Houston Astros Select Corbin Martin in the 2017 MLB Draft

The Houston Astros select Corbin Martin with the 56th pick in Round 2 of the 2017 MLB Draft…

With the Houston Astros going with Martin, they’re hoping to find lightning-in-a-bottle.  Quite honestly, that’s with every pick that’s made early in the draft.  The 6’3,” 200-pound right-handed hurler has all the tools to survive but in what capacity remains to seen.

Prospects guru John Sickels analyzed Martin and here’s what he had to say about his strengths:

"“As a reliever Martin hit 96-98 MPH with his fastball. As a starter that’s more commonly 91-95 but with excellent movement.  He has an overpowering breaking ball, a big power curve that’s a definite plus pitch. He also has a decent slider, and since moving into the starting role he’s shown the ability to use a good change-up, too.  When his command is on, Martin throws four quality pitches for strikes and has little trouble putting hitters away.”"

Here’s what he had to say about his weaknesses:

"“Unfortunately Martin’s command was not always on during his sophomore year and at times the whole has been less than the sum of the parts. Despite his strong summer on the Cape he did not come into the 2017 draft season with much hype.  That’s changed this spring, especially after he showed the ability to start games and succeed in April and May, but it does leave teams wondering if he’ll be inconsistent in pro ball as well. Even with improvements this spring his walk rate is still rather high.”"

Fair enough, but those are things that can be improved upon and he even mentions that he can be a decent mid-rotation/reliever guy if/when he makes it to the majors.  The guy can certainly throw the heat but having command of the baseball is quite important or else you’re just Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh before he got his groove on.  Haha!

Here’s some video of his tendencies via Sickels’ post from contributor Jheremy Brown:

Next: Astros select 3B/RHP Joe Perez in Round 2 of the MLB Draft

Martin posted a 7-3 record, a 3.35 ERA, tossing 94 strikeouts with 32 earned runs through 86 innings pitched in 23 games (12 starts) for the Aggies.  His 1.41 WHIP isn’t all that impressive but his 9.42 K/9 was pretty solid.  He began the year out of the bullpen but quickly was brought into the starting rotation when SEC play began.

The point of it all is that prospects are relatively unknown and with all of the research that goes into picking them in the draft, there’s still a healthy dose of hope that they work out.

What could be on the mind of Jeff Luhnow and the rest of his staff with this pick?

Go Houston Astros.