The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Astros 2007 Draft

With news from What The Heck, Bobby that Kyle Greenwalt had been released today.  I took a quick look back at the 2007 Astros draft.  It was not just a bad draft.  It was an epic failure of a draft.

The Astros, who were without a 1st and 2nd round picks due to free agent signings, drafted 42 players that year.  They signed 34 of those.  Of the 8 they did not sign.  Let's look at those picks and what happened to those players.

 Players Not Signed
#3 Derek Dietrich - Redrafted in 2nd round in 2010.  Played in Low A last year.

#4 Brett Eibner - Redrafted in 2nd round in 2010.  Played in Low A last year.

#8 Chad Bettis - Redrafted in 2nd round in 2010. Played in Hi A last year.

#13 Chad Jones - Two sport star from LSU was redrafted in 50th round in 2010 but didn't sign.  He was drafted in the 3rd round of the NFL draft by the Giants and then suffered significant injuries in a car accident.  He is fighting to work his way back to football from that accident.

#15 Matt Fitts - Redrafted in the 16th round in 2010.  Played in Low A last season

#38 Robert Weinhardt - Redrafted in the 10th round in 2010.  Has made 30 appearances for the Detroit Tigers over the last two seasons.  The only player of this draft to have reached the majors for this Astros draft class.

#39 Scott Fletcher - Redrafted in the 18th round in 2010.  He played in Low A last season.

#40 Kyle Erdman - Never drafted again.

Signed Players
Of the 32 players who signed, only two are still active.  Collin DeLome is still in the Astros organization and has reached AAA.  Albert Cartwright was traded to the Phillies.  He missed all of 2011 due to an Achilles Heel injury but is back in camp this spring.  He has reached AA.

Here is the highest level reached by the the 32 players who have signed.

AAA -3 (1 active)
AA -4 (1 active)
Hi A - 8
Low A - 7
SS A - 7
Rookie - 5

So 12 (37.5%) out of the 32  never made it to full season ball.  Worse yet, of the 32 players signed, 25 (78%) never made it out of A ball.

Traded Players
Not every player provides value for the drafted team by making it to the big leagues on that team.  Other players provide value by being traded for needed components.  This may have been where this draft provided what little value it has provided.  Here are the players and the drafts they were involved in.

#10 round pick - Matt Cusick was traded along with cash for LaTroy Hawkins in 2008.  Hawkins finished strong for the 2008 Astros.  He amassed a 0.43 ERA in 21 innings.  He then re-signed for 3.5 million in 2009 where he pitched in 65 games (63 1/3 IP) and earned a 2.13 ERA and 11 saves.

#11 round pick - Robert Bono was traded along with Luis Bryan and a PTBN (Jorge Jiminez - a rule 5 draft pick) to the Marlins for reliever Matt Lindstrom.  Lindstrom pitched in 58 games in 2010 for the Astros. His ERA was 4.39 and he earned 23 saves.  He was traded to Colorado in the off season of 2010 for Jonnathon Aristil and Wes Musik.

#36 round pick - Albert Cartwright was traded to the Phillies for Sergio Escalona in January of 2011.  Escalona pitched in 49 games (27 2/3 IP) for the Astros in 2011 with an ERA of 2.93. He will miss 2012 with Tommy John surgery.