Welcome to the Houston Astros draft class of 2021! As usual, all news pertaining to the 2021 Astros draft picks and undrafted free agents will go here. The deadline to sign 2021 draft picks will be 4 PM (Central) Sunday, August 1. Final Update - Aug 1 Bold - signed, or intends to sign Name stricken through - not signing According to Mark Berman, Ulloa and all but one of the college draftees in the first 10 rounds have verbal agreements with the Astros. Round 3, Pick 87: Tyler Whitaker, OF, Bishop Gorman High School, Las Vegas; signed for $1,500,000 Round 4, Pick 117, Alex Ulloa, SS, Calvary Christian Academy, Fort Lauderdale, Florida - committed to Oklahoma State Round 4, Pick 132: Chayce McDermott, RHP, Ball State; signed for $372,500 Round 5, Pick 148: Quincy Hamilton, OF, Wright State; signed for $47,500 Round 6, Pick 178: Spencer Arrighetti, RHP, Louisiana-Lafayette; signed for $147,500 ($129,600 below slot recommendation) Round 7, Pick 208: Joey Loperfido, OF, Duke; signed for $72,500 Round 8, Pick 238: Colton Gordon, LHP, Central Florida; signed for $127,500 Round 9, Pick 268: Aaron Brown, RHP, Middle Tennessee State; signed for $57,500 Round 10, Pick 298: Michael Sandle, OF, South Alabama; signed for $47,500 Round 11, Pick 328: Chad Stevens, SS, Portland; signed for $125,000 (maximum amount for rounds 11-20) Round 12, Pick 358: Rhett Kouba, RHP, Dallas Baptist; signed for $125,000 Round 13, Pick 388: Kobe Kato, 2B, Arizona; signed for $125,000 Round 14, Pick 418: Bryant Salgado, RHP, Oregon State Round 15, Pick 448: Adrian Chaidez, RHP, UCLA Round 16, Pick 478: Nic Swanson, RHP, Northeastern State (Oklahoma); signed for $125,000 Round 17, Pick 518: Justin Williams, 3B, Penn State; signed for $125,000 Round 18, Pick 548: Will Wagner, 2B, Liberty; signed for $50,000 Round 19, Pick 578: Hector Nieves, SS, Puerto Rico Baseball Academy and High School, Gurabo, Puerto Rico - committed to Northwest Florida State College; signed for $180,000 ($55,000 over slot for rounds 11-20) Round 20, Pick 618: Jackson Linn, OF, Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, Cambridge, Massachusetts - committed to Tulane I'll pick Kato and Salgado as my "exceeds expectations" guys from this class. Undrafted Free Agents In the past, there were players who apparently signed as undrafted free agents with the Astros but never appeared on a roster of a minor league affiliate. Here are the undrafted players who have reportedly agreed to terms with the Astros. Walker Brockhouse, RHP, Memphis (was planning on grad-transferring to Tulane) Jacob DeLabio, RHP, Carthage College Kasey Ford, RHP, Kansas State Ray Gaither, RHP, Dallas Baptist Deylen Miley, RHP, Bellarmine Bryan Perez, RHP, Glendale CC Marshall Hunt, RHP, Sacramento City College Jaxon Hallmark, OF, Nebraska The First 9, with Slot Values Total pool: $2,447,900 (Ulloa failed to sign) 3-87: Tyler Whitaker - $689,300; signed for $1.5 million (-$810,700) 4-117: Alex Ulloa - $492,700 4-132: Chayce McDonald - $426,600; signed for $372,500 (+$54,100) 5-148: Quincy Wright - $364,400; signed for $47,500 (+$316,900) 6-178: Spencer Arrighetti - $277,100; signed for $147,500 (+$129,600) 7-208: Joey Loperfido - $216,600; signed for $72,500 (+$144,100) 8-238: Colton Gordon - $174,000; signed for $127,500 (+$46,500) 9-268: Aaron Brown - $154,600; signed for $57,500 (+$97,100) 10-298: Michael Sandle - $145,300; signed for $47,500 (+$97,800) 19-578: Hector Nieves - $125,000; signed for $180,000 (-$55,000) Total for First 9 (Ulloa yet to sign) + Nieves: $2,552,500 Amount remaining in pool before penalties: Over pool by $104,600
Before he starts working on his pitching my dude needs to learn when to use apostrophes and when not to.
Per the Astros' transactions page, Spencer Arrighetti is the first player in the class to officially sign.
Once the Stros know how much money they have left... They wouldn't have drafted him if he wouldn't sign within their financial range.
Was Quincy Hamilton not really a 5th round talent, or is he just really underselling himself? Granted, I know nothing about him other than the massive savings his signing just accounted for.
Was it by design that they drafted him higher up in order to augment the slot savings? Sounds like they would have given him this much regardless of where he was drafted, thus might as well optimize the bonus pool? I wonder if this is a routine practice of all teams in the rule4 or are the Astros semi hand-cuffed this year by the penalties, thus they're committed to going over-slot for early picks, but taking more reaches in order to ensure all high picks sign? Despite all the codebreaking stuff, ground zero stuff, nerd cave stuff, etc... I still feel Luhnows draft slot mastery, along with a commitment to sign all picks, was one of the biggest impactful changes between the McClain and Crane eras.
It is routine for teams to cut under slot deals with senior draftees in the top 10 rounds in order to save pool money for an overslot HS draftee. Most teams also pay their 1st round pick less than slot to get larger chunks of extra bonus money. But in Houston’s case the only way they were going to have enough pool money to pay Whitaker the high 2nd round bonus he demanded was for them to draft multiple Seniors and give them way under what was already a low slot amount.
Any guesses if the Astros are seriously pursuing Linn? Or what it would take to sign him? I am assuming that he wants way over slot to sign.
He might be a 5th round talent, but he's also the type of guy that used to be drafted much later because he is older and from a smaller school, but with big production. A couple of notable former Astros like that were Tyler White & JD Martinez, granted Quincy Hamilton is a better athlete than Tyler White and they went much later. Also to throw it out there, our 5th rounder last year signed for $56K (He's off to a pretty good start with his minor league career). We've signed our 9th rounders for $10K 3 different years and a 10th rounder for $5K.
I'm a little surprised Colton Gordon got more than most after TJ. So far they've saved about $750k. If Loperfido gets in the 50k range that they paid other seniors and Ulloa gets near slot (500k), they could offer Whitaker about $1.5 million like they did Joe Perez.