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The Upcoming Draft

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

This time last year I was worried about the draft like I had not been for many years. In late 2017 the Astros undertook a re-configuration of their highly successful amateur, pro, and international scouting departments. Many scouts where eliminated and the way those departments went about their business was fundamentally changed. The 2018 draft was to be the first conducted by the Astros new philosophy scouting department and I was unsure what to expect.

As the draft unfolded I became even more alarmed. The first pick went to an all bat first baseman. I do not believe in drafting first basemen in any of the top three rounds, let alone with your first pick. A third baseman or a left fielder can move to first if they run into a wall but there is no place for a first baseman to go if things don't work out for him. I wrote ten more sentences about drafting a first baseman before I realized they belonged in another post and deleted them. I graded the pick a C. It was the lowest grade I have assigned a first round pick since before Jeff Luhnow arrived.

The number two pick settled me down a little. I considered Jason Schroeder to be a bit of a reach but liked the idea of a high school pitcher that could develop good habits in the Astros organization.

The second day seemed to start out a little more promising with Jeremy Pena, a plus plus defender at short stop, and Alex McKenna a nifty outfielder at numbers three and four. I also liked Austin Hanson who looked like a legit starting pitcher candidate at number eight. On day three I chose Bret Conine as my sleeper pick for the year as I have done with the #11 pick in each draft since Dean Deetz in 2014, but that was it. I found no one else to get excited about. Overall it was, in my estimation the least promising draft class of the Luhnow era. Since then, the Astros have continued to develop video scouting. They lost Mike Elias and Sig Mejdal, two key guys on draft day to the Orioles. I have not seen a single word printed anywhere about their replacements.

As usual I have a personal story to relate to my trepidations. In this case toward the idea of video scouting. Quite some time ago I noticed a hole had suddenly developed in a molar near the back of my mouth. I never saw it but I could stick my tongue in it. It seemed as if a filling had just fallen out. I was in a new town and selected a dentist based on passing a sign at his office often enough to know where he was located. He was very proud of what was his modern (at the time) equipment, including a tiny camera he could point around in my mouth and examine the condition of my teeth on a video screen. He took a few moments to peer at the screen and said "nope, no cavities" and left the room. When I realized no one was coming back I got up to leave. On my way out I asked the receptionist to let me use their phone book and looked up another dentist. While I was doing that she had prepared a bill and set up a follow up appointment for me. I laughed and tossed the papers back to her as I left. The next day I visited an old school dentist who examined me with a probe and a mirror on a stick. Thats a big cavity he said, looks like you lost a filling. I'll clean that up and fill it in a jiffy, and he did.

Video scouting will require many successful drafts to convince me that it is any more valid a way to select ball players than it is to examine teeth.

How do you feel about the upcoming draft?