Fansided

Alex Bregman Leads the Next Wave of Houston Astros

By Aric Cisneros |
2 of 3
Next

Alex Bregman Leads the Next Wave of Houston Astros

Alex Bregman

Mandatory Credit: Rich Gill-@QCBanditPhotog

For the first half of this decade, the MLB Amateur Draft has been the glimmer of hope in every Houston Astros fans’ tired eyes.

“This guy will be our ace, pitching game one in the 2017 World Series,” we said. “Oh, this kid is going to be special in four years, the next A-Rod, just wait.”

It’s the kind of talk that keeps you sane when your team is losing 100+ games every year and are the butt of every baseball fan’s joke. The draft was at least an opportunity to see the fruits of our suffering come to life.

This year, though, the draft was different. There was an excitement, of course, about the possibilities in play for the Astros with three first-round picks. In 2015, though, for the first time in so long, the Astros were in first place at the time of the draft.

The kid that probably wasn’t supposed to arrive until 2016 was playing like a grown man in his prime and debuting with the Astros on the same day of the draft. This year, it felt like the Astros were the rich getting richer.

More from Prospects

And for that reason, we didn’t all jump for joy when the Astros selected Alex Bregman with their first selection the way we may have only a year or two ago. If anything, there were rumblings of skepticism — why take a shortstop when Carlos Correa looks like a guy that won’t leave that spot in the next decade?

The answer, in its simplest form, is that a team should take the most talented player available, regardless of what the major-league club needs at the moment. That is why the Astros decided to go with Bregman.

As the second overall pick in the 2015 MLB Draft, Alex Bregman will soon jump to the top of the Astros’ prospect list, but is he the next mega prospect for the Houston Astros?

Next: Yes

Yes.

Alex Bregman -Mandatory Credit: Rich Gill-@QCBanditPhotog

At least there’s not much reason to doubt that he can be.

In 2011 as a junior in high school, Bregman set a New Mexico state record by slugging 19 home runs, and he also hit .678. He played for the 2010 16U USA Baseball Club and hit .564 against top international talent. The following year, Bregman hit .378 for the 2011 18U USA Baseball Club en route to a gold medal.

Early in the 2012 season, Bregman broke his finger prior to a game and was sidelined for most of his senior year.

Despite missing most of that season, Bregman was one of the highest rated hitters coming out of high school but fell in the 2012 draft because of signing concerns. The Boston Red Sox eventually selected him in the 29th round, but he declined and went on to play at LSU for three years.

As a freshman at LSU in 2013, Bregman collected 104 hits, six of them home runs, for a .369 average (via The Baseball Cube) — enough to earn the title of Baseball America’s Freshman of the Year.

In his three years at LSU, Bregman compiled a .337/.409/.514 slash line. For comparison, Dansby Swanson, the only player drafted above Bregman, hit .330/.418/.541 in his time with Vanderbilt.

Only a week removed from the end of his LSU career at the College World Series, Bregman reported straight to Quad Cities after signing his $5.9 million signing bonus with the Astros.

Next: Projecting the Future

Projecting the Future

Alex Bregman -Mandatory Credit: Rich Gill-@QCBanditPhotog

Bregman brings a winning culture with him. Bregman has won a state championship, a gold medal, been a key piece of two LSU teams that reached the College World Series and has received countless individual accolades.

More from Prospects

In a small sample size with Quad Cities, Bregman is hitting .269/.347/.358, which is nothing to write home about, but he has only struck out five times in his first 60+ at-bats. Conventional logic says that if you put the ball in play, good things are bound to happen.

Bregman struck out in only 8% of his at-bats in his college career. For comparison, that’s the same strikeout percentage that Jose Altuve maintained in his stellar 2014 campaign. It’s pretty well noted that the Astros could use a high-contact guy, and Bregman would be that fit in the Astros’ lineup.

Defensively, many projected Bregman as a future second baseman because of his height, or lack thereof, but Bregman has shown he is capable of making any play at the position.

Carlos Correa, Lance McCullers, and Vincent Velasquez have performed as advertised, but success in Major League Baseball is often just as hard to predict as the draft itself. Alex Bregman, though,  is a high-floor player that should be fast tracked to the Astros in a year or two.

Of course Correa is already touted as one of the next great all-around shortstops, but a guy as talented as Bregman will find his way into the line-up and onto the field, even if it’s not as the Astros’ shortstop.

Next: Houston Astros: Life Without Sparkplug George Springer

More from Climbing Tal's Hill

Next

Schedule