Why the Astros signed Michael Brantley

After four business days, my acute insomnia has decided to kick in (work is going to suck tomorrow). Luckily(!) the Astros made a move and signed Michael Brantley to some deal (details later, probably in the hot links). I've never been all that impressed with Brantley. A large part of that is that he can't seem to stay on the field. He's never played a full 162 games. He's surpassed 150+ games twice in a 10-year big league career. When he is health, oh boy! Watch out!

 He's a career .295/.351/.468 hitter (that's a .339 wOBA for you nerds). He walks at around average and strikes out way less than Chris Carter (remember him!) at a 10.7% rate. Everyone seems to think that there's now an outfield crunch, what with the Astros still having the rights to veteran outfield Josh Reddick, in his prime George Spring, young Tony Kemp (love that guy) and the up and comer Kyle Tucker (dude gives zero fux, right now). I don't think Brantly will play the outfield though. Have you see his defensive metrics?

 His fielding percentage is solid at .994%, however, advanced metrics HATE the dude. His Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) and Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) are well into the negatives for his career. TL;DR he's not good in the outfield. Which is why I think he fits nicely in the designated hitter role for the Astros, with an occasional start in the outfield or first base(?). Last year the DH hit for .243/.308/.480 line. Brantley provides more of a balanced hitter over what the Astros had last year. More actual hitting, better on-base percentage with the substitute for power. Tyler White was really good as the right handed DH for the Astros last year with a .276/.354/.533 line (.377 wOBA for you nerds). Brantley is a left-handed bat that (forgot to mention that) can compliment White nicely.

 What do you think? Brantley plays the field (dumb) or starts most of his games as DH (running theory).

Derek Fisher signs with Houston

Not that Derek Fisher, and not that Houston - the Astros have announced a deal with OF Derek Fisher, their competitive balance pick (37th overall) in this year's draft, received as part of the Fud Borris trade. Jim Callis reports that the deal is for $1,534,100, or full slot value. Fisher was ineligible to sign until the University of Virginia completed their College World Series run last week.

Thanks to our good friend Jayne over at What the Heck, Bobby?, we see that this means only Mac Marshall (21st round), Michael Foster (38th round), and Brad Antchak (39th round) remain unsigned.

It is hopefully not noteworthy that no official deal has yet been announced with 1-1 Brady Aiken. We know he was in Houston early last week. Ken Rosenthal ominously opined yesterday, "The holdup bears a resemblance to the delays that occasionally occur in free agency when players fail physicals and teams try to rework deals." But that is pure speculation at this point, so don't read too much into it. (Yet.)

Saturday Morning Hot Links

*Matt Dominguez got a hug.

*The Astros officially signed six players, who were in Tri-City in time for last night's season-opening win: 7th Rounder Derick Velazquez, 9th Rounder Bryan Radziewski, 10th Rounder Jay Gause, 13th Rounder Jamie Ritchie, 14th Rounder Nick Tanielu, and 40th Rounder Alex Hernandez.

*The Oklahoman has a good piece on prospective LF Preston Tucker.

*The Astros signed Northwestern Nazarene pitcher Aaron Vaughn as an undrafted free agent. Vaughn was 9-4 for NNU, allowing 102H/31ER, 76K:18BB in 84IP, and completed seven of his 11 starts. He'll head to Kissimmee to start with the GCL Astros.

Details on A.J. Reed / J.D. Davis

2nd and 3rd Round picks A.J. Reed and J.D. Davis - The Initials, as I like to call them - have agreed to terms with signing bonuses announced.

Jon Heyman has A.J. Reed's signing bonus at $1,350,000 while Brian McTaggart reported that J.D. Davis's signing bonus was for $748,600. Both of these are right at slot.

So the Astros have allegedly spent $8,848,600 of their bonus pool, leaving $4,517,600 to sign their remaining picks. With Aiken's reportedly-under slot deal the Astros currently have saved $1,519,600 to spread around.

We've been pimping this link for a few days now, but you can find status updates on all draft picks - updated regularly - here.

Astros start to agree to terms with picks

Via Brian McTaggart, we read that the Astros have agreed to terms with 9th Round pick Bryan Radziewski and 40th Round pick Alex Hernandez. McTaggart also has the news that A.J. Reed will be in Houston tomorrow for a physical and will sign his deal.

