After taking two hitters with our first two picks, very pitcher heavy. Five straight pitchers, going back to the last pick of Day 1.
From a scout: DeVos has been somewhat of a popup prospect this spring for Davidson after he was a walk-on his freshman year. He consistently has been one of the nations leaders in strikeouts throughout the spring season. This is due to his above average fastball/slider mix which generates whiffs in all quadrants of the zone. DeVos has a deceptive operation that analytically driven teams covet, as he releases from a lower release height and still creates lift on his four seam fastball up in the zone. This was displayed during his outing as he was able to attack Bonaventure hitters up in the zone and generated whiffs. His fastball sat in the 89-92 range, which is a couple of ticks down from earlier in the year when he would sit in the mid 90s. It is important to note that he has been primarily used as a reliever during his collegiate career and the additional workload may be a factor for the slight decrease in velocity. Additionally, he had to battle suboptimal weather conditions as there were 40mph winds as well as precipitation factored in with below 40 degree weather. He showed excellent command of his sweeping slider which darted away from right handed hitters and was not afraid to triple up on the offering. He also dropped in a couple of curveballs or “dumpers” early in counts to work ahead of hitters, as well as flashing a changeup to left-hand hitters. The only blemish on his line came when he left a fastball up over the heart of the plate to a right handed hitter who was able to get on plane and drive the pitch over the left field wall. Despite the long ball, he rebounded nicely to strikeout the next two batters he faced. DeVos worked from a very quick tempo on the hill and was very efficient with his pitches as he made quick use of hitters and rarely worked deep counts. There is a lot to like in the analytical profile with DeVos and if he can show that he can gain back some of his velocity, he figures to hear his name called in the 8-10 round range
I was just making an observation. With all the arms we took I have a good feeling at least one should eventually be a contributor down the road.
Guys I like who are still available: SS Carter Young OF Jace Grady SS Trey Faltine (after round 7) C Zach Morgan
The Astros have followed the strengths of this draft. There was huge value in college position players (especially OF) in picks 10-80. Now there’s a lot of good pitching in rounds 3-6 for teams that did their homework. Then there will be some lesser but still quality college bats in the 7-10 range. 11-20 is a crap shoot and in Houston’s case should be focused on high risk arms since it doesn’t look like they’ll need much in the way of minor league roster filler. I do think they need to draft at least one catcher today though.
Can't find much about him, but he's a 6'6" catcher who walked almost 2x what he struck out this year, and split his freshman year between C and CF. The Astros have had some success developing lanky hitters with good plate discipline (See Taylor Jones, David Hensley) so hopefully he'll be fun to watch develop. The automatic strikezone might help him stick behind the plate.
10 minutes of internet research and I really like this Price pick. He does not swing and miss and has a good amount of power. Good lookin athlete who looks way taller than most catchers so he may end up at 1B or LF. Had a great 2022 with 18 hr in 52 g and over 1000 ops. Typical kind of pick you’d see in round 6 but may have more upside than most of those types of guys given his size.
Trey Faltine has irritates me his entire career at UT. That said, there is a lot to dream on there skill wise, can’t imagine he’d have to move off SS and 25 HR power if you can unlock it. That’s be a great upside pick in round 7. I’d have little belief he’d ever make the big leagues but the upside is too tantalizing to ignore if he does maximize imo.
That seems like kind of a thing now - find guys whose who throw more vertically than you would expect from a lower slot. Javier has a lot of that going on. Seems to confuse hitters in addition to the VAA benefits.
The Rocker pick looks like an act of desperation. Like it either works and you look like a genius or it's a spectacular failure and you're fired. Only makes sense if you're going to be fired anyway.
Astros continue that trend with Guilfoil. Another low-release point, high-spin rising fastball topping out at 95.
It's a risky move, but saving 2-3 million dollars of bonus money to give to "unsignable" high schoolers later on isn't an awful strat if it works out.
They were able to take that high school pitcher that was in the 10-20 range of this draft on a lot of boards. I have no idea if it works, and probably wouldn’t have done it but it did give some flexibility for them. Having said that, the spending by the Rangers last off season was short sighted even at the time they were signed. So it could be the Rangers front office really is desperate. Not sure why the Rangers didn’t just target guys like Gausman, Rodon and a bat that didn’t get a big free agent offer.
