Bill Lauer  
Starting Pitcher | Houston Astros

Pitching
Lauer's bread-and-butter pitch is a devastating sinking changeup that he'll throw to any batter in any count. His fastball gets into the high 80s, but it's the sink that makes the pitch effective. The Houston Astros hope he can work on his control a little bit. Every once and a while one slips away from him and either ends up at the backstop or in the right field bleachers. He's almost as effective against lefthanders as he is versus righthanders.

Defense & Hitting
He tends to fall off slightly to the first-base side of the mound, making him vulnerable to bunts toward third base. He makes up for that minor flaw by being aggressive in fielding his position. His windup, though, makes him an easy target to run on. Lauer is a surpisingly good hitting pitcher. And I'm not sure you can say this about a pitcher, but Lauer has some pop in his swing.

2010 Outlook
I can't say I know what The Houston Astros were doing locking this guy up to a long term contract. A questionable call at best. AA isn't the right place for Lauer. Expect the Houston Astros to send him down for some minor retooling. I just don't know if The Houston Astros are ever going to get what they expect out of him.

          -- Emu Nyman, AA/AAA Scout
 

 

Year Team AS EN CO HR GF vL Hm Sc CL FB CU SI SL CB SC KN Age Exp Delivery Slot CH PH SP FA Nyman Rating
2002 HOU 61 65 26 21 52 45 45 52 50 70 66 0 0 0 0 0 21 0 Overhand Low Minors 0 5 25 30 141
2003 HOU 63 65 36 23 52 45 45 52 50 71 66 0 0 0 0 0 22 0 Overhand Low Minors 0 0 2 36 157
2004 HOU 65 67 41 24 52 45 45 52 50 71 77 0 0 0 0 0 23 0 Overhand Low Minors 0 0 0 42 179
2005 HOU 65 67 51 26 52 45 45 52 50 71 82 0 0 0 0 0 24 0 Overhand Low Minors 0 0 0 49 196
2006 HOU 66 67 51 27 52 45 45 52 50 72 86 0 0 0 0 0 25 0 Overhand Low Minors 0 0 0 53 202
2007 HOU 66 67 51 28 52 45 45 52 50 72 88 0 0 0 0 0 26 0 Overhand AA/AAA 0 0 0 53 203
2008 HOU 66 67 51 29 52 45 45 52 50 72 89 0 0 0 0 0 27 0 Overhand AA/AAA 0 0 0 53 203
2009 HOU 66 67 51 30 52 45 45 52 50 72 89 0 0 0 0 0 28 0 Overhand AA/AAA 0 0 0 53 202
2010 HOU 66 67 51 30 52 45 45 52 50 72 89 0 0 0 0 0 28 0 Overhand AA/AAA 0 0 0 53 202
Ratings Delta                                                    
History generated by Biorhythm v2.6.86 on Sun Nov 14 13:28:08 EST 2004

Data printed in red denotes that player was in the top two percent for that category and year. Blue data denotes membership to the bottom two percent.