Wednesday's Three Astros Things

Some things to talk about wewhile all fool around one day a year...

1) The Blue Jays draft haul

Ken Rosenthal has a piece up at Fox Sports touting the 2011 Blue Jays draft class, which he claims knocks off the Cardinals 2009 haul as the best recent draft.

What's interesting here is that none of the players he cites have star potential. Well, Aaron Sanchez (edit: and Noah Syndergaard) do, but the rest are solid, if unspectacular, players.

But, he claims that even without the success of first-round pick Deck McGuire, the Blue Jays made an impressive haul.

I bring this up because the Astros 2014 class could be looked at the same way soon. Despite losing Brady Aiken, Houston hauled in three very solid college bats with the next three picks, added a couple interesting arms who could stick as starters and then have some lottery ticket-type position players who could outplay the round they were drafted in.

If Houston gets four players out of this class to the majors, it'll be a banner haul. If they get five, it could rival what the Blue Jays and Cards have done.

2) Astros 2014 bonus pool spending

Interesting note from Evan Drellich on the Brady Aiken/Jacob Nix situation.Last summer, we assumed the Astros had so much to spend on their offers, based on where we knew the top 10 round guys signed. Turns out, a couple of players drafted after Round 10 got bonuses above $100,000, which affected the total amount Houston had to offer.

Those two players, according to Drellich's research, were Nick Tanielu and Conner Goedert.

Tanielu, a 14th-round pick from Washington State, hit .300/.353/.425 last season at second base for Tri-City. He received a $200,000 bonus, preventing him from returning for his senior season with the Cougars.

Goedert, a 15th-round pick out of Neosho County Community College in Kansas, hit .157/.245/.201 in 38 games between the Gulf Coast League Astros and Greeneville. He also signed for $200,000.

Only six players in the Astros draft class received bigger bonuses than those given to Tanielu and Goedert.

3) Beards, 'fros and 'staches

Seriously, I'm using this one twice, because it's awesome! Baseball Reference added options today to add beards, mustaches or afros to any mug shot on the player pages.

It's pretty glorious, like the time that Chris Carter grew his hair out.

Or when Jose Altuve became a man and grew a beard.

Or when Collin McHugh embraced his inner hipster.

I can keep going all day.

All. Dang. Day.