With the 28th pick of the MLB Draft, the Houston Astros selected left-hander Wes Mendes from Florida State.
“An athletic 6-foot-1 left-hander, Mendes will use a robust five-pitch mix to keep hitters guessing. While his fastball sits around 92 mph and tops out at 96, it does feature some life upstairs with some angle to his glove side. His 80-mph changeup is his best secondary, a plus cambio he sells well with arm speed, the kind of offspeed offering that seems to pause in mid-air with late arm side depth
to it. His low-80s slider can show some good short glove side tilt and he can back foot it to right-handed hitters and he’s added a new, harder cutter, with better shape and control of it as the season has gone on. He’ll use his upper-70s curve to steal a strike early in counts. Mendes has improved his delivery as well as his ability to control his emotions on the mound, all allowing him to minimize damage and fill up the strike zone a lot more consistently than in the past. He can run into trouble deeper in outings, but it’s not anything teams viewing him as a future big league starter to select in the top couple of rounds are overly concerned about.“ – MLB Pipeline
In a system that needs pitching help, especially from the left side, Mendes is a welcome addition.
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