Keith Law has a mock draft up on ESPN Insider, here's who he has up taking: Houston Astros Josh Sale, OF, Bishop Blanchet High School (Wash.) The Astros have been all over Sale this spring, and they have nothing like him in their system. They also like Cox, but I don't see Sale going ahead of No. 8. Josh Sale RF | Bishop Blanchet HS Weight: 200 lbs. Height: 6-0 Summary : Sale uses his thick lower half and plus bat speed to generate big-time power. It?s that same build, however, that may prevent him from offering anything more than average defensive value, though he does a good job tracking fly balls and offers enough arm strength to profile in a corner outfield spot. His swing isn?t exactly clean and he?ll get out in front on occasion, but he?s so strong and quick to the ball that he makes up for busy hands at the start of his swing path. Sale may end up at first base down the road, but makes enough contact to mix with the raw power to profile anywhere on the diamond. To top it off, Sale possesses tremendous work ethic and good baseball makeup.
Another Keith Law article on Insider that reviews the past draft... Houston Astros: Shortstop Jiovanni Mier is struggling this season -- .235/.308/.263 with 35 strikeouts in 44 games -- but looks the part on defense and had a tremendous 51-game debut in rookie ball this past summer, hitting seven homers. Prep right-hander Tanner Bushue has been stellar in 14 pro starts -- nine this season -- posting a 66-to-20 K/BB ratio. Both third-round picks and the club's fourth-rounder have all struggled as professionals thus far.
Sorry I forgot to post our 19th pick from Keith Law's Mockdraft. Here we go #19... Houston Astros (from Detroit) Delino DeShields Jr., 2B, Woodward Park Academy (Ga.) The DeShields/Astros connection has been running rampant for a month, and it's not out of the question that they might take him at No. 8 if Josh Sale is gone. I've also heard that the Astros could take Alabama outfielder Reggie Golden either here or with their first sandwich pick. Delino DeShields Jr. CF | Woodward Academy Weight: 185 lbs. Height: 5-8 Summary : Delino DeShields Jr. looks little like his father physically, but has inherited a good amount of his dad's baseball talent. DeShields (the younger) is built like a runningback, and is committed to LSU to fill that role. If he was taller than his listed 5'8?, I imagine he'd be a consensus first-round pick. He has an incredibly simple, quiet swing, very short to the ball, with power from his upper-body strength; he has the swing path to hit for some power but his finish is restricted and he may not get to it when swinging wood. He's one of the fastest runners in this draft and should be a plus defender in center with an average arm. The major knocks on DeShields are his height and build, both unusual for a position player, and his dedication to baseball, as I've heard from several scouts that earlier in the spring, he would mail in at bats or entire games and didn't give observers any impression that he wanted to play baseball rather than football. He's played harder and better down the stretch and if he indicates that he's signable he'll go in the first or at worst sandwich rounds to a team that's willing to overlook his stature and bet on his bat and legs.
StreetJL With his 7 innings of shutout baseball last night, #Astros prospect Dallas Keuchel lowered his road ERA to 2.20. His home ERA is 6.58
I hope we really concentrate on position players for the first couple of rounds in the draft. We are in desperate need of some considering the aging product we are throwing out there on the field. Hunter, Michael and Tommy are the only ones on the right side of 30.
Here's an article by Zach Levine on some of the minor league players in the system that should be coming up in the next few seasons.
It's good to see you pop in here. I figured you'd have some good insight on this topic. Don't you go to some Hooks games? I'm surprised Levine didn't mention JD Martinez. Maybe it's because he did a piece on him a month or two ago and wanted to highlight other players.
Speaking of the Hooks, Gaston has been hot over the past 10 games after a real tough start to AA ball. .344/.488/.625 AVG/OBP/SLG in his last 10. He was off to such a bad start that those numbers only raised his OPS to .700. Hopefully he's made some lasting adjustments.
I've gone to some Hooks' games in the past, none this season yet, but I'm hoping to catch some in the next month or so. I'd really like to see Lyles pitch and hopefully Lo as well when he gets back from the DL. I was a little surprised as well that he didn't mention Martinez, but I'm sure you'll hear/read his name in Levine's article when he gets back. IMO Martinez should get bumped up to A+ Lancaster, but maybe Bennett and Co. are waiting to let him work on drawing more walks and maybe move him straight to Corpus, who knows? The other question is that if he moves up, who gets bumped out? I'm glad to see Castro, Gaston, Shuck and others start to perform a little better lately. It definitely takes an adjustment period, but its exciting to see them do well and think of the possibilities for the future. While I'm bummed about the Astros current situation, I'm looking forward to seeing some of these guys make it to the big leagues as well as who we take in the draft next week.
