Analyzing 2025 Rule 5 Eligibles: Guaranteed to be protected: P Miguel Ullola; there's no chance he's left unprotected. High risk: P Jose Fleury: Extremely good in AA before running into issues with walks and homers in his small AAA sample so far; still, he could probably survive in a big league low leverage relief role, so I think he will be protected. P Alimber Santa: His stuff is too good to not protect. OF Zach Cole: he's red hot and an extremely high ceiling player; September will determine how much of a risk he is but for now he's played himself onto the roster. Moderate risk: P Michael Knorr: the strikeout rate and stuff is there but he's been prone to walks and homers; a moderate case which usually means they are left unprotected. P Trey Dombroski: he's had a successful year in AA but his stuff has not advanced so he'd probably have a tough time sticking on a big league roster, which makes me think he will not be protected. Minimal risk: P Alex Santos II, P Patrick Halligan, 1B Wes Clarke; Santos is hurt but has ceiling, Halligan has gotten AA hitters out but has a low ceiling, Clarke has crushed AA pitching but is limited defensively. Zero risk: P Abel Mercedes, P Garrett Apker, OF Tyler Whitaker, P Brett Gillis, P Nolan DeVos, P Andrew Taylor, C John Garcia, IF Tommy Sacco, IF Narbe Cruz, P Walker Brockhouse, P Julio Rodriguez, P Luis Angel Rodriguez, P Anderson Bido, P Tyler Guilfoil, P Joe Mancini, C Collin Price, P Nic Swanson, P Rhett Kouba, P Tyler Ivey, OF Colin Barber, P Miguel Urias, P Amilcar Chriinos, C Miguel Palma, P Jayden Murray; I could see some of these guys getting taken in the minor league phase if Houston decides they're done with them. Price, Palma, and Barber are worth watching in AAA this month but it would take something dramatic for them to be a Rule 5 risk at this point.
I’ve been skeptical, but at this point f it call him up. If you can give Melton enough run to fail, why not give Cole a week long chance to see if he can maintain this hot streak.
Miguel Ullola also threw six no-hit innings last night; he walked four and struck out 7 on 91 pitches (58 strikes).
Single digit swinging strike rate, 20% called strike rate. He is waiting for his pitch and hitting it out almost every time. Pretty soon AAA pitchers will learn and he won’t get those pitches and he’ll start swinging and missing a lot more. He’s got an immense ceiling but everybody should relax on the hype after 31 pa.
Thirty one at bats is thirty one at bats - sample size is sample size. Still I can’t say I expected him to start this quickly. I expected him to struggle honestly. I wouldn’t even lift an eyebrow if he didn’t have a really high ceiling. I will be interested to see how he does with the higher level development people. I view his as an amusement until I see him produce in the big leagues because of his MAMMOTH strikeout rate… hell of a bounce back year for him though.
Well, Zach Cole didn't homer, but he went 2-4 with a two-run triple that closed out a 5-2 Sugar Land win.
Ethan Frey went 4-4 with a solo homer (3) and scored three runs. Frey will finish his pro debut with 117 plate appearances as he was pretty much playing every day in Fayetteville and he has probably demonstrated his mastery of the level, slashing .326/.426./.474 with 3 home runs and 17 RBI.
Caden Powell drove in 5 for Fayetteville with a two-run triple and a three-run homer (10). Powell showed flashes and I think it was an encouraging first full year for him. However, he'll need to prove that he's playable somewhere on the infield that isn't 1B. And of course, the strikeouts. He did get his Fayetteville K rate just under 30% (29.91%) so I'll take that.
Between Ullola, Pecko, Nezuh, Tredwell, and Mayer, Houston has a very large crop of high ceiling pitching prospects who should graduate at various points next season. Even in a worst case scenario, the big league bullpen depth should be significantly upgraded, but in a best case, we will see Houston able to raise the bar for the quality of pitcher who gets to fill out the 3-6 spots in their rotation.
So with the Astros rate of pitcher attrition, we should bubble wrap 3 of them, get them ramping back up in May so they can be reinforcements in July? (sorry, still feeling a little dark from the Arrighetti and Ort news).
I might have missed it but is there a reason Neyens didn't see any action this year? Seems like Frey is off to a great start.
