And that’s a draft. No real eye-popping picks today, but you can always find talent in the later rounds. They may have money to throw at one of the two high schoolers (Wagner more likely than McGary, imo)—I’d be a little surprised if they burned two picks just for relationship-building.
Otherwise, day three went a lot like day two. A few college arms, a couple interesting position players, and one Oklahoma juco guy. Signing news will no doubt be coming soon. The Astros will have just a touch over $6M to spend, assuming they max out, since they can go up to 5% over slot and just pay penalties on the overage without more substantive penalties.
My pleasure. I love obsessing over the draft each year—I’m digging up all this crap for myself one way or the other, so might as well post it in the bus ride. Plus it’s a fantastic distraction from work emails. Happy to hear other folks find it worthwhile.
I haven’t seen any draftee signings reported yet, but a couple other updates:
Outfielder Bryce Boettcher (13th round, Oregon) will temporarily head back to school and play another season as an inside linebacker for the Ducks before taking the field in the Astros system in 2025.
The Astros have added four undrafted free agents already, per Baseball America:
Interesting tidbit on Boettcher. I saw inside LB and that he was an OF and thought, huh? Then I re-read the report you provided, that he started as strong safety and then added some weight to spin down to ILB, and still has legit speed and can drop some weight after football ends.
FYI, I read something interesting re: Twine Palmer, the 19th rounder with an amazing name. He was something like 6’3" and 165lbs his senior of high school. After his first year of JC he was 6’5" and 200lbs. That’s a hell of a conditioning program.
Another kid from Crane’s alma mater
Former Mules picked/Signed in the last decade by the Astros:
Jonathan Sprinkle (2020 UDFA)
Lucas Williams (2016 40th round)
Zach Davis (2015 25th round)
Kyle Gehrs (2014 UDFA)
Carlos Collazo of Baseball America has been all over the signing bonus beat. For the Astros guys he’s reported the bonuses below. The interesting ones:
19th rounder Twine Palmer, the juco pitcher, signed for about $50k over slot.
17th rounder Ethan Wagner, the Tennessee commit I assumed would be a tough sign, signed for his exact slot ($150k). It’s VERY rare to see a high schooler sign for slot money after the tenth round, much less one committed to a top program coming off a CWS title. Not sure what the story is there—it was already an intriguing pick, being a top program recruit but unranked on public boards, and now there’s another odd wrinkle. Wagner’s brother got over-slot money ($600k) from the Dodgers in the sixth round two years ago, so maybe they feel secure taking slot money and getting Ethan straight into pro ball with his brother. Who knows.
Other notes:
Teams are able to give their players a $2,500 bonus outside the slot payment, so when you see a guy coming in $2,500 under slot or some other round number, that’s what’s going on—the player gets that money but it doesn’t count toward the bonus pool.
I’m including a 5% overage in calculating how much money the Astros can spend. From 100-105% of their bonus pool, they just pay a tax on the overage. So if you’re spending every penny you’ve got on an over-slot guy, you’ll spend up to 105% of your actual slot pool.
With Wagner signed, the most obvious other over-slot candidate is Ky McGary (20th round). The highest I saw him ranked pre-draft was 178th, so while I have been assuming he’ll head to school, maybe they can get him signed for a few hundred thousand. Slot bonus for the 178th overall pick, just for reference, is about $350k.
Chandler Rome has speculated that sixth rounder Caden Powell might be an over-slot guy too, so maybe that’s where the savings will go. From the signings that have been reported so far, they’ve saved about $40k versus slot. I’d expect them to add to that savings number when the earlier-round guys come in a little under slot.
Keith Law had a nice write up on 5th rounder Cole Hertzler:
“He’s got a starter’s delivery and his breaking stuff improved substantially as the season went along, giving him a true four-pitch mix led by a fastball that’s 92-94 and up to 97. He cuts himself off just slightly when he lands, so the glove-side command isn’t great, but it’s fixable. He’s a real sleeper.”
Law (IMO) typically doesn’t give the Astros much credence in their drafts, so this was a nice surprise.
Crane was a standout baseball player at Central Missouri, where he played for the Mules from 1973-76. He went 21-8 with a career 2.42 ERA and still ranks atop the Central Missouri career leaderboard in complete games (23) and shutouts (seven) while ranking third in strikeouts (215). He also holds the Mules’ single-game strikeout record of 18, which is also a Division II College World Series record. In 1997, Crane was inducted into the University of Central Missouri Athletic Hall of Fame.
The stadium is named after him as well but I think that has more to do with a significant donation than his status as a pitcher.
At SFA they had a grocery store. Sold a premium import lowebrau at crap American lowe rau for years. Amazed me, but never caught on. Another time went in store, guy is fast asleep. People were having a hay day at store. Got a twelve myself. Keystone is what you drink if broke. Kinda like Schaefer.
