Draft Night at Minute Maid Park

I am an extremely lucky person. The owner of my company really loves baseball. Long before I started writing this blog, he would come to me to find out the latest on all things Astro, major and minor. Naturally, I handle the company season tickets for him which he is generous enough to dole out to anyone in our company who wants them. And he's generous enough to allow me, as his representative, to take advantage of any and all season ticket holder perks that come our way from photo day with the players to batting practice viewings to a Meet and Greet with the Powers that Be to what is hopefully a once in a lifetime opportunity to be in the building for the 1.1 draft pick. (Another draft party would be great ... just not another 1.1 pick!)

That is how I came to be on hand at Minute Maid Park for Monday night's season ticket holder draft party. Naturally, my guest had to be friend and fellow Astros blogger @AGirlintheSouth aka Terri.

We were greeted with Root Root Root T-shirts that commemorated the occasion on the back and then ushered up to the club level where food and drink awaited us. Next up was a drawing in which one lucky attendee was given the opportunity to actually sit in the draft room. Curse the luck, neither of us won. Next up, Milo Hamilton talked with Jason Castro and Brian Bogusevic about their experiences as first round picks and opened up the floor to questions.

That was all well and good, but then it was time for the main event. About half of the gathered throng, including Terri and I, went out to watch the pick on Minute Maid Park's jumbo screen while the saner half stayed inside in the air-conditioning to watch on monitors. After what seemed to be an interminable wait, that commissioner fellow that I don't particularly care for came to the podium and said those words we'd been waiting to hear, "With the first selection of the 2012 First Year Player's Draft, the Houston Astros select Carlos Correa."

I had recorded the moment and after the initial cheer from the crowd, all you hear is me saying "Wow" about 15 times and Terri saying, "Shock and Awe." Of the two players most discussed, both of us were leery of Mark Appel and preferred Byron Buxton. Neither of us expected Carlos Correa, but we were both quite pleased with the selection. I wasn't terribly surprised, though, that Jeff Luhnow bucked conventional wisdom with the pick.

Eventually, Jeff Luhnow came out to address the gathering. His remarks on Carlos Correa can be found here. He went on to talk about his front office team and the rest of the draft picks to come, "I do think our staff has done a tremendous job of scouting players. We're very organized in there. We know who we want. We've got the board lined up properly and, if things fall our way, we could have one of the best drafts in the history of this organization."

Luhnow took a couple of questions and then Larry Pardo, the area scout who had scouted Correa spoke briefly. While he was speaking, we spotted Brad Mills lingering in the background, and Terri got his take on the Correa pick. As things were winding down at the podium, another front office type (I didn't catch his name) wrapped things up. In conclusion, he used a phrase that has become a go to hashtag on twitter for those of us who believe in Jeff Luhnow's ability to turn this club around, "In Luhnow we trust." Well, I certainly do.

Now, if you'll excuse me, the boss wants me to spend the day alerting him as to each Astros draft pick and forwarding him scouting reports. I'm not only allowed to follow the draft at work today, I'm encouraged to. As I said, I am an extremely lucky person.