Houston Astros Select J.B. Bukauskas in the 2017 MLB Draft

The Houston Astros select J.B. Bukauskas with the 15th pick in Round 1 of the 2017 MLB Draft…

With the Houston Astros going with Bukauskas, they definitely are committed to ensuring that pitching is addressed first.

And you know what?

It definitely seems as if the Houston Astros picked a damn good one to start.  Highly-regarded as one of the top pitching prospects available in this draft, this 6’0,” 201-pound (I’m being generous with the height) righty definitely has the velocity to boot.  His fastball regularly stays in the 90s and can hit 100 mph quite easily.

Michael Lananna of Baseball America gave his take in regard to the young hurler:

But, as always, there’s always something that a prospect can work on and Dave Shinskie of Baseball Rebellion feels he’s going be drafted high but has to work on his mechanics in order to be successful.  He mentions that his stance at the mound is quite similar to a “W” rather than the appropriate “V” before the release of the pitch.

Take a look at his terrific analysis here that he completed back in mid-April.

Bukauskas had a fine season with the North Carolina Tar Heels, a team that just fell out of the playoffs a couple of weeks ago against Davidson College.

His junior — and final — season had him post a 2.53 ERA with 9-1 record, 116 strikeouts and 26 earned runs through 92.2 innings pitched in 15 Friday starts.

As for his sophomore season, he pitched his way into a 7-2 record, a 3.10 ERA as the Saturday starter, striking out 111 through 78.1 innings pitched.  He regularly gets in the double-figures with his strikeouts with him getting a season-high 13 of them back April 9th against Virginia Tech where they blanked them 20-0.  He was nationally-ranked 3rd with in his K/9 numbers with a whopping 12.75!

Now his opponent — the Hokies — didn’t necessarily have a season to write home about but they did have a few upsets including one over Florida State which was top-ranked team at the time.  Did I mention that Bukauskas was flirting with a no-hitter as well?  It got broken up in the 7th but the fact he was pitching that well goes to show that this guy has something.

Here’s another terrific breakdown from Baseball America:

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.

Next: Why tanking isn't the reason the Astros are so good

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

I personally think that we may have struck gold with this pick and time will tell if he continues an upward trend.

There’s no doubt that his guy is no stranger to the letter “K.”  Haha!

Go Astros!