Minor League Baseball Caps Clearance

Astros sign 35 draft picks from 2011 class

35 draftees signed

Baseball talent evaluators deemed the 2011 draft to be laden with pitching, so the Astros drafted a position player first.

Then the Astros went for pitching. The draft-deadline signings of center fielder George Springer and pitcher Jack Armstrong left the Astros with an incoming 2011 class of 35. The breakdown: 16 pitchers (11 righthanders), eight outfielders, four first basemen, two shortstops, two second basemen, two catchers, one third baseman.

Springer received the second-highest signing bonus in franchise history ($2.525 million, or $75,000 less than 2010 international signee Arial Ovando). Armstrong received a $750,000 signing bonus despite having pitched only 17 innings this season as a junior at Vanderbilt because of back injuries.

“It all starts with the first guy you take,” Astros scouting director Bobby Heck said. “To wrap around him — he has a chance to be an offensive impact player — we went pitching-intensive.

“The way it played out with Jack Armstrong, he’s a guy who has a chance to impact either your rotation or the back of the bullpen,” Heck said. “There are a lot of guys we project as starters. Some of those guys will fall off the starter truck and wind up in the bullpen, but we felt good about hitting on the profile we wanted to hit on.”

Heck said Armstrong won’t pitch in the minor leagues this summer. The fall instructional league might be the next step for him.

The Astros plan to bring Springer for a visit to Minute Maid Park on Friday. The tentative plan is for Springer to get acclimated for a spell with either the Gulf Coast League or Greenville affiliates and then have him finish with the short-season Tri-City club.

Cheaper year

Though George Springer received the highest bonus of any June pick in Astros history, the draft was less costly than in 2010. According to the Baseball America draft data base, the Astros paid $4.7 million in bonuses to the 10 players they signed in the first 10 rounds. The Astros paid $6.35 million — including $4.39 for first-rounders Delino DeShields Jr., Mike Foltynewicz and Mike Kvasnicka — to the 11 players they signed in the first 10 rounds in 2010.

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