I have him at #4. 1 Hunter Brown SP 2 Colin Barber CF 3 Pedro Leon CF 4 Drew Gilbert CF Should move fast but solidly blocked for now.
What are that thinking? I’m aware he’s still 19, but he looks like the single worst position player in full season ball. 165. BA, sub .500 OPS, and gotten worse every month.
Looking at the video (pause it at 0:19), Andrew Taylor is a "cross stepper". If you draw a target line from the right foot of a RHP at the top of his delivery to the glove of the catcher, that's ideally where you want the left foot of the RHP to land. Taylor's left foot is landing to the 3B side of that line... which means he has to come across his body to throw. This can be good and bad. It adds deception and hides the ball a split second longer... but bad in that the hips and upper body don't achieve full rotation/extension which can result in loss of velocity (or not reaching his full velocity potential). Also bad in that it puts more stress on the throwing arm. The Astros might look at this and believe they could fix it and add velocity... or they might be fine with it because the benefit of deception outweighs the loss of velocity. But I'd rather have a cross stepper throwing 94 than a pitcher with perfect mechanics throwing 94, since there's velocity upside (or deception) with the cross stepper.
not knowing anything about any of these kids (and I emphasize kids…did you see Hollidays photo, he looks 13!)…excited about the Astros coup…seems like we’re setting our farm and organization up well, and I trust that we still have top notch development through our system to get the most out of these draftees. Seems like we got some good additions to the system. Makes trading our entire minor league system for Soto more palatable
Gilbert might not be a perfect fit for MMP hitting so much to RF like that, but that clip shows how fast his bat is and how he’s got the power to be plus for a guy who will play CF and very likely have a high OBP. Fangraphs ranked him 16th in their draft prospect list and that’s closer to where I think his value was. Assuming he signs quickly and gets sent right to Fayetteville, there’s a chance he mashes there for a month and gets some good hype going into next season. He might be Houston’s 2nd best prospect right now. Great pick.
Have to think the Astros are thrilled with how the draft has played out so far. Gilbert and Melton are toolsy guys who have hit at a high level at major college programs. Getting two back end of the first round type talents seems like a coup coming back off the penalties. Taylor seems like a fun ball of clay for the PD group. I'd guess Taylor cuts a bit of a discount, but Gilbert and Melton are probably signing for roughly slot. I doubt they are in play for any significant overslot high schoolers, but they probably won't have to save money from here on out like they did to sign Whitaker. They beefed up the scouting department prior to this year, so i'm excited to see what a fully armed and operational draft looks like under Click.
The knowledge on this post is crazy, appreciate it We need to nail this draft and the next few ones to balance out the picks they took from us. Without knowing much compared to some, looks like we kinda doing good, lets continue today.
He is 19 years old in A ball, and they promoted him to A ball after struggling in the Florida Complex League. With an organization that has struggled with player development I would be concerned. However with the Astros track record I give them the benefit of the doubt. They believe that he will figure it out, and are working on a hole in his swing. Plus he was a third rounder, so not the end of the world.
Drew Gilbert = Adam Eaton with better plate discipline Jacob Melton will move off center, I agree with the Werth comp.
Rocker apparently agreed to a $5.2M bonus with the Rangers which is $2.4M under slot; that’s the equivalent of another late 1st rd pick. So that could turn out to be a great deal if they are able to get a top talent in round 4 when they pick next. Maybe they have a deal with Brock Porter but also apparently Gavin Guidry was asking for $2-3M.
He is the rare player that they may ask not to actively look for homers. He has a really good bat to ball skill and has plus+ bat speed. Couple that with a tiny strike zone and a slight change in approach could result in a high batting average and OBP.
If his EV is in the 99th percentile, I'm not sure why the Astros would leave that on the table. The Astros have been great about getting hitters with bat to ball skills to having great in game power.
