Two concepts underpin the entire article: 1) the astros are so good that they can let a prospect flounder without suffering in the standings 2) kyle tucker is young and other astros were young when they debuted too. Seems like a stretch for an article premise. I've been wondering why Astros articles from Forbes keeping popping up in my Apple News feed; it's all from this guy. Why does Forbes even have a dedicated Astros analyst?!?
Speaking of Josh James... Eric Longanhagen wrote him up in today's Daily Prospects Notes on Fangraphs:
Actually Longenhagen had a semi-related/relevant blurb on yesterdays Daily Prospect Notes: I know Reed and Beer are lefties but college first base types in general are a really rare thing to get right. Really makes you wonder why Luhnow likes those guys so much.
Does he? Other than those 2 which others has he drafted early or signed for $$$? Adams, does the 6th round count?
Are they more so than any other position? Of the top 10 1B in fWAR, half were college guys: 1. Carpenter 3. Muncy 4. Goldschmidt 6. Belt 7. Votto
I went back and looked at 1st and 2nd rounders since the beginning of Luhnow's tenure in the AL West (didn't feel like doing 30 teams) The number of collegiate, probable 1B drafted in those two rounds: Astros: 2 (Reed in 2014, Beer in 2018) Rangers: 0 Mariners: 1 (Evan White in 2017) Angels: 0 A's: 0 Not a huge pattern given small sample size but it's commonly known that teams don't put high round grades on bat-only guys. If the bat isn't amazing then its a bust. Luhnow seems perfectly willing to buck that trend.
1. Carpenter --> not drafted as a 1B only player, was drafted as higher defensive spectrum player and even this year played more games at 3rd than 1st 3. Muncy --> not drafted as a 1B only player, prior to 2018 accumulated far more non-1B time than 1B time. 4. Goldschmidt --> 8th round pick 6. Belt --> 5th round pick 7. Votto --> HS pick Collegiate bat-only guys certainly get drafted. They just don't commonly go early.
True to an extent. But Berkman played OF nearly full-time for most of his team control years including 160 games in the OF in his 5th full season at age 28. It's arguable he was never a good defensive OF ever but he at least wasn't so bad he had to start at 1B to begin with. And from what I gather from Nook, if his work ethic were half of Biggio's then he probably could have kept himself in OF shape for a few more seasons. Remember when he had his renaissance in STL and played OF full-time at the age of 35?
That's insane, thanks for sharing. Playing around with the team leaderboards, the GCL Astros have a shot to make it a sweep of all stateside affiliates, as they're only .3 K/9 behind one of the Tigers affiliates for first. The DSL Astros are more middle pack in terms of K/9 but they have a pretty solid lead in ERA. I also noticed the GCL Astros have the youngest group of hitters in the league, while the DSL Astros hitters are tied for 3rd youngest.
It's not as if were Berkman to have only ever played 1B he wouldn't have been a hell of a draft pick.
I know I’m a broken record, but I think is the most talented GCL roster the Astros have ever had, although 2012 was pretty stacked as well.
Ok I take it back, that 2012 GCL team was ridiculous: C Alfredo Gonzalez (made his big league debut with the White Sox this season) SS Carlos Correa 3B Rio Ruiz OF Teoscar Hernandez OF Brett Phillips P Lance McCullers JR P Michael Feliz P Jandel Gustave P Reymin Guduan P Enderson Franco (still in AAA with the Braves)
Mlb pipeline updated their top 30s. I hadn't ever heard that Thornton could hit 97. There might be more of a ceiling there than I thought.
Yep. He didn’t appear to be throwing anywhere near that hard when I saw him in Round Rock. Cionel Perez topping at 98 bodes really really well for him as a potential lights out lefty reliever. Pitchers they list that top out at 97 mph or better: Whitley, C Perez, Martin, James, Bukauskas, Alcala, H Perez, Ferrell, Deetz, Paulino, and Thornton (with Jairo Solis, Framber Valdez, Jayson Schroeder at 96, and 3B Joe Perez mentioned as throwing 98). With those notes plus the notes from Ocampo and knowing what we know about others (Guduan and Gustave), there might be upwards of a dozen guys in the system who could throw a baseball 100 mph.
The Astros just really liked the upside of Reed and Beer. I know when it came to Beer that the Astros thought he was the best hitter in the entire draft. The Astros also felt he could possibly play a corner outfield spot with his strong athleticism.
