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Astros Prospects: The Forgotten Few, Volume 5

Profiling Astros prospects that are putting up numbers, but don't make the TCB Top 30 Prospect List.

By Irish Pete

I really love doing this series because it forces me to get to know our prospects better. I frequent all the usual suspects in my research: MinorLeagueCentral, MLBFarm, Fangraphs, and MiLB.com. However, one of the best research tools out there is Twitter. I will be embedding quite a few tweets into this edition, so I thought that was worth mentioning. Also, the Forgotten Few will fluctuate in number from time to time. This week will feature 2 prospects. Let's get to it.

Nick Tanielu, 3B, Quad Cities River Bandits

Tanielu was drafted in the 14th round of the 2014 draft out of Washington State. He led the Cougars in hitting (.340) in 2014. He sported a .364 career batting average while in the PAC-12. He predominantly played 3rd Base in college. The Astros drafted him as a 2nd Baseman, but he has played 79 of his 104 games at 3rd in his short Astros minor league career.

Like many in this series, Tanielu is not old or young for his competition. He is 22.2 years old and is considered 6 or 7 months older than his average competition in the MIdwest League. Let's take a look at Tanielu's numbers he has put up for the Astros:

Year Age Tm Lg Lev Aff G PA Iso HR BABIP LD% GB% OFB% K% BB% SB SB% BA OBP SLG OPS wOBA
2014 21.75 Tri-City NYP A- HOU 61 256 0.125 3 0.364 21.3% 38.3% 31.9% 18.8% 6.3% 2 66.70% 0.300 0.353 0.425 0.778 0.378
2015 22.75 Quad Cities MID A HOU 42 177 0.094 1 0.353 20.1% 39.6% 29.1% 16.4% 7.3% 0 0.00% 0.302 0.350 0.396 0.746 0.370
- - MiLB Total - - - 103 433 0.112 4 0.360 20.8% 38.8% 30.7% 17.8% 6.7% 2 40.00% 0.301 0.352 0.413 0.765 -

Solid, but not spectacular. What gets Tanielu on this list is his month of May he has had at Quad Cities this year. Here it is:

Year Age Tm Lg Lev Aff G PA Iso HR BABIP LD% GB% OFB% K% BB% SB SB% BA OBP SLG OPS wOBA
May 22.75 Quad Cities MID A HOU 26 111 0.112 1 0.376 18.6% 38.4% 32.6% 14.4% 8.1% 0 0.00% 0.337 0.378 0.449 0.827 0.386

Tanielu started slow this season so his 2015 numbers are not great so far, but his month of May was pretty well done. His strike zone presence was better if you compare his K% and BB%. This is not extremely BABIP fueled if you see that his career MiLB BABIP is .360. The other uptick that is good to see is his ISO. This helps push his OPS over .800 for the month of May.

Part of the other reason that Tanielu also showed up on my radar was because of Dave Cameron's most recent draft related article. I am not saying that Nick Tanielu is going to be Dustin Pedroia or anyone referenced in that article by Cameron, but he does fit the profile of a low upside collegiate infielder. If he was to develop some pop, he could become a mildly interesting prospect as he climbs the rungs of the loaded farm system.

Reymin Guduan, LHP, Lancaster JetHawks

Guduan is a 23 year old left hande pitcher out of the Dominican Republic. He was Signed by the Houston Astros as a non-drafted free agent on Sept. 22, 2009 at age 17. He was recently promoted to Lancaster from Quad Cities.

His statistics reflect complete domination in 2015.

Split Age Tm G BF IP ERA FIP SIERA GB% LD% BABIP K% BB% KS% HR/9 BB/9 K/9
2015 23.25 MiLB Total 11 80 20.1 1.33 1.87 2.59 55.8% 9.3% 0.209 33.8% 11.3% 21.3% 0 3.98 11.95
- - MiLB Total 56 714 152.2 3.48 3.48 3.76 50.4% 12.3% 0.347 27.5% 15.4% 20.2% 0.35 6.48 11.55

Yes, I agree. His 2015 BABIP is super low, but his K and BB rates are good enough to support a very low predictive FIP and SIERA. The biggest thing Guduan has improved in 2015 is his walk rate. He's dropped it by 2.5 (6.48 BB/9 career mark vs a 3.98 BB/9 mark in 2015).

At this point I am going to let Twitter take over to explain the main reason why he makes the Forgotten Few this week (some go all the way back to 2012).

It's obvious that Guduan possesses 2 major tools to be given all kinds of opportunities to succeed as a pitcher: left handedness and a triple digit fastball.

What will become of Guduan? He's a big time boom/bust player. He could become Tony Sipp or he could be out of a job in 3/4 years. If anything, maybe we can trade him to the Braves, SON!

A note about the next Forgotten Few.

It will be a Redux post. This is where we go back and check in on past Forgotten Few prospects and see how they have performed since they were added to this series. There will be a poll at the end, so put on your democratic voting hats and be sure to come ready to debate for your guy.

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