Interesting interview. He sounds like a good (albeit hyper-religious) kid. Kinda bummed me out when he talked about not needing an agent; that is probably naive and usually guarantees that he left some money on the table. I suspect he will get 8th round money (2 rounds below slot) since he admitted in the interview that he told teams he would accept slot up to the 8th round. But his development path to this point (along with Houston’s track record in pitcher development) makes me think he probably has quite a bit of upside.
Big kid that already throws in the mid 90s. Supposedly has 4 pitches so I think there is definitely some upside. Our coaches generally can add some mph? He didn't walk a lot of batters in college so it looks like he has decent command.
Just because he's religious, doesn't mean he doesn't know what the 6th round slot money is. He just told them he'd sign for slot anywhere above the 8th round and might not below it. It simply made the draft more certain for the teams by taking some risk out of the picture. The question isn't whether an agent might get him more, it's whether it's worth the difference in a slot environment. If he was a football player, he'd be a great fit on the Texans.
Whoa, your post is really out of line. You draw the contrast between what you consider a "good" kid and a religious kid with the use of the parenthetical and the word albeit. It's clear what you tried to convey there. It's a highly bigoted statement. I'll take every good honest religious kid for my team every day and twice on Sundays. When CJ Stroud thanks God after a performance, you must cringle. That's very sad to think about, actually.
Let me try to settle this down. I don’t know about “highly bigoted” (underlined and bolded!), and I didn’t mean to imply anything necessarily negative about him being hyper religious, but I now can absolutely see why hyper religious people would get offended by the way that I worded that, and so I was in the wrong there. I apologize. Moreover, it was royally stupid for me to include the word “religious” anywhere in any comment on this board. Here’s hoping this gets the thread back on track.
Hoping for some positive signing news, to get this thread back on track. Appreciate all that you do @tellitlikeitis!
Almost always, although last year Houston signed a HS UDFA (P Jagger Beck). That was the first time I’ve seen that.
New Mexico State IF Brandon Forrester has apparently signed with the Astros. He began his college career at Oregon State but didn't play at all in Corvallis. In his one season in Las Cruces, Forrester, a switch-hitting infielder, slashed .323/.416/.419 with two home runs and 23 RBI in 53 games (52 starts). He also stole 16 bases. The Lincoln Potters are based in the Pacific Empire League, a six-team collegiate summer league with teams in Northern California and southern Oregon.
Elijah Farley (12), Nick Monistere (4), and Kellan Oakes (9) all signed yesterday. Will update with bonuses once those numbers are known