So the list of confirmed signings as of right now:
2nd Round pick A.J. Reed
8th Round pick Bobby Boyd
9th Round pick Bryan Radziewski
10th Round pick Jay Gause
40th Round pick Alex Hernandez

Those who look like they're just ironing out some details include:
1st Round pick Brady Aiken
6th Round pick Brock Dykxhoorn
7th Round pick Derick Velazquez
11th Round pick Dean Deetz
16th Round pick Ramon Laureano
27th Round pick Brandon McNitt
30th Round pick Sean McMullen

Brian McTaggart also wrote this afternoon that the Astros and Aiken have agreed to a $6.5m signing bonus, which is $1,492,200 under the slot for the 1-1 pick.

Astros sign Wilson Amador

Via Ben Badler and Baseball America, the Astros have signed the 24th-ranked international free agent Wilson Amador for $400,000. This is lower than the $875,000 they had originally agreed to, but apparently an issue with the physical knocked down the signing bonus.

Badler:
Amador, 16, is 6-foot-1, 160 pounds and had shown inconsistent tools prior to July 2 after recovering from a couple of injuries to his throwing arm and hamstring, but at his best he’s shown above-average speed and arm strength while still learning to play a more controlled game.

Astros sign Kent Emanuel

The Astros this afternoon have reached an agreement with 3rd Round pick Kent Emanuel, out of North Carolina. Terms have obviously not yet been disclosed, but we'll update when they are.

Emanuel was the last remaining player in the first ten rounds to sign. 11th Round pick Devonte German still has yet to decide if he will sign.

Astros sign Chris Munnelly

The Astros have signed undrafted free agent pitcher Chris Munnelly out of the University of North Carolina.

Munnelly is a 6'2" 200lb RHP who went 6-0 for North Carolina in 22 appearances (eight starts) with a 2.39 ERA/1.04 WHIP. He allowed 36H/16ER, 63K:27BB in 60.1IP and a .172 BAA.

Munnelly:
All of their front-office guys got to see us pitch early in the season, and I think that gave us a little bit of an edge. Once they saw us, they could follow us the rest of the year. 

Munnelly went to Forsyth County Day School, the alma mater of 2011 8th Round pick Brandon Culbreth.

Brian Holberton signs

Brian McTaggart is reporting that 9th Round pick Brian Holberton, out of North Carolina, has signed. Back to an extremely slow news day.

14th Round pick Chris Cotton signs

Over the weekend, 14th Round pick Chris Cotton - left-handed closer for LSU - apparently signed a deal with the Astros. His tweet:

Well I officially have a job for the first time in about 5 years..excited for the opportunity @astros

Cotton was 4-1 in 37 appearances with 16 saves for the Tigers, allowing 25H/6ER, with 47 strikeouts and three walks in 46.2IP and a .155 batting average-against.

Astros sign 10th Round pick Austin Nicely

The Astros have signed 10th Round pick Austin Nicely, and terms have not been disclosed.

UPDATE: Jim Callis is reporting that Nicely signed for $610,000. This is between the 87th and 88th overall pick value, mid-3rd Round. Slot value for the pick was $139,400, so the Astros went over by $470,600 to sign Nicely.

This leaves only the two North Carolina players still in the College World Series unsigned in the Top 10 Rounds, and they have a little more than $1m to play with. 

Notes from the Appel press conference

A few key points to note from the Mark Appel unveiling:

Jeff Luhnow (Loo-No) said the Appel signing was the "most significant investment the Astros have made" in an amateur player, and would not reveal the signing bonus.

Talks were ongoing with Boras, and the deal wasn't completed until today.

Appel will fly to Kisssimmee to work out and will make "several stops" through the minor-leagues. He is on an unknown innings limit, but Luhnow wants him to start at Tri-City and will be at Big League camp next Spring.

McTaggart said that finishing the 2013 season in Corpus is not out of the question.

Appel is "fully on board" with the organization's direction.

Signings update

Okay, so there was a decent amount of news last night regarding draft signings courtesy of Brian McTaggart.

Mark Appel: Not signed, but fully engaged in talks. Luhnow hopes to sign him this week.

Andrew Thurman: The 2nd Round pick signed for full slot value ($1,397,200) and will report to Tri-City.

The Astros also signed 28th Round pick Jordan Mills, 30th Round pick Jorge Perez, 33rd Round pick Tyler White, and 36th Round pick J.D. Osborne.

And, thanks to Dustin on Twitter, we find that the Astros have signed undrafted free agents Brett Clements and Kevin Ferguson.

