2015 Astros Draft Pick Tracker

Even with last years debacle and the Appel struggles, this front office is just so good at the draft, it's almost as if it's not fair to other clubs.

I bet the picks and subsequent negotiations are basically on autopilot right now. Everybody knows what needs to be done, and it can all be take care of smoothly and swiftly (pending physicals, of course).

I'm guessing Mike Elias will likely be getting some GM offers soon enough.

 

A change of scenery might work for Appel.

Might be soon, but if he's a coveted piece in a deal for a #1 or #2 starter then you make it.

Cueto...

 

Playing devil's advocate, the Astros had nearly $3,300,000 more money in the 2015 draft pool than the next closest team (Rockies). The Astros had over $8,189,000 more money in the draft pool than the next closest AL team (Rangers). http://m.mlb.com/news/article/126797888/breakdown-of-2015-draft-signing-bonus-pools . These huge differentials in available money necessarily equate to better draft prospects and incredibly more flexibility.

If you further want to play devil's advocate, it can be argued that the $17+ million in available pool money could have been used in a different manner strategically. The slot value for pick #37 is $1,668,000. If the projected bonus of $4M for Cameron is accurate, the Astros are going $2,332,000 over slot value for this one player. http://www.baseballamerica.com/draft/2015-mlb-draft-slots/. Granted this player was universally rated in the Top 10 in this draft and may very well make it into the MILB Top 100. Nevertheless, had the extra pool money been spread out over more picks (for instance an extra $400-500K to picks that were otherwise forced to be low-ceiling, underslot picks) it could be argued that the Astros could have had a much greater number of legitimate high-upside prospects, while effectively better spreading its risk.

Taking this thought further, offering a pick after the 10th Round a $550K bonus would be paying essentially late 3rd Round money. I would venture had this been the strategy, and had the Astros reached out to some signability guys and set up a handful of these agreements prior to the draft, there was the potential to do amazing things on Day 3. In such a scenario, the Astros would have been without the likes of a Daz Cameron, but they certainly would have had a treasure trove of Top 100 ranked prospects of the likes never seen.

This Astros draft cannot be compared to other teams, or even other years. Never has a team had two of the top five picks. Accordingly, under the draft pool structure, the Astros were dealing with an available amount of money never seen, and unlikely to be seen again (speaking comparatively).

I’m not arguing against what they did, just adding some perspective.

 

I'll take another top 10 guy over a few more top 100 guys. That would be like passing on Bregman/Tucker for lesser talent because they will sign for less and we can get even more top 100 guys later.

 

If you want to go even further the 2013 draft was nothing short of a disaster. Nottingham might be able to save it though.

Personally I'm not that high on the college guys they got in 2014 either but I'm willing to reserve judgement until I see them play at AA.

The 2012 draft was obviously good and I like the 2015 draft so we'll see how it plays out. But I don't think you can declare this FO as draft gurus just yet.

 

Almost want to just call Appel up to the bigs & see what he can do. Maybe not the best logic but there has been plenty of guys with mediocre minor league #'s get called up this year and have success.

 

There's some value in farm system depth, but one of the issues right now that the Astros face is a plethora of good, but not elite prospects. You then run into issues of leaving guys like DeShields unprotected, needing to waive guys with some level of prospect status like Dominguez or Torreyes.

Signing the top 5 guys underslot enabled another elite guy (and it sounds like potentially another in Sandoval). Given the ability to hit in lower rounds this staff has shown, I prefer having a couple more elite level guys.

 

[rQUOTEr]BINGHAMTON – Binghamton Mets relief pitcher Paul Sewald, the closer who comes out of the bullpen sporting high socks and hard-to-hit stuff, had other things on his mind this week besides throwing strikes.

The role of big brother preoccupied Sewald’s mind as he waited to find out the future of his younger brother, Johnny, an outfielder at Arizona State. Well, the Houston Astros selected Johnny in the 14th round of this week’s MLB Draft. Soon both brothers will be playing professional baseball in the state of New York.

“He actually is flying to Troy on Sunday, so he’ll only be two hours away over there in the Tri-City area,” Sewald said. “It’s crazy that he literally went to closest team to Binghamton in all of Minor League Baseball. It’d be great if I could work something in the cards to get to go see him play or he could do the same for me.”

http://www.pressconnects.com/story/sports/2015/06/12/mets-notes-sewald-eye-draft/71158794/[/rQUOTEr]

 

wonder what trades this draft will open up.

we cant keep all of our prospects with the Rule 5 draft. makes sense to move pieces rather than lose some for nothing.

 

As of right now, if my math is correct, we are able to give Daz a total of 2.84 million. If the rumors are correct that he is looking for about 4 million, that means we just need about 1.16 million. I think we could save at least that much money from just Bregman; take that from his slot and he still makes more than the slot value for the third pick. This isn't even including the other guys (Hermelyn, Thornton, Stubbs and Person).

If Daz takes 4 million, anyone think we might get a chance at Sands and Sandoval? I assume Baker is even less of an option.

 

I would not be surprised if the Astros signed of the three. Baker has a number. The only question is whether the Astros can afford it.

Something else to consider is that the Astros can go over their pool total by 5% without penalty.

 

What did you mean by "signed of the three"? Also when does the CWS end? It would help to know what those guys sign for.
Yeah the 5% is already included in the 2.84 million that we can give Daz right now

 

Don't forget Eshelman was an overdraft as well. I think we can save at least $500k from Eshelman and Hermelyn.

Esehlman's slot is $1.325M, drafted 46th but ranked 126th ($450k value). I think we can sign him for $1M, maybe $1.1M

Hermelyn's slot is $522k, but he wasn't on the BA 500 list and before the season was ranked 230 by MiLB.com. Slot for 230 is $175k. Coincidentally, pick 229 was used on Garrett Stubbs.

Bregman probably signs for around $6M which is what #2 pick got last year which will save us $1.5M.

Tucker will probably sign for around slot, maybe $4M if we're lucky.

 

Can you really not figure out that he means one of the three?

 

Ah yeah I forgot about Eshelman, but he was also 48/58/98 by Minorleagueball/FG/MLB, so his ranking varies.