Houston Astros Bregman belts first home run
By Wayne Cavadi
Alex Bregman has had quite the month. The Houston Astros 2015 first round draft pick — taken No. 2 overall — finished up a stellar career at LSU, signed his first professional contract and skipped Rookie ball altogether and headed to the Class-A Quad City River Bandits.
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Bregman, the 21-year old shortstop, was a curious first round pick for the Houston Astros. There wasn’t much doubt that he would succeed offensively, and this past season at LSU, he made huge strides defensively to show that he could in fact stick as a Major League shortstop.
The curious part comes into play when you look at what Carlos Correa has been doing since being called up to Houston. Correa, who is six months younger than Bregman, has been nothing short of sensational. His middle infield counterpart Jose Altuve is widely considered the best second baseman in the game, and he too, is still very young, at only 25.
Where does Bregman fit into the future of the Houston Astros? I still hold firm that I believe Dillon Tate was the better pick for the Astros at number two, but nothing can change that now. All that Bregman can do is play baseball and prove to everyone that he was the right pick. And so far, he has done that.
Bregman got a late jump on the season because his LSU Tigers were still attempting to get to the finals of the College World Series. When the Tigers were bumped by TCU, it ended a fantastic collegiate career. Bregman, who was the 2013 Freshman of the Year, batted .323 on the 2015 season with LSU, belting nine home runs and 22 doubles.
The 6 foot, right handed hitter signed last Thursday with a signing bonus of nearly $6-million, which was a discount of his expected slot’s value. Bregman got right to work. On Friday he got his first professional hit, on Saturday he picked up his first professional RBI, and on Sunday, he blasted his first professional home run. Not too shabby for your first weekend in Minor League Baseball.
"“It felt great to get that first home run under my belt,” Bregman told MiLB.com. “I saw three cutters in a row and then I got a fastball up in the zone that I was on time to hit it to left. I was just happy I could help the team get a win.”More from Call to the PenPhiladelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis CardinalsPhiladelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount RushmoreBoston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ commentAnalyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals"
While the future is bright for Bregman, he was widely considered the safest of the Big Three shortstops on the board. That would lead one to believe that the team that took Bregman would fast track him to the Major Leagues. The Astros crowded infield leaves a few question marks.
“[Correa] is a real good player and I enjoy watching him play,” Bregman said on MiLB.com, “but personally, I’m just more focused on myself working hard and getting better as a baseball player. I’m not really looking that far into the future. I’m looking forward to gaining knowledge about how to be a pro and act like a pro, learning from the coaches and teammates I have and just getting better as a player every day.”