The period which crippled the Astros

The current state of the Astros is attributable to years of neglect of the farm system. In this context "neglect" includes all of these factors: a lack of picks due to free agent signings, poor player selections and an inability to sign drafted players. And the single most crippling period occurred from the off-season of 2006 through the 2007 draft. The confluence of events which occurred during that period of approximately nine months set the franchise back for, perhaps, a decade. All the blame does not lie with one person alone. Then general manager Tim Purpura certainly did his part but Drayton McLane, too, kept clinging to the idea of contending for a World Series at the expense of an influx of young talent. After years of success under McLane, the franchise took a huge step back during that particular period. While the disaster that was the 2007 draft goes down as perhaps the worst in team history, the trouble actually began in the winter of 2006. When the Astros signed free agents Carlos Lee and Woody Williams during that off-season, the club lost its first two picks. While the Lee signing may have been defendable at the time since the lineup was desperate for offense, there was no excuse for giving Williams 12.5 million for two years in addition to forfeiting a second round selection. To this point, the Astros had forfeited two draft selections. During the same off-season, the Astros declined to offer arbitration to Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Aubrey Huff among others. Depending on the version of the story you choose to believe perhaps some of the blame should lie with Clemens and Pettitte. Perhaps not. Regardless of the politics, the net result was more selections forfeited. Not offering arbitration meant no sandwich picks as compensation since Clemens, Pettitte and Huff all signed with other teams. Three more picks trashed, bringing the total to five. Fast forward to June of 2007. The Astros sat and watched the first two rounds of the draft with no selections. In the third round, they took high school shortstop Derek Dietrich. They couldn't sign Dietrich and he ended up at Georgia tech. (We'll get you up to date on Dietrich and the other picks shortly). Dietrich had suffered an injury during negotiations so signing him became a complicated matter. But the Astros also couldn't get their fourth round pick, OFP Brett Eibner of The Woodlands, under contract and he, too, ended up playing college ball. Two more picks with zero result, bringing the total to seven. Throw in the inability to sign eighth round selection Chad Bettis, a high school pitcher, and that makes a total of eight picks the Astros essentially forfeited in 2007. Unless you hit a home run with other selections in the draft, it takes a long, long time to recover from such a catastrophe. As for what Dietrich, Eibner and Bettis are doing today: Dietrich, 21 years-old, SS - Class A Bowling Green Hot Rids (Rays) - G 41 BA .289 HR 7 RBI 31 OBP .335 Eibner, 23 years-old, CF - Class A Kane County Cougars (Royals) - Out since start of season with thumb injury Bettis, 22 years-old, P - Class Modesto Nuts (Rockies) - 3-2, 4.19 ERA Bettis was 6-1 with a 1.07 ERA in 2010-his first year of pro ball