Over the last few years, the Astros crop of talent in the minor league system has changed. They lost picks in 2020 and 2021 and have made trades at the deadline the last few years to bring in major league talent. One of Dana Brown’s challenges will be adding more talent in the system, and in the 2023 draft it looks like he and the scouts added an elite pitching talent in Jake Bloss.
Jake Bloss, who was a third round pick by the Astros in 2023, had an interesting route to professional baseball. He pitched three seasons at Lafayette, but went undrafted following his age 21 season where he had a 3.57 ERA.
“I had some offers [undrafted free agent] here and there but it worked out that I talked to the Georgetown coaching staff, like what I heard, just came off their best season yet,” Bloss said. “And that was a big one wanting to go to a really competitive baseball team. Good school obviously which is important so kind of just checked all of the boxes.”
Bloss, who already finished his undergrad at Lafayette, had eligibility remaining so he made the transfer to Georgetown to pursue a Master’s Degree. At Georgetown, he saw a nice uptick in velocity and the numbers on the field were great posting a 2.58 ERA with 96 K in 76.2 innings. Bloss went from going undrafted in 2022, to being a 3rd round pick in 2023.
“Any school that you go to that’s in a competitive conference, if you play well you’re going to have a chance to get drafted,” Bloss said. “The Big East is competitive and it’s getting more competitive by the year. So I think we’ll keep seeing some high draft picks out of there pretty consistently.”
But playing at a better school and better conference wasn’t the only reason he improved his draft stock.
“It was just staying on the same path, just putting your head down and going day by day trying to get better,” Bloss said. “Every year it was like a small increment jump and that year was just a little bit bigger of a jump. Credit to the coaches for getting scouts out there and getting looks.
“Commanding breaking balls and tick up on velo on fastball didn’t hurt. Learning how to get the heater more consistent because when I went there, I would cut it sometimes, get it to run sometimes. Just kind of honing it in where it was a consistent ride.”
Following the draft in 2023, Bloss appeared in seven games totaling 18.2 innings picking up 23 strikeouts. The Astros assigned him to Asheville to start this season, and he made quick work of the South Atlantic League posting a 2.08 ERA with 25 K in 17.1 innings, running his fastball up to 98 MPH.
“Adding a pitch, I think. Last year I was curveball, chanegup, hard slider and now I’ve got the bigger slower slider [sweeper] which has helped,” Bloss said on what has been working so well for him. “Just another pitch to attack guys with and to get them off other pitches. We have a really good coaching staff here, really good coaching, really good dietician so they keep us on the field and they give us good directions that kind of let us know where they want us to go and makes it pretty easy.”
Bloss earned the quick promotion to Double-A, and the move hasn’t really phased him at all. In seven starts for the Corpus Christi Hooks, the right-hander has posted a 1.88 ERA allowing just 19 hits in 38.1 innings. Despite the dominant numbers, he still has been an adjustment for him.
“Two strikes.. the hitters here when they get two strikes they don’t go down as easy,” Bloss said. “Like in High-A, whatever you’re throwing you can just rip it as hard as you could and they’re gonna swing and miss a lot of the time.
“Here, you have to hit your spots even with two strikes. If you throw it to far out of the zone they’re not going to swing. So just learning how to still punch guys out is probably the biggest adjustment.”
One example of this and the adjustment was during his start on June 4th. Despite the elite stuff Bloss has, the hitters were able to battle as he struck out only three. But on the flip side, his adjustment worked as he got a lot of weak contact and ended up throwing 6.2 scoreless innings.
“Credit to the other team, they weren’t really getting into deep counts so I was just taking what they were giving me,” Bloss said. “If a team wants to put the ball in play on the ground early in the count I am going to let them. Quick outs are always good. So going deep into a game without a lot of strikeouts, you’ll take that.”
Over the last few years, Bloss has gone from undrafted in 2022, a third round pick in 2023, and now arguably the top pitching prospect in the Astros system in 2024. This development was much needed in the system, and the draft pick is looking like a steal for Dana Brown and company.
Be sure to follow on X, @AstrosFuture, follow me on Instagram, @AstrosFuture and like my Facebook page, facebook.com/AstrosFuture.
