bullpen would be a huge boost. Ullola has really obvious parallels to Bryan Abreu, I recall they would always flirt with the idea of stretching Abreu out as a starter during spring but time has shown he’ll never be able to locate his stuff over multiple innings. Similarly I could see Ullola thriving in a one inning role just pumping his electric fastball and mixing in the occasional slider
Santa, Blubaugh, and Ullola all should be quality bullpen arms for the next few seasons; they might not turn into high leverage arms but they’ll stick in the majors. I also expect Jackson Nezuh to get moved to the pen and graduate next season, and he has a pretty high ceiling.
Caden Powell is on a heater. He went 3-3 with a HR and two walks. 6 of the 7 HRs he's hit on the season have come in his last 8 starts. He's played more LF than any other position this season, so has slid down the defensive spectrum, but is one of the more powerful hitters in the system. He started off slow, but has come on as of late.
After a slow start in AA Schiavone is off and raking again. Still striking out a lot, but it's actually down a little from his high A rate. He also continues to walk a f**king ton, and if there's any way to succeed with a high K rate walking and hitting dongs is it. If they view him as an MLB level backstop that lowers his offensive requirement also. The K rates almost across the board continue to dampen my expectations for our hitting prospects, but him and Neyens have enough other green flags to have me intrigued.
Mike Zunino might be a good ceiling comp for Schiavone. Schiavone might even be able to walk more than Zunino did.
Powell’s k rate since May 1st is down around 25% after being 32% in April. His walk rate has gone up. Very encouraging when considering the power surge. Looks like he might’ve figured something out.
4 solo shots for Corpus so far today. Jason Schiavone (4, 21 season), Trevor Austin (10), Joseph Sullivan (11), and Lucas Spence (2) have all gone deep for the Hooks.
Nehomar Ochoa drove in 6 for Asheville today with a two-run double, a bases-clearing double, and an RBI single.
Caden Powell cutting down his strikeouts is encouraging, but I'm not quite ready to buy until he starts to put a dent in that 486-point gap between his home and road OPS. Seems like he's handling the outfield well enough, which is also good.
Really need Sullivan to wake up. Im officially interested in Trevor Austin. Hitting for power, healthy k/bb rates, playing solid 3B. I’d like to see him go ahead and move up to AAA with Ferreras.
Pascanel Ferreras hit his 2nd AAA homer and 5th of the season. He's gotten off to a hot start with Sugar Land, with the caveat that he's starting off at a launching pad in El Paso.
