Mctaggart wrote an article with some quotes from scouting director Kris Gross. Basically they targeted pitchers that could throw strikes, since they feel like they can help players improve their pitches.
that feels almost the opposite of conventional philosophy. I would love to hear him explain by what what he means by improve their pitches.
Agreed, although I think a lot of people were expecting the pitching to come through the international signing periods and that hasn’t happened.
True, but you're missing the point Potential always has value. And it's likely most teams view potential similarly. Sure, you can find exceptions. But, isn't Brown considered top notch? Are you gonna base your premise on the few teams that don't? Bottomline, perceived potential matters. And the same happens across every sport and most situations in life outside sports LOL... you're talking the classic "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" argument Guess what...... most eyes behold the same beauty In the end, majority can misjudge said beauty. And like always.... time will tell the outcome
That was my paraphrasing. He actually said “Strikes are always good, to get guys that fill the zone,” Astros scouting director Kris Gross said. “I think we’ve shown a track record of being able to enhance a guy’s stuff the past few years.”
Going back over the previous few drafts, i'm not sure this is any sort of radical departure. Last year they picked McDermott, Arighetti, Gordon and Aaron Brown. McDermott didn't have great command, but neither Arighetti nor Brown walked a lot in college. Gordon was coming off injury. Tyler Brown was the only pitcher in 2020, and he threw strikes well until his draft year. 2019's best pick was the guy with the worst walk numbers in Hunter Brown. One thing I noticed was how much they've mentioned scouts. Taylor and DeVos both mentioned how they spoke with the team about how their stuff plays and the analytics they use to help improve it. Following the Astros draft for the past few years, there were a lot of guys who interview after the draft saying they had no idea the Astros were even interested beyond filling out a survey. I'm sure we'll get some of those today, but at the very least they seem to be selling this increased focus on scouts as making an impact.
Doing what every else is doing limits your ability to excel or fail. Just as signing older pitchers in the International market has led to excelling, this focus appears to be a shot at excelling by pursuing an underdeveloped opportunity in the draft. I hope it works. On a more detailed level, they are placing more chips in the tunneling and pitch selection coaching than turning wild pitchers with arm strength into control power pitchers.
Are the Astros enamored with the "rose 3 levels in one year" narrative? It's hard to trust my memories these days.
My favorite 1B all started out playing 3B. For no other reason, I'd like to see Bregman give it a shot if we have a decent 3B prospect or FA prospcet at 3B.
The Astros are changing how they do things a little bit when it comes to the draft. You can't keep doing the same thing, even Luhnow drastically changed how they did things at one point in his tenure. He got rid of Q. McCracken for example and a number of scouts. I have never really been a fan of Kris Gross' scouting. He was a scout for the West Coast for the Astros for years and I didn't really think he found many good surprises. In fairness to him the kids over there are really well watched and covered so its hard to uncover a gem. He really pushed hard for Appel and Aiken and JD Davis amongst others. I hope he is better suited being the amateur scouting director. The job is a lot different. We will see what happens, my understanding is that Click defers to Gross a lot. Gross really pushed to increase the amount of scouts the Astros have and as a result the Astros have added a lot of scouts. I am curious to see how this goes, shifting from going largely just by advances numbers and video to more actual scouts in the stands.
Wish I knew in advance that he'd get drafted by the Astros. Played at my dad's alma mater only about 15 minutes from my house. While not quite as ridiculously great with the walk rate, his numbers are remarkably similar to what Tyler White did in the same conference. Hopefully a better athlete than White is.
The way you present it, it sounds like Kris is a result of the organization keeping him around because his mistakes didn't tank the team. To be fair, I don't think anyone knew Appel was a total headcase when drafted.
I watched 10 seconds of his video and would bet my life savings that he is a better athlete than White.
The difference is that Bagwell was very much a bat over glove prospect. Bregman is a very good third baseman. Moving him to 1B would be quite a waste of defensive value.
It is hard to know. Like I said, it is very hard to draft kids from the West Coast and to get real value/sleepers because the kids get so much exposure and can play year round. Brady Aiken may have been a Hall of Famer had he not gotten injured, and Appel was someone that a lot of people liked. All I can really say is that there is nothing special that stands out in his scouting portfolio. It is also possible that he is not a great individual scout but very good at delegating and managing an entire scouting group, which is what he is primarily asked to do now. What I know is that the Astros are the only team with zero pro scouts, and had the least number of amateur scouts. Gross went to Click and asked that number to increase. The Astros greatly increased their amateur scouts and now are more dependent on in person evaluations and less so on advanced numbers. The last few drafts have largely been very college heavy. The 2019 draft was the last under Luhnow and used few scouts. The Astros that year whiffed on some guys, but still got Hunter Brown and Colin Barber in the 4th and 5th round and Korey Lee at the top of the draft. Overall that isn't a bad draft. The last two drafts post Luhnow have overall not been very good. People will point to the Astros not having a #1-2 pick the last two drafts.... but in 2018 and 2019 the Astros found outside of the top 2 rounds Pena, Brown, Barber and Brown. I am not saying the Astros are taking the wrong approach, I really do not know. However I can say that the drafts in 2020 and 2021 have been overall underwhelming. The decision to do so college heavy in 2022, as I believe every pick was a college player, does make me raise an eyebrow, but maybe they will strike gold.
He is a better athlete, he can actually run fast enough to break a stride and he doesn't trip over 1st base.
2020 should have an asterisks due to covid, reduced draft rounds and many kids redo-ing their junior year ... and the Astros not having their two top picks.
