Grading the Houston Astros' last 8 first round draft picks

It was not that long ago when the Houston Astros were one of the absolute best teams at extracting value out of their draft picks. Their bleeding edge analytics department and some excellent scouting resulted in forming the core of one of the best teams in all of baseball over the last several years.

Unfortunately, the Astros haven't exactly been able to replicate that success recently because, as punishment for the sign stealing scandal, they had to forfeit their first round picks from the 2020 and 2021 drafts. That is a heavy price to pay to be sure and it severely impacted the team's ability to put together quality draft classes in recent years.

Fortunately, all of that is behind Houston now and with the 2023 MLB draft set to begin on July 9th, we thought we would take a look back at the last eight first round draft picks the Astros made and grade them based on how they have turned out so far. Here are the eight picks.

Astros 2015 First Round Pick: Alex Bregman

The Astros had an embarrassment of riches in the 2015 draft as they received the second overall pick for failing to sign the top overall pick, Brady Aiken, the previous year. They used that pick to select Alex Bregman and it is safe to say that has gone well. Multiple All-Star appearances, two top 5 MVP finishes, and is still one of the better third baseman in the league. This is an easy W.

Grade: A

Astros 2015 First Round Pick: Kyle Tucker

The Astros also had the fifth overall pick in the 2015 draft and they used it on a prep outfielder from Florida by the name of Kyle Tucker. Tucker hasn't been as good as Bregman and it took him a bit to get going, but now he is one of the biggest contributors in the Astros' lineup. If you have a guy that you want desperately for the team to give a contract extension to, you did well in picking the guy in the first place.

Grade: A