While the Astros have been relatively quiet, they did leave, in some scouts estimations, with one of the best picks in the Rule 5 Draft. Rays right-hander Aneury Rodriguez fell to them with the ninth pick.
RaysProspects.com ranked him the #15 prospect the Rays had going into last season. Between two starts at AA and the rest of his season at AAA, Rodriguez started 19 games, allowing 113 hits in123 1/3rd innings, striking out 100 and walking 51, with a 3.71 ERA. He was just 22.
Rodriguez was regarded as one of the best prospects available in the Rule 5 Draft by several sources. He’ll probably start this season as a long reliever for the Astros, but he still has lots of time to eventually blossom into a starter.
In the second round of the draft, they selected Yankee pitcher Lance Pendleton. Pendleton, 26, pitched mostly in AA ball last year, and between that and a brief stint of coffee in AAA, put up a 3.61 ERA, striking out 133 and walking just 57 in 154.2 innings. He also allowed just 124 hits. However, he's older, and has less upside. He's a Tommy John survivor and a Kingwood native who attended Rice.
River Ave. Blues added this on Pendleton:
Pendleton is already 27, so his solid but not overwhelming rates (8.0 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, 0.9 HR9) have to be taken with grain of salt since he's always been older than the competition. I'm not sure if and how much the scouting report has changed through the years, but he was a low-90′s fastball guy with a curve and change back when he was drafted.
The Astros did not select anyone in the AA or AAA portions of the draft this year, but they did lose RHP Jeller Castillo to the A's in the AAA portion.