Astros, Bucs and Tribe add pieces in draft

Associated Press

SEACAUCUS, N.J.

The Houston Astros selected 17-year-old shortstop Carlos Correa with the No. 1 pick in the baseball draft Monday night, making him the highest selection ever to come from Puerto Rico.

Correa has an incredibly strong arm and terrific instincts defensively, and the Astros might have found their shortstop of the future. He bested catcher Ramon Castro, who went No. 17 to Houston in 1994, as the highest-drafted Puerto Rican player.

“This means a lot,” said Correa, in attendance at the draft site at MLB Network studios. “We’ve got a lot of good players there.”

It was the first time Houston had the top pick in the draft since 1992, when the Astros selected Phil Nevin — passing on a young shortstop named Derek Jeter, who went five spots later to the Yankees.

Many mock draft lists predicted the Astros would select Stanford right-hander Mark Appel, but instead Houston made a somewhat surprising selection — although Correa was considered one of the top five players available.

Pittsburgh, which selected UCLA righty Gerrit Cole with the top pick last year, went after pitching again while taking Appel at No. 8. The ace of Stanford’s staff has a mid-90s fastball and is 10-1 with a 2.27 ERA and 127 strikeouts in 119 innings for the Cardinal. In his last start before the draft, he avenged his only loss of the season by beating Fresno State in the NCAA tournament, fanning 11 in a dominant four-hitter.

The Indians picked up the versatile Tyler Naquin of Texas A&M at No. 15. He projects to play every outfield position.

This past season, when the Aggies went 43-18, Naquin was named the team’s Most Valuable Player for the second year in a row. He was also named a third-team All-American by Collegiate Baseball. In 61 games for Texas A&M this season, Naquin hit .380 (92-for-242) with three home runs, 18 doubles, six triples and 49 RBIs. He drew 25 walks and stole 21 bases in 26 attempts, adding a .458 on-base percentage and a .541 slugging percentage.