The Astros hope Stanford's Mark Appel follows in the path of Stephen Strasburg and David Price as successful big league pitchers who were first overall picks coming out of college. Houston is expected to take Appel with the top pick on Monday in the amateur draft as we noted earlier in the day. Let's catch up on the latest draft news and rumors as teams make their final preparations in the hunt for quality Major League talent…
- The Astros need to ensure Monday's draft bolsters the team's rebuilding effort and that starts with drafting Mark Appel over Byron Buxton, opines Steve Henson of Yahoo! Sports. Selecting Appel, a starting pitcher for the Stanford Cardinal, would take the team in a different direction than the addition of Buxton, a high school outfielder with five-tool potential. While Buxton may ultimately have a brighter future than Appel, the Astros are in need of a quality player who can contribute at the big league level as soon as possible.
- Armed with the fourth pick in the draft, the Orioles have narrowed down their list of potential selections to four players, writes Steve Melewski of MASNSports.com. Baltimore will choose between Puerto Rican high school shortstop Carlos Correa, high school left-hander Max Fried, LSU right-hander Kevin Gausman and University of San Francisco right-hander Kyle Zimmer. The Orioles have encountered mixed success with their recent first-round picks as Matt Wieters (2007) has emerged as a top catcher in baseball while Brian Matusz (2008) has struggled in Baltimore.
- Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington and scouting director Amiel Sawdaye talked with Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal about their approach to 2011's deep draft class. Sawdaye explains that the Sox felt fortunate to net Matt Barnes and Jackie Bradley Jr., both of whom they thought would be off the board prior to their selections at No. 19 and No. 40, respectively. Sawdaye cautions that it's dangerous for a team to set its sights on one specific player, as more often than not, that approach results in the disappointment of seeing the player go elsewhere.
Must be old stats on Jackie Bradley.. he already has 23 2b and hitting .378 with an ops well over 1.000 in a tad under 200 AB at high A ball.. Him and Barnes both were tremendous selections last year in the 1st round.
I just hope they take people like that, rather than guys who will sign for slot and “look” like the obvious pick as Vitek did 2 years ago and appear to be huge busts.
Cherington, so far I like you. You’ve done a good job so far in a crisis. But stop saying obvious things!
“the Astros are in need of a quality player who can contribute at the big league level as soon as possible”
Wouldn’t that be the same mistake they made in the 1992 draft? The Astros chose to go with Phil Nevin, a college slugger, over a lanky, high school prospect in Derek Jeter because they believed Nevin would arrive sooner to the big leagues.
4 other teams passed on Jeter so it wasn’t just them.
Not my point. I’m just saying that the Astro’s approach into this draft is similar to the one they had twenty years ago, which looking back was a huge mistake on their part, not only because Jeter is a future HOFer, but because of Nevin’s short time with the Astros.
maybe if they draft him, jeter never becomes who he is.
yeah pretty sure Jeter wouldn’t have won 5 WS titles with the Astros…
not even that, but part of who any player is has a lot to do with the organization they grow up with. The coaches, the managers, the philosophies.
Does Roy Halladay ever become successful if it wasn’t for Mel Queen?
Seems like Ben Cherington’s is finally telling the big secret on how to build a successful baseball team. Who could’ve guessed…
Many people have O’s taking Gausman. I hope that analysts aren’t just blowing smoke when they say that he could have the highest ceiling of anyone in the draft, including Appel. You can never have too many starters.
You can never have too many starters. Yeah and Orioles management has done a great job on evaluating talent no matter who’s in charge.
Matusz might have found himself, but Arrieta is a BUM!
Duquette is a goober, who should have never been hired.
All these extra people in the front office and special focus on this years draft and there really isn’t anyone worthy of being drafted in the first round.
PS Who is Gausman’s agent? I couldn’t find it. Now I hear the O’s might be picking Gausman because Alan Dunn is his coach. I thought the O’s and Dunn had a falling out or something, now we are listening to him. Why? I guess we will find out tomorrow.
funny, that “goober” signed our 2 best starters and has done a decent enough job developing Dylan Bundy into the consensus #1 prospect in baseball.
Gotta agree and sorry lefty.. Duquette got hammered in boston because he didn’t cow tail down and kiss the media’s rear end all the time.. That is one of the reasons he was not employed for so long.. Anyone can look over what he did with the chitzy resources he was allotted and it was not too bad.. Drafting Garciapara, Youk, lester and snatching Hanley Ramirez and Anibel sanchez out of the International market isn’t too shabby for starters and his trades? Didn’t see him come out on the losing end very often.. Very shrewd dealer.. A bit too hesitent at times as orioles fans are seeing and has a penchant for filling holes with retreads far too much as well, but the man knows baseball (to me) as good as Epstein and had he been given the resources? Done every bit as good of a job.
Lets not forget many (most) of the people on that WS team from ’04 for the Sox were The Duke’s own men anyway, or the ones who were around long. not the wasted contracts like Foulke.
orioles have a good man, just let him build up his scouting department.
I just wish could have seen him operate for a team, pre CBA with a large draft budget.. Am sure it would have been sweet.
Buxton / Correa or broke for me, unless neither falls to us, and I think one of the two of them will. I’d be upset if we took Gausman over one of them, and if we took Fried over any of the three of these players we deserve to be awful.
I don’t understand if Gausman has the highest ceiling especially for a pitcher why wouldn’t the Astros take him?
“While Buxton may ultimately have a brighter future than Appel, the
Astros are in need of a quality player who can contribute at the big
league level as soon as possible.”
I believe that’s the reason why they passed over Derek Jeter.
So what about the other teams? What’s their reason?
1992 Draft:
1. Phil Nevin, Astros – Solid big league career, but obviously no Jeter.
2. Paul Shuey, Indians – Decent middle reliever at times.
3. B.J. Wallace, Expos – Never progressed past Double-A.
4. Jeff Hammonds, Orioles – Solid season for COL in 2000..that’s it.
5. Chad Mottola, Reds – .200 in 125 big league at-bats
6. JETER
Imagine if the Orioles had drafted him with Ripken there…. or the Reds with Larkin in the fold.