The 2002 draft is seen as one of the worst in Astros history. 1st round pick Derick Grigsby never made it above low A ball. 2nd rounder Mitch Talbot was traded to the Rays and got some time in the bigs last season. 3rd rounder Rory Shortell never made it to AA and played indy ball last season. 4th rounder Mark McLemore got a taste of the bigs in 2007 but disappeared after that. 5th round pick Pat Misch, turned down the Astros signing and was drafted in the 7th round the next year by the Giants. Has pitched parts of 3 seasons for the Giants and has yet to get his first MLB win. So as you can see, the 2002 draft is not much to write home about. In fact, since they have released Raymar Diaz and unless they re-sign Chance Douglas, who is a minor league free agent, there will be one player from the 2002 draft on any Astro affiliated roster in 2009. That player was drafted in the 45th round and is Ryan McKeller, who pitched at Corpus Christi last season.
Why rehash the history? Because we have signed someone’s 2002 top pick to a minor league contract. Drew Meyer was drafted by they Rangers as the 10th over all pick in the 2002 draft. He was a middle infielder out of USC (Gamecocks not Trojans). He has tasted the bigs but didn’t fair well there.
“My innings were scattered,” Meyer said. “In a blowout, they’d just throw me in there. It wasn’t ideal. I wasn’t ready. When you sit on the bench for two weeks straight and all of sudden in the ninth inning they just pop you out there, it’s not that easy. Then some injured players got healthy and they sent me down.”
So why did the Astros sign him?
“We like the fact that he can play second base, he can play shortstop,” said Ricky Bennett, director of player development for the Astros. “He can move around the diamond, and being a left-handed hitter there are not many guys who can do that. So that’s to his advantage. I told him, ‘Hey, you’re going to get an opportunity to play. We didn’t sign you to sit on the bench. Whether it’s AA or AAA, you’re going to be in the lineup every day.’ “
Bennett is very direct about the opprotunities that await Mr. Meyer.
“The one thing I’ve told him is that this is an opportunity for him ultimately to get to the big leagues,” Bennett said. “There’s obviously some reason why he hasn’t gotten to the big leagues at this point, but we want to give him the opportunity to continue that goal.”