Martinez is almost 23 years old and playing in Low A Ball so he can't be considered much of a prospect. I like to see him at least promoted to High A. It's not like Lancaster has the outfield prospects Corpus has so I don't understand why don't promote him. His numbers in pro ball so far have been off the chart. By the way, I don't know how Ricky Bennett still has a job after 6 years of sucking as director of player development.
Martinez played four years of college baseball, so thats the reason why he's 22. He is currently in low-A because this is barely his second year of professional baseball, but I do agree with you that he needs to be moved up. I couldn't tell you why Bennett and Co. won't promote Martinez, but why send him to Lancaster where his numbers will really become inflated? I'd like to hear firsthand from Levine after he gets back from watching the Legends about Martinez and what the thinking is with him and his future. If Martinez has a really good eye and continues to hit the ball well, I can see him being moved to AA Corpus, just my opinion. IMO Bennett still has a job because of Bobby Heck. What did you expect of Bennett when the farm system was deplorable prior to 2008? You can't make chicken salad with chicken ****, and thats what the Astros had sans Norris, Pence and Johnson. If Bobby Heck felt like he needed to keep this guy on the player development staff, then I'm all for it. Keep in mind that the Astros scouting department (of which Bennett was also a part of) were able to identify some good talent (Stubbs, Dietrich, Eibner, Jones and Bettis), they just couldn't get them signed. I'm going off on a tangent here, but could you imagine the Astros' farm system with those players in it? Stubbs could be in the outfield in the majors (maybe we never trade for Bourn, platoon with Lee), Eibner could be a RHP ready to come up and contribute, Dietrich could be manning 3rd base (or competing with Chris Johnson in the minors), and Jones could have been a reliever and be the left-handed specialist. Or who knows some of them could be in Baltimore as part of the Tejada trade.
Ricky Bennett has been with the Astros for 6 years so he is part of the problem since he is the director of player development and oversees the operation of the club's player development system.
Since 2004, who have the Astros drafted that has shown MLB player potential? Hunter Pence (2004), Bud Norris (2006) and Chris Johnson (2006). The jury is still out Brian Bogusevic (2005) as he was drafted as a pitcher and is now an OF at the age of 26. Who else has there been? What did you expect of Bennett with almost nothing in the system? If McLane refuses to invest any money into the farm system and player personnel development, then how is Bennett supposed to do his job? The guy isn't perfect by any means, but what was he supposed to do? When Bobby Heck was hired by the Astros, he was given the task of reviewing every scout and player development personnel. Bennett was kept by Ed Wade (who know something about building a farm system) and Bobby Heck (who also knows about building a farm system). So if these guys feel like Bennett can run a farm system, then who are we to question? So far the returns of the last two drafts looks very promising (especially compared to the dearth of talent prior to 2008). Bennett actually has a system with some talent and that makes all the difference. I understand where you're coming from, I'd like to throw out the entire regime that let the farm system get this bad, unfortunately that includes the owner and his BFF Tal Smith, and I just don't have that kind of juice. The notion that the Astros moved Jordan Lyles from low-A Lexington straight to AA Corpus would have been unheard of in the past. The Astros were known for sitting on their prospects for too long. There are new people in charge and they have a new philosophy on pushing talent up through the system as fast as possible. When the big club is doing as poorly as they are it magnifies what moves are made in the farm system. Lets see what happens with the draft next week, I'm sure there will be some player movement (promotions, cuts) then as the new kids are assigned to Greenville and Tri-City as well as moving those guys who were there last year up to Lexington and Lancaster.
We need pitching just as much. After Lyles, we really don't have anyone worth mentioning in our system. But what I've seen in mock draft is that we will draft a position player with power with our first pick. But I really do hope that the pitcher from the woodlands slip to us but I doubt it.
Funny/sad story about Bennett. For those of you that saw/heard about the Will Farrel/Rojo Johnson thing that Round Rock did, turns out that the whole thing fooled Bennett, too. My neighbor works for the Express. He told me that Bennett called the Express extremely livid that they went out and signed a player without getting the Astros permission first. There's a couple of things wrong with that. First, Bennett, as Director of Player Development, is apparently so bad at his job that he doesn't realize that AAA teams can't independently sign players. Second, he really thought Rojo Johnson was an actual prospect.
Insider's Mock Draft 2.0 is up by Olney. No changes from the last one but some positive commentary... Here's the writeup on Barrett Loux
