Here's the 2 players that experts predict the Astros could pick in the 2023 MLB Draft

The 2023 MLB Draft is upon us and when the first round begins at 7 PM EST Sunday night, we will be very close to finding out who the Houston Astros will be adding to their farm system. Sure, all of the picks will matter and we won't know for certain how any of them will pan over for at least a year (and probably longer than that). However, all eyes will be on who Houston takes in the first round.

We recently took a look at who the Astros have picked recently in the first round and gave some hindsight grades, so you should definitely take a look at that to see what the Astros' drafting philosophy has been lately. The Astros don't pick until the 28th overall pick, so it is likely that they are just going to pick the best player available on their board regardless of position once it is their turn.

Who are the Astros going to take in the first round of the 2023 MLB Draft?

Each year, experts all over try to predict what is going to happen in the first round. The success rate is pretty spotty with these predictions, but that is half the fun of it. Sometimes a team completely blows up everything with an off-the-wall pick and sometimes there is just enough shuffling around of the order that these mock drafts look at lot worse than they actually are.

However, there are two names that have popped up in the most recent expert mock drafts that have been connected to the Astros that we are going to take a brief look at today. Again, it is almost impossible to get these picks right especially this late in the first round, but there is enough smoke here to at least give these guys a look

Ty Floyd - RHP

Ty Floyd got on the national map thanks to his stellar outing in the College World Series where he managed to strike out a record 17 batters against Florida. However, Floyd has been on scouts' radars for a while thanks to his low to mid 90's fastball and plus slider. Two different mock drafts have the Astros ending up with Floyd as MLB Pipeline mocked him to the Astros this morning and Baseball America did the same with their last mock draft a couple days ago.

Floyd was considered more of a guy that could go in the second round before the CWS, but putting up that huge performance on the biggest stage in college baseball has him rising up into consideration in the bottom third of the first round. The Astros could do a whole lot worse than getting a college arm of this quality at the bottom of the first round.

Yohandy Morales - 3B

The Athletic's Keith Law went in a slightly different direction with his last mock draft for the Astros as he has the Orioles taking Floyd all the way up at pick 17, but even he acknowledges that if Floyd is there that he probably won't make it past them. Instead, he has the Astros going with a college hitter in Yohandy Morales from the University of Miami.

Morales has been mentioned as a back of the first round candidate all spring thanks to his monster season for Miami and raw power. He is very aggressive at the plate, but it seems like he has made some adjustments that has folks more bullish on his hit tool overall. He also has a strong arm and should be able to play third base well as a pro.

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