Great article from AstrosCounty: http://www.astroscounty.com/2017/04/the-case-for-aj-reed-pitcher.html Talented staff over there.
Anyone think we should have taken Andrew Benintendi with one of those two top 5 picks in 2015? I can imagine him and Springer in the corners. I hope Kyle Tucker is as good as advertised.
The Astros lineup today very easily could have been Springer Altuve Bryant Correa Benintendi Bregman A couple of massive, franchise altering misses by Luhnow.
Bryant is obvious but I'm not sure I'd crown Benintendi yet and we have no idea what Tucker will be. I really liked what they did in 2015 even though I somewhat wish they had taken the highly projectable and extremely young HS RHP Triston McKenzie and gone overslot for him rather than Cameron. But Cameron still has time and was worth the gamble.
Can't revise history without looking at it both ways. He could have taken Zunino instead of Correa or taken any number of players instead of McCullers. Could have gone through with signing Aiken and missed Bregman. And I'm not sure Tucker won't be better than Benintendi. All in all I'm satisfied with the job Luhnow has done in the draft so far. He did have a tremendous advantage with high picks and extra pick but even with that taken into account I think he's done well. As discussed before his rep as a draft wiz is probably not warranted but he's no slouch.
The top five picks aren't average players or better about 65% of the time, historically. Luhnow has drafted: Correa, Appel, Aiken/Bregman, and Tucker with top 5 picks. I count Aiken and Bregman as one pick as we got the Bregman pick for Aiken not signing. Correa has already proven himself. Bregman has been a slightly above average player so far. Feel pretty safe to say Astros will hit on 25 to 75% of recent top 5 picks giving them a great chance of being significantly better than average (35%). In addition, Astros used some of their money from these picks to get McCullers and Cameron. Later round picks haven't helped too much outside of trades just yet, but have quite a few maybe guys in AA and AAA.
Kyle Smith didn't have a good performance last night but I'm still intrigued. This is a guy who got 2nd rd money when drafted and was in AA by age 21 in 2014, where he put up 9.06 k/9 and 2.36 bb/9 in 96 innings with a 3.86 fip. At that point he probably should have been a grade 50 prospect and would have been in most org's top 10. Then he suffered a major injury, missed 2015 and came back to toss 80 innings last season with mediocre numbers. But he's still just 24, and if he can get back to where he was he can likely make the majors as a long reliever. His 3 pitches will top out as slightly above average at best, so his absolute ceiling would be a decent #4 and he doesn't have the makings of a late inning guy. The fact that they still have him in the rotation is a good sign. But all that said, this is very likely a make or break year for him.
He's vastly overrated by the homers on this board. Benintendi is the best prospect in all of baseball soTucker is never going to be any better than that.
Hindsite is 20/20 but there were a lot more questions on Benetendi than Tucker before the draft. Other teams passed on the guy too. Besides, so what if he's the number one prospect now? Profar showed #1's can get derailed too. Tucker is a legit top prospect too and may well have a better career when all is said and done. This seems like a ridiculous complaint to me. No one in any sport takes the absolute best career player at a given draft position every time. Tucker is a plenty good player/prospect for the pick.
Reed with 8:9 BB:K ratio thus far. That's the most encouraging sign so far for him, excited to see if it continues.
Not sure if serious. I love me some prospect sheets, but being the top prospect isn't a guarantee no one has a chance to be better MLB player. This goes double for someone like Benintendi that is seen like Bregman was, a near lock as a good player, but not sure he becomes a star.
It's a statement of fact. A bunch of you are in love with prospect rankings and I pointed out Benintendi is the best rated prospect in baseball and he's played extremely well in MLB already.
You pointed out that it was impossible for Tucker to ever be better than the no. 1 prospect. Sounds like you are the one too much in love with prospect rankings as both have a long way to determine their MLB career.
Franklin Perez got the save in Buies Creek's 4-3 win in Winston-Salem. He struck out 2 in 4 perfect innings.
Brett Adcock vs. Kane County: 4.1 IP, 4 H, ER, 2 BB, 8 K; the run was an inherited runner that was charged to him. First two outings: 9 IP, 6 H, ER, 4 BB, 16 K Forrest Whitley and Hector Perez may be the more highly-touted arms in the Quad Cities rotation, but I think Adcock is right up there with them. Erasmo Pinales followed by allowing 2 hits and striking out 2 over 3.2 scoreless, and Derick Velazquez allowed 2 hits, walked 1, and struck out 1. Quad Cities walked off with a 2-1 win in 11 innings.
