Houston Astros: Corpus Christi Player Spotlight – Jon Singleton

Astros’ Jon Singleton has gone through an interesting path in his professional baseball career.

Every since being traded to the Astros from the Phillies in 2011, his play has been up and down. This season Jon Singleton finds himself on the Corpus Christi Hooks and he is the spotlight for the week.

The Stats

Jon Singleton was once a top prospect in the Houston Astros system. Throughout his career he has always struggled to hit for a good average. His minor league career average is .262 and his major league one is .171. Singleton, however, makes up for it with a .378 on base percentage in the minors. He has also hit a combined 138 home runs and even hit one for his first ever hit for the Astros. Last season was a disaster for the 25-year-old. After not making the major league roster, Singleton proceeded to hit .202/.337/.728 for Triple-A Fresno, causing him to be demoted back to Double-A this year.

This season for the Hooks, Jon Singleton is hitting a measly .238 with 7 homers in 38 games. A recent surge in the last 9 games has seen him hit 4 home runs and drive in 10 runs. Continued success is necessary if he ever wants to sniff the majors again.

Strengths/Weaknesses

The strengths and weaknesses of Jon Singleton are very well-defined. On the strengths side, he has pure power that has shown to be effective at any level as well as being fairly good at drawing walks, 525 of them in 801 career minor league games. The weaknesses, though, outweigh the strengths. The main weaknesses that hinder Singleton’s career from being better are his inability to hit for average and his high strikeout numbers. Both of these weaknesses were greatly exploited in his major league time to the tune of a .171 average and 41 strikeouts in 37 games. Being down in Corpus Christi is probably the most beneficial move for Singleton as he needs to work on these weaknesses to reach the major leagues once again.

Next: Houston Astros: No Adjustments Made by Mike Fiers

Future

The future in Houston for Jon Singleton is not very bright. He is currently behind multiple first base prospects for the club and has not proved himself well for the Astros. A change of scenery is most likely necessary for him to be successful in the league. The 5-year, $10 million contract he signed as a minor leaguer has certainly not helped the Astros out, either.

**Statistics courtesy of MiLB.com**