I have not heard any discussion of the fact that many potential players have no business in college, academically or financially. Are you willing to just throw those players aside?
Next week is the draft lottery. Astros are slated to pick 18th but have about a 3% chance of getting one of the top 6 picks. They have a 0.3% chance of getting the #1 overall pick.
Is next year's draft a good prospect year at the top? I have no idea how to contrast MLB prospects as compared to NFL or NBA drafts, except there is even less success rate given the wide variables in baseball success.
I think this draft is considered above average but there’s no Bryce Harper level surefire superstar at the top as of yet. There’s still a whole HS/College season to get more info.
Was this ever mentioned anywhere? Astros signed this guy to a minor league contract last week. https://www.milb.com/player/amos-willingham-686294
In addition to P Amos Willingham, C Carlos Perez was also signed to a minor league deal last month. Perez is 35 and hasn’t played in the majors since 2023. To me this adds to the logic that Houston might turn to the Rule 5 draft to get their backup C, with Perez serving as insurance if it doesn’t work out with the rookie. Perez has hit 27 HR in AAA in each of the last 2 seasons. He is a former Astros prospect who was acquired from the Jays in the JA Happ trade then traded away to the Angels in the Hank Conger trade.
Astros traded leftover int’l money for P Nico Zeglin from the cubs. Was an UDFA who played independent ball before signing with the cubs and dominating the lower levels as a RP at age 24. Showed up on the back end of the Cubs prospect lists last offseason. Missed this season due to injury. Without the injury he’d be a nice 3rd tier prospect but at this point he’s a lotto.
Saw a few Zeglin clips and the changeup and arm action on the changeup is reminiscent of Devin Williams “airbender” pitch. Screwball-esque movement (which also likely led to some of the injury issues if I had to guess). If the Astros pitching development team can help him gain and maintain a couple ticks of velo on his FB AND he can remain healthy, he could become something
Nice in-depth profile of Anderson Brito on BA. Not sure if it’s anything new for some of us, but Geoff Pontes gives us some background info on Brito and breaks down his arsenal ($)
Fangraphs offers their subscribers a feature where they provide a bunch of data in a presentation format at the end of the year. I was ranked 109th overall and in the 99.9th percentile among fangraphs usage. I was the #1 overall viewer of most of the Astros prospects player pages. I think I might have a problem.
