Here's an interview with Kris Gross. The interview starts 7:30. He's quite high on Tredwell (not surprising as he's the scouting director). He mentions Tredwell's command, athleticism, and extension he gets on the fastball. Gross believes Treadwell has top of the rotation potential. The Tredwell commentary starts at 16:58. He also specifically mentions Jeron Williams as a guy he's interested to see in pro ball. Switching gears, I can't believe Ochoa signed for so little. Kiley McDaniel ranked him 133rd overall and claimed he was wowing teams in workouts. Either Ochoa's camp did a poor job of communicating what he would sign for, or he gave the Astros a much lower number as the hometown team. Hell, maybe he just changed his mind on the last day of the draft and wanted to turn pro.
I get the sense Gross feels really confident that he’s isolated the traits that are most key in predicting MLB outcomes for prospects. He’s been associated with enough success for me to believe him. I’m skeptical he actually liked working with Dana Brown given how strong Brown’s personality is and how much control I imagine Brown wanted over who they evaluated and drafted. But I’ve mentioned before that I think the GM turnover has been a big advantage for Houston in this arena because they’ve been able to add and collate institutional knowledge from multiple successful organizations to a larger degree than other more stable orgs. If I were an owner I would have a REALLY high bar for keeping a GM in place more than ~5 years.
Astros finally got RH SP Kelly Austin signed. He was the fourth UDFA they went after, and IMHO the best of the 4 by far. One of two 23 year olds signed this year so he needs to get off to a quick start. Hope to see him in A ball soon.
MLB signing tracker updated. It shows values for all 19 signings and both Huezo & Fisher signed for $2,500 less than initially reported. Total Pool Spending: $6,934,500
Kris Gross is from the Cardinals Organization and Jeff Luhnow Staff from the Cardinals hired by Houston. Thank Goodness there are more staff members from the Analytics Side and Advanced Scouts.
Not that it matters anymore since Ochoa and Huezo both signed, but Ryan Johnson signed for $97,500 and Austin Deming got $7500, according to Baseball America's draft database. Jake Bloss actually got $497,500. Everyone who signed after Huezo got $150,000 except for Derek True, who got $100,000.
Very interesting, only 20 and probably a guy that could’ve been a reasonable draft in the 8-10 round range. Will mark him to follow for sure. He’s from Texas so I wonder if Houston got a hometown discount/opportunity there.
Looks like he played 2022 at Wichita St and 2023 at Seminole State (JC). Looks like he also played in the Cape Cod League this year. Was going to go to Oklahoma State next year.
Same school that Toro went to (and Kevin Dickey, Jonathan Lacroix, Ian Hardman, Jorge Perez, and LP Pelletier). I suspect Jim Stevenson had a hand in this.
I was going to ask where all of the Astros OK drafts picks were ... wondering if our OK scout had moved on.
