It was just three years ago we were looking forward to a new regime managing the players of the Houston Astros. Following a rapid decline from the Astros high of a World Series appearance in October of 2005, owner Drayton McClain cleaned house by firing General Manager Tim Purpura and attempting to install Astros President Tal Smith as GM. Instead the Astros hired former Phillie GM Ed Wade to fill the Astros General Manager spot. Upon entering the picture Wade was expected to make whatever changes were necessary to improve the Astros both at the major league level and at the minor league level. He pulled off a number of trades, further thinning the already thin Astros farm system in the process. He also offered arbitration to the two players whose signing by another team would give the Astros a draft selection in the supplemental first round thus providing Wade further opportunities to restock the once vaunted farm system. Trever Miller’s signing with Tampa Bay gave the Astros the 38th pick in the draft. Mark Loretta however chose to accept arbitration and return to the Astros. Another change Wade made was to bring in Bobby Heck as director of amateur scouting. Heck was previously involved with the Brewers very well thought off minor league scouting system. Together these two are expected to return the Astros minor league system to the top of the developmental heap.
The questionable nature of last year’s draft has been discussed ad-nauseum in the Bus Ride Discussion Forum, the TZ, and elsewhere so we’ll just say that last year under former GM Purpura the Astros had to wait until the third round to select their first draftee. This year, however, looks more like the 2005 draft when the Astros had seven selection in the first five rounds. This year the Astros, thanks to a dismal 2007 season, had the 10th selection in the draft and the 10th selection in each regular round thereafter. They also had a selection, as mentioned, in the supplemental first round. Additionally they had a selection in the supplemental third round thanks to not signing last year’s first pick Derek Dietrich. In total that’s seven selections in the first five rounds. As a sign of how seriously the Astros are taking this draft, Heck has said he personally scouted the potential first and second round picks. With the exception of the 2004 draft the drafts from 1999-2005 appear to have been terrible with little talent making its way to the majors or being used in a significant trade. Wade and the Astros know they cannot afford another dismal draft.
To begin their reclamation project Heck went on record before the draft that he will be looking for up-the-middle players in the draft, especially early. They cetainly held to that as they selected 45 of the 52 players from up-the-middle positions. Specifically they drafted 7 catchers, 1 first baseman, 3 second basemen, 3 shortstops, 1 third baseman, 0 leftfielders, 7 centerfielders, 3 rightfielders, 2 unspecified outfielders, 12 righthanded pitchers, and 13 lefthanded pitchers.
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