Astros Prospects

Reading between the lines, Cash and Daigle and Sullivan have zero trade value.

 

Hopefully we put ourselves in position to draft a certain third baseman out of Rice next year.

 

Looks like he's been doing better since they moved him down from the #2 spot.

He's still very young. Needs to continue to work on drawing walks and his defense. I'm confident that his power will improve as he gets older, but things like plate discipline, base running, and overall awareness can really be established in a young player at this point.

 

I dont think this has been posted but..

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bb/7073920.html

 

Via crawfishboxes.com, the Astros have now signed the 2nd round pick, Vincent Velasquez, who was unable to sign until a couple of days ago because he hadn't graduated from college yet.

The only people who haven't signed from the first 10 rounds are Deshields, Austin Wates and Adam Plutko.

http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_15363963

[rquoter]
Garey's Velasquez signs with Astros

POMONA - First graduating high school. Now, signing a pro contract. Next, his professional baseball debut.

It's been some week for Vincent Velasquez.

A day after graduating from Garey High School, Velasquez signed his pro contract with the Houston Astros on Wednesday in front of more than 100 friends and family members at the Velasquez residence.

"He comes from a good upbringing," said Astros area scout Tim Costic, who presented Velasquez and adviser Donn Parris with the papers to sign. "He's a quality young man."

The Astros drafted Velasquez with the 58th overall selection in the second round earlier this month, but waited until graduation to sign him.

"I'm really excited about it," Velasquez said. "I'm getting to do something I've always wanted to do."

Costic said he first saw Velasquez in November 2008 and was impressed with what he saw. Velasquez mainly played shortstop for Garey, but Costic preferred him as a pitcher.

"We had to get him to believe that (pitching) was best for him," Costic said.

"It was hard to hear that. I grew up playing shortstop and hitting," Velasquez admitted.

Costic said when the Astros invited Velasquez to Houston for a draft prospects workout, members of the Astros front office, including general manager Ed Wade, were impressed when Velasquez struck out seven of the nine draft prospects he faced.

"He showed a lot," he said. "He was cool and calm."

Costic described Velasquez as having an "above average fastball, 92 to 94 mph. He's got an above average changeup. And he's got an average curveball that's only going to get better."

Velasquez leaves today for Houston, where he'll be given his physical and find out what kind of bonus he'll get.

"We haven't even talked about that yet," Velasquez said.

From there, Velasquez will report to Greeneville, Tenn., site of the Astros' advanced rookie-level team in the Appalachian League.

"I know it's going to be humid," he said. "But I'm looking forward to it."

Said Costic: "I think he'll flourish for us. Our facility is very good there, and he'll be playing in front of 1,500 to 3,000 fans every night."

Statistics won't tell the whole story about how Velasquez is progressing, but there are some that might give a clue.

"I'd like to see him have some good control and have a good strikeout-to-walk ratio," Costic said. "He's used to pitching every seven days. It will be a change, but I know he'll be able to handle it."

Velasquez, listed at 6-foot-3, 185 pounds, will also ideally put on some weight.

"That will happen naturally," Costic said.

Monse Estrada, Garey's coach for more than 36 years, said Velasquez is the highest player ever drafted out of Garey.

Estrada said there have been pro athletes from Garey who don't come back to their alma mater to serve as shining examples of how hard work can pay off.

But he doesn't believe Velasquez falls into that category.

"He'll put back into the community," Estrada said. "He can help keep the community going and tell kids they have a chance."

[/rquoter]

 

J.D. Martinez really needs a promotion, he is still destroying the ball down in single-a. This guy is about to turn 23, why are the Astros going so slow with him.

Jason Castro went deep today, the last 3 games have more interesting than the entire season. At least theres a reason to watch now.

 

Martinez is still in Lexington due to the fact that he doesn't play the outfield that well (needs to get better on getting a jump on the ball, strengthening his throwing arm, etc.) and the chronic tendinitis in his knees prevents him from playing first base long term.

I'm sure as soon as Martinez shows a little promise in the outfield, he'll probably skip Lancaster and go straight to Corpus.

You're definitely right, watching Castro play the last few games has been a breath of fresh air in a rather stale season.

