Each of us almost always remembers a player for a particular swing, a pitch, a slide, a catch, or anything else that has captured our attention in an unforgettable way.
Sometimes, that happens in a positive, exciting context, but many times it also happens in a situation that ends up being deeply disappointing for baseball fans.
That said, there are many Houston Astros pitchers who will inevitably need to do something valuable to make us erase some of the negative images they left behind this season. Most of them came in the early postseason, when the Chicago White Sox seemed to be giving a lesson on how to produce runs, run the bases, and neutralize the lineup with the most home runs, without needing their starter to get through more than four innings.
So, when I think about the Astros' pitching in the postseason, I cannot forget Hunter Brown allowing six baserunners and four runs without being able to finish the first inning. I also cannot forget Bryan Abreu giving up a monstrous home run to Chase Meidroth, or AJ Blubaugh , as an opener, throwing more balls than strikes in a jam he could only get out of after Joe Espada asked for the ball in the first inning, with two outs.
Josh Hader struggling? Yes, he allowed three hits in two innings, the same number he allowed to opponents in his first 15 appearances of the regular season, during a stretch in which he faced 54 batters. Bennett Sousa, Bryan King, and Peter Lambert also could not hold up. Among the pitchers who completed the group, Hayden Wesneski , one of the starters who arrived in the best form for the playoffs, could not even pitch.
Now, the uncomfortable question is that most of those pitchers represent the heart of Houston's rotation and bullpen for the future, which creates even more uncertainty heading into this winter, when the team still has neither a manager nor a general manager.
Houston Astros pitcher Miguel Ullola (66). Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Now that we have talked about some of the pitchers who left us with the most doubts in the postseason, we should also pay attention to some of the guys who could take a step forward.
Miguel Ullola is one of them. The sample we have on the Dominican right-hander is still insufficient, as he faced only 62 batters during his major league debut this year in the regular season. However, Ullola threw three dominant innings in the postseason against Chicago and allowed just one hit: Colson Montgomery's solo home run in the fourth inning to give them a 4-0 lead.
Ullola threw a 94.8 mph fastball in the upper third and slightly outside the strike zone, with the same average velocity he recorded on the 157 four-seam fastballs he threw during the regular season, per Statcast . Opponents had just a .155 xBA and went 4-for-32, with one home run and 10 strikeouts.
For the velocity he possesses, Ullola recorded a 24.3% whiff rate with his fastball and a 33.3% rate with a winding slider that left hitters with a .136 xBA. What else does he throw? Well, at least in his 11 appearances - he worked as a starter in two of them - he threw only six curveballs and one changeup. A total of 66.5% of his pitches were four-seam fastballs and 30.1% were sliders. The first thing I wonder is how much confidence Ullola has in the rest of his repertoire.
At 24 years old, he finished his first season with a 2-0 record and a 2.16 ERA. Although he arrived in late June, his attitude on the mound said much more than his numbers, which were quite promising. What will the Astros do with him? That is a very good question, but Houston still does not have anyone who can answer it.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/astros/onsi as Astros' Pitching Disaster Should Force Houston to Rethink Approach Young Arms .
