Astros win the first day of the MLB Draft with impressive haul of prospects
The way things are looking for the Houston Astros these days, the 2015 MLB Draft might be the last one for a while in which they’re loaded with early draft picks.
The surprising Astros (34-25) sit in first place in their division, with the best record in the AL — and two years ahead of when the experts thought we’d really see the tangible results of their rebuild (i.e. the winning).
[ALSO: D-backs take shortstop Dansby Swanson with No. 1 overall pick]
So if the 2015 draft is indeed the end of the last-place era for the Astros, they got one heck of a haul Monday night during the first two rounds of selections.
With the second overall pick, the Astros took Alex Bregman, a shortstop out of LSU, who spent his college career getting compared to Dustin Pedroia. That No. 2 pick was compensation for not being able to sign their 2014 No. 1 overall pick, Brady Aiken.
Then with their regularly-scheduled No. 5 pick, the Astros picked prep outfield Kyle Tucker, the younger brother of Preston Tucker, who is a rookie with Houston this year. Scouts think Kyle is the better hitter out of the two.
[Check out Big League Stew on Tumblr for even more baseball awesomeness.]
When the Astros really pulled their coup was in the first competitive balance round, where at pick No. 37 (acquired in a 2014 trade with the Marlins), they picked Daz Cameron, the high-school son of former big leaguer Mike Cameron. His talent figured to make Cameron a higher pick, but word of high contract demands scared off many teams.
Picking Bregman, Tucker and Cameron gave the Astros three prospects who ranked in the top 8 of Baseball America’s Top 500 players in the draft. That’s fancy. They also picked Thomas Eshelman, a pitcher out of Cal State Fullerton, in the second round with their No. 46 overall pick.
The Astros were pretty happy about all this, as the Houston Chronicle’s Evan Drellich relayed from Houston’s director of amateur scouting, Mike Elias:
If things pencil out in the best way, this should be enough for Houston to forget its 2014 draft debacle, when it couldn’t sign Aiken, fifth-rounder Jacob Nix and 21st rounder Mac Marshall. (Aiken was re-drafted at No. 17 by the Indians).
And all this happened on the day that Carlos Correa, the Astros’ No. 1 pick from 2012, made his big-league debut.
The idea of “winning the draft” means one thing the night picks are being made and another thing entirely three or four years from now, when these players are actually expected to suit up for the big-league club. Lots can happen between now and then — injuries, trades, disappointments, etc.
But for what we know right now, what the Astros pulled off on Day 1 of the draft was quite impressive and it could leave them in a good place for years to come.
More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:
– – – – – – –
Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