 

Have you seen whos playing left field for the big league club, outfield defense isn't that important, besides he can still learn in double-a.

 

Apparently, he makes Lee look like a gold-glover.

BTW, from all I've seen, Martinez is going to be a line-drive gap power slap hitter. Even if he learns to play gold glove defense, he isn't going to give you over the fence home run power.

In fact, if I had to compare his swing to anybody's, it reminds me most of Chris Truby. He starts his swing as high as possible, and keeps it high right until he makes contact.

The absolute best-outcome for him that I can imagine would be basically a right-handed James Loney with bad defense. And I think that would be a stretch. He doesn't seem to have nearly the same bat speed as Loney at this point.

 

Interesting QA on the screwed up Astros draft a few years ago.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/ask-ba/2010/2610224.html

Did the players who declined to sign with the Astros in their ill-fated 2007 draft (Derek Dietrich, Brett Eibner and Chad Bettis) actually improve their financial positions through this year's draft over what they would have made with Houston? Was putting off free agency for an extra three years really worth the additional money they'll receive?

Jon Orndorff
Winston-Salem, N.C.

Houston's botched 2007 effort resulted in the worst draft of the decade. The Astros' problems started during the offseason, when they signed Carlos Lee and Woody Williams as free agents and surrendered their first two draft picks as compensation. There was little demand for Williams, and if Houston had waited until after the deadline for the Giants to offer him arbitration, it could have signed him and kept its second-rounder. At the same time, the Astros declined to offer arbitration to their own Type A free agents (Aubrey Huff, Andy Pettitte and Russ Springer). Springer might have cost Houston more than it wanted to spend, but offering Huff and Pettitte was a low-risk proposition that could have yielded two first-round choices and two sandwich picks.

The Astros compounded their problems by failing to sign their top two choices, Dietrich (third round) and Eibner (fourth), making them the first team since the 1980 Yankees to fail to sign a player before the fifth. Houston failed to land Bettis (eighth) as well.

Interestingly, 13th-rounder Chad Jones was considered the Astros' most talented draftee at the time, a sandwich-round talent whose $2.3 million asking price and Louisiana State football scholarship scared teams off. Jones went on to win national championships in football and baseball at LSU before signing with the NFL's New York Giants as a third-round pick this spring.

Various sources say Houston let Dietrich, Eibner and Bettis get away because they either wouldn't budge from MLB's bonus guidelines or because they budged too little and too late in the process. Three years ago, the estimated slot recommendations were $270,000 for Dietrich, $180,000 for Eibner and $123,300 for Bettis.

Fast forward to 2010, and all three players were second-round picks, with Eibner going 54th overall to the Royals, Bettis 76th to the Rockies and Dietrich 79th to the Rays. Bettis ($477,000) and Dietrich ($457,200) already have signed for bonuses at or near last year's slot recommendations, while Eibner's slot was valued at $663,300 a year ago.

From a purely financial standpoint, Bettis came out $354,700 ahead, while Dietrich gained $187,200 and Eibner stands to make an additional $483,300. While that's not a lot of money, I still think they all made the right decision to go to college.

You can't put a price tag on what you learn in three years of college, both inside and outside the classroom. Dietrich, Eibner and Bettis got to enjoy three years of major-conference college baseball and made more money by waiting. Furthermore, they didn't delay their future major league free agency by three years. They may have delayed signing for three years, but college players generally make it to the big leagues a year or two quicker than high schoolers.

 

I read somewhere that we drafted Chad Jones again this year in the 50th round of the draft. I know he was involved in a serious accident and might never play football again, but if we did redraft him, how long do we hold his baseball rights? Maybe he could resume his baseball career at some point.

 

The Milwaukee Brewers drafted Chad Jones this past draft. His agent is said Jones is "100% committed to football," but left open the possibility that he could switch to baseball if it is easier on his repaired foot. From what I have read, it’s going be a long road to recovery after his injury. His agent says he is not ruling out the 2011 NFL season for his return. He is only 21 years old and an incredible athlete so he may have as good as chance as anybody given the circumstances.

 

For a 20 something kid to make something like that out of college...it's a lot of money.

 

Hey, Jordan Lyles cracked the top 25 in Keith Law's list:

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/insider/columns/story?columnist=law_keith&id=5338763