Clements, a catcher out of Nova Southeastern University (J.D. Martinez's alma mater), is 5'9" 180lbs and hit .292/.400/.359 with 22K:24BB for the Sharks in 2013, starting 42 of 46 games and committing two errors.

Kevin Ferguson is a pitcher from Northeastern University and led the Huskies in wins (seven), IP (104.1IP), and ERA (2.59). In 104.1IP, Ferguson allowed 90H/30ER, 93K:28BB and a .231 BAA.

Astros sign Tanner Mathis

The Astros have signed undrafted free agent Tanner Mathis out of Ole Miss.

Mathis was initially drafted by the Astros in the 27th Round of the 2012 draft after he hit 359/.460/.416 with 18K:39BB as Ole Miss' leadoff hitter. The next day, he was unsure about what to do, but a couple of hours later tweeted that he was headed back to Ole Miss to lead the Rebels to Omaha.

In 61 games for Ole Miss in 2013, Mathis hit .280/.409/.307 with 18K:34BB

Appel reportedly agrees to $6.35m signing bonus

Over the weekend it was reported by Baseball America's Jim Callis that the Astros and 1-1 pick Mark Appel have agreed on a deal for $6.35m.

I talked about this in today's Morning Drive podcast, which had to get canned due to some technical issues, but we also talked about it last night on the Crawfish Boxes' podcast. Appel signed for $1,440,400 less than the slot value for the 1-1 pick in this year's draft, meaning that he signed quicker and for a lot less money than I expected.

Should this number turn up accurate (and there's no reason to think that it won't), the Astros will be $1,437,900 under their bonus pool for the picks they've signed - and we still don't know what 5th Round pick Tony Kemp signed for. This leaves a lot of money to negotiate with Emanuel, Holberton, Nicely, and 11th Round pick Devonte German.

Astros sign Parker Hipp

The Astros have signed undrafted free agent Parker Hipp, out of New Mexico State.

Hipp, a 6'2" 200lb lefty (who throws right) from San Diego, and hit .300/.429/.479 with 9HR/50RBI, 18K:40BB in 190 ABs (54 games).

According to the linked article, Hipp will head to Kissimmee to play with the GCL team.

Astros sign Ryan Connolly

The Astros have signed undrafted free agent Ryan Connolly from Coastal Carolina.

Connolly, a 6'0" 180 RHP reliever from Charleston, was 6-4 with a 2.11 ERA, allowing 61H/19ER, with 69K:20BB in 81IP and a .211 average-against.

Connolly's 139 career pitching appearances ranks 5th in NCAA history and his 2.23 career ERA is best in Big South history and Coastal Carolina's record in the Division I era (2nd all-time in CCU history). He was a three-time second-team All-Big South selection, and of the 131 base runners he inherited in his career, only 29 scored (three of 31 inherited baserunners scored in 2013).

2nd Round pick Andrew Thurman to sign

2-40 pick Andrew Thurman agreed to terms with the Astros today and will sign his contract on Monday (Tri-City's opening day), according to MLB.com.


Thurman:
It’s what I’ve always been working towards. It’s been my dream since I was a little kid to play professional baseball. It’s kind of a surreal feeling, but I still have to work hard. That part of me hasn’t gone anywhere.

Mark Berman says Thurman will fly to Minute Maid on Sunday for a physical, signing on Monday with a press conference, and flying out to Tri-City on Tuesday.

Slot for the 2-40 pick is $1,397,200, though the details of the contract are not yet known.

Conrad Gregor has signed

According to Jeff Lockridge, Vanderbilt's beat writer for The Tennessean, 4th Round pick Conrad Gregor has signed with the Astros. More info as it becomes available.

Slot value for that pick is $481,900.

Tony Kemp signed for "a lot of money"

Terms were not disclosed, but 5th Round pick Tony Kemp apparently got himself PAID.

While slot for the 5-137 pick is $360,800, Kemp said:

It was a lot of money....there weren't many gray areas.

The Astros are also throwing in on Kemp's remaining 16 hours to graduate from Vanderbilt, which he'll complete over the course of the next two Falls.

Everything was straightforward. We came to an agreement, and they did include school in the contract, which was one of the most important things.


I mentioned this on the Morning Drive a few days ago, but it's unlikely that we're going to get hard numbers on signing bonuses to help negotiations with other Top 10 round picks. It would be fun, though.