BALTIMORE — The 2012 draft could end up a deciding force in this Astros’ season, with Carlos Correa due up shortly and Lance McCullers and Preston Tucker already here. Rio Ruiz, another high-round pick, was part of the package that brought in Evan Gattis.
The talent in that draft class was better than this year’s, although this year’s is better than 2013’s, a year whose fruits haven’t been nearly as encouraging for the Astros with Mark Appel struggling.
But part of what made the ’12 draft special beyond the pool of talent was the Astros’ ability to spread out the money allotted to them in their signing-bonus pool.