In Zachary Levine's article about the #1 pick, we get the "We won't know how we did for years" line about evaluating drafts, but we also get a glimpse into the homework that the front office is doing to determine future stardom:
Bobby Heck:
“We’ve met personally hand-to-hand with the kids and the families that are in consideration. We’ve done a whole lot of reaching outside their group and investigating the village they grew up with and that smaller group. Obviously that always plays a part of it; being the first pick comes with added pressure.”
It certainly seems like the Astros will be deciding between Byron Buxton and Mark Appel, and Jerome Solomon notes:
With the Astros in desperate need of top-of-the-rotation pitching, it would be a shocker if they don’t take Mark Appel, the Houston native and Stanford star, whose fastball clocks in the high-90s.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
