Is there a site that simply publishes lists of all the picks by org? I hate having to scroll through articles to find the names of the players drafted.
That is truly massive. He'd run a better draft than the Rangers IMO. Here's some highlights I'm reading about our picks: The circled dot is Drew Gilbert. Man has a Yordan-esuqe ability to smack the **** out of the ball without whiffing on strikes. Continues to expose Gilbert for gounding the ball too much, and how he's much better suited as a line drive doubles hitter. For all the raw power, he doesn't hit fly balls well at all. This is really good, hope the hitting coaches and Drew can clean this up: Absolutely sublime reporting, someone get this man a job somewhere.
I like that plot. A 3D plot with HH% or Barrel%, Z-Contact%, and chase% would tell you so much about a population of hitters.
One side thought they would honor the handshake and the other side thought that was just a way to restart negotiations.
Houston Astros The Astros got a small steal with Tennessee centerfielder Drew Gilbert (1) at pick 28. A former two-way prospect in high school, Gilbert is a plus defender in center with a 6 arm (on the 2-8 scouting scale), and he has good feel to hit with a gap-to-gap approach right now. He’s just 5-9, but I think can get to power in the near future, even though it’s more doubles than homers right now. He has a good chance to be a regular with ceiling beyond that. They took another toolsy college centerfielder with their next pick, Oregon State’s Jacob Melton (2). Melton can also play center and has 20 homer-20 steal potential, thanks in part to a swing change before 2021 that helped him stay back on the ball better. I like the fact that he hasn’t had trouble with lefties in college, which is pretty unusual for all but the best left-handed hitters. Right-hander Andrew Taylor (2A) throws his four-seamer 80 percent of the time, but it dances and sings up in the zone enough that he hasn’t needed to use his other pitches much — and it’s not clear any of them is average just yet. It’s a long arm swing but so far he has been able to repeat it well enough to throw strikes. Right now, he’s probably just a fifth starter, but we’ll see if Houston can find a breaking ball lying around they can give to him. Michael Knorr (3) was one of the better college senior arms in the draft after he transferred from Cal State Fullerton to the eye-peeling teal of Coastal Carolina. The right-hander can work at 93-95 mph with a sharp mid-80s slider, up to 88 mph, and throws a ton of strikes. He has enough of a changeup that he got lefties out as well as righties this year, and he should go out as a starter. I thought he might sneak into the top-100 picks as a quality senior sign, but he ended up going 103rd. If he ever has to go to relief, he could end up with a slider that touches 90 mph and becomes a real out pitch. Monmouth right-hander Trey Dombroski (4) might have had the best control in the draft class, walking less than a batter per start in the spring. He’s mostly 88-91 mph, touching 93, with both the slider and curve above average and a usable changeup that has a lot of action to it. He’s been homer prone because the fastball is light, and that could be the thing that torches his chances to start, but scouts raved about his makeup and intelligence, giving him more of a chance to figure out a way to combat that. Right-hander Nolan DeVos (5), has a high-effort delivery with an 89-92 mph fastball with some ride up in the zone and a slider just short of average. He missed quite a few bats for Davidson this year, but the delivery looks too rough to keep him a starter. —Keith Law
For older drafts, I like https://www.baseball-reference.com/...from_type_hs=0&from_type_4y=0&from_type_unk=0 It is easy to see who signed, who made majors, who didn't, and has links to see MLB and minor league stats.
Supposedly a number of teams were told that he would be a difficult sign and passed on drafting him and are not exactly happy that he is so open to signing with the Astros. At the end of the day, the Astros success in player development likely made a difference in his willingness to sign.
Im sure a chance to play for the hometown team had nothing to do with it. Edit- The tweet was talking about two different players.
Seems like the Astros might be changing how they target pitchers. None of their draftees hang their hat on velocity. Maybe the pendulum is swinging back to artistry and the Astros are leading the way (again).
It might be that the Astros think velo is far more teachable than command and they think they can add a few ticks to anyone they draft.
True. I also think that with so many team focused on velo it may be overpriced (especially in the draft).
I wouldn't blame them if they decided to change it up some. The Astros draft record with college pitchers isn't all that great. They have done their work in the international market and the trade/free agency market. It is why I was surprised that they took so many college arms this time. They did take a couple pretty well thought of HS bats in the middle to late part of the draft that could really pan out and their top pick was a bit of a steal.
Any clue where Gilbert, Melton and Clifford will slot into the Astros' top 30 prospects? I'm assuming that Gilbert will be top-6, Melton top-10 and Clifford top-20. But hey, what the hell do I know?
There was a fangraphs article a week or so ago comparing Spencer Strider and Hunter Greene talking about the importance of fastball shape and release point. We've seen with Javier how some fastballs play way better than their velocity. At least some of the picks seemed made with this in mind. I don't think there's any way that a guy who throws a 90 mph fastball 80% of the time goes day 1 ten years ago. Overall I think they did well if they sign Clifford. They invested the big money into 3 fairly safe hitters with big upside, and focused day 2 on pitchers with interesting traits, many of whom came from small schools, and may not have had elite coaching. Day 3 they found some interesting infielders with power, speed, and questionable hit tools. I'm not sure they diversified the farm much, it was heavy on OFs and light on IFs as it was, but I think they generally have to be happy with the class as a whole.
