I don't understand this at all. Don't we already have a young catcher and spend our top pick a couple of years ago for a young catcher? With a guy like Smoak on the board you go with Castro? I think we'll end up regretting this.
When your owner likes to pay only slot money based on what Bud Selig recommends, you are rarely going to take the BPA.
Nickname is already given: Jason "The American Idol" Castro Why does it feel like every Houston team draft picks are reaches. Hopefully this Astros regime knows what it's doing.
anyone laugh at how Bud Selig announces the picks? he looks so mad and stern. tool needs to lighten up.
There's no reason we should be drafting a catcher...we got Sapp and Clemens at the damn position. If you miss on those 2 then your evalutation department sux a$$. This is a dumb pick. What is our infatuation with players from Cali...I'm tired of Texas players going elsewhere and blossoming...Crawford, Bruce, Kazmir, Beckett...etc. This pick angers me.
This is so ridiculous I don't even know where to begin. Both Sapp and Clemens have performed poorly. Furthermore, Clemens was an eighth round draft pick -- hardly the level at which you automatically expect an MLB starter. So, you're upset that an eighth-round pick isn't a lock to be a starter? And Sapp, by all accounts, has been a bust. So, is it your opinion they should sit in denial? Also, in case you missed it, there's an entirely new scouting department in place under Ed Wade. So, there's absolutely, positively zero correlation between prior drafts and this one. Finally, it's the freakin' MLB draft, not the NFL. Top 10 picks bust all the time. A majority of first rounders usually bust. Players drafted in the 40th round and later routinely excel. There is no exact science. To a large extent, it's luck. Sure, there's some scouting -- but it's very random, and to judge an entire scouting department by two picks -- one of them being an eighth rounder -- is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. On your last point, think about how many colleges and high schools are in Texas. Then, think about how many rounds are in the MLB draft (in the 40s). There are hundreds of Texas players in the draft every year. The Astros don't have hundreds of picks. It's impossible to keep them all. Furthermore, of the four you listed -- three of them (Bruce, Kazmir, Beckett) were taken well before the Astros were able to pick. What should the Astros have done? Should they have planted a spy in the war rooms of every MLB team and put a gun to each general manager's head and threaten to pull the trigger if those teams take their guy? Because that's the only way the Astros even sniff Bruce, Beckett or Kazmir. In conclusion, this isn't 1940. You know, they have these things called televisions. They have this thing called the internet, too. It's not all about taking the "hometown kid" because you know him better. No, professional teams know players from Alaska just as much as they know kids who live a block down the street. Hometown makes no difference. It's a much more complicated process than picking a rec league softball team. Yes, there are players from Texas that have succeeded. Guess what? There are also plenty of players from California that have succeeded, as well as every other state in the country. If you don't like the pick, that's fine, but the reasons you cited are just absurd.
Yes but they've been pretty much complete busts. In 2005 the Astros used their 2nd round pick on a hs catcher Hendrique, who performed so badly he is now out of the system. 2006 they used their first round pick on hs catcher Max Sapp (passing on C Hank Conger, now a top prospect, who was regarded more highly regarded nationally). Sapp has hit 220 in his minor league career with zero power and has yet to get above low A. 2007: no picks or signee in for 4 rounds I guess if at first and second you fail, try, try again.
Because this is the major league draft and even the most mature picks will likely take 2-3 years to even reach the big leagues, it just doesn't make sense to reach with a top 10 pick to draft for need. Especially in the Astros case when they basically need help in every single organizational area. Top ten picks aren't sure things, but they are better bets than late first round picks and even better bets than picks later in the draft. Who knows, maybe Castro was really ahead of Smoak and others as BPA on their draft board, but they would probably be alone in that regard. The simplest explaination is with Berkman at first and Lee w/ his 100 million dollar contract and Pence in the corner of, the Astros didn't want to make a logjam there so they reached for a position of need. Which in my mind would be a horrible rationale for the pick considering you can trade prospects or mlb players, that Berkman is 32 and the Astros have no firstbase prospects in their system. It could have also been a signability pick since the Astros aren't going to go over slot and it is likely that any player actually worth the #10 pick would demand over slot money. probably a combination of money and need.
Smoak is pretty damn close to being a major league 1B now, hence why we didn't draft him. He's also poor defensively and really slow, meaning he's likely a AL DH. We already have one of the best 1B in baseball. That combined with the rarity of having a catcher who can actually hit, put Castro ahead of Smoak for the Astros.
Everybody also needs to keep in mind that the Astros have four of the first 88 selections. There will be more presents under the proverbial tree.
Where did you read that he's poor defensively? I've read that he's got Gold Glove potential. Frankly, even with Towles struggling and the lack of good catchers in the system, I think you wait on drafting a catcher that high right now. It's like they took him not because of how good he is, but because of how bad the next best catcher is. If Smoak really is a Mark Texiera type, make room for him, trade Lee for whatever, or use Smoak as a trade chip for a starter. That's my non-expert opinion.
According to a lot scouts he projects as a plus defender at 1st base even "gold gold caliber". He probably won't have to move
