That’s right, boys and girls, with a loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night, the Houston Astros have clinched the number one pick in the 2013 MLB First Year Player Draft for the second straight year. Once again, the focus of this club is rebuilding and replenishing the farm system to build a winning club for the future….so this should help.

In the meantime, those of us following the big club are learning to follow the minors to see what sort of talent we’re likely to see in the coming years.

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

It’s a Monday morning and I’ve spent the bulk of it on a conference call for work where I’ve heard very little of anything that was said. Why? Well, it’s Draft Day. From the moment it became apparent last season that the Houston Astros would finish dead last, I have been waiting for this day. The Houston Astros are on the clock. This afternoon with all of the baseball world watching and waiting with bated breath, my favorite ball club will choose the very first player of the 2012 First Year Player Draft. Sigh. This makes me happy…and nervous.

Having the first pick of the draft is exciting. The Astros get to take whomever their hearts desire. But I think the excitement sometimes overshadows the scary parts of the draft. I always say when you are talking about “prospects” whether it’s in a draft or a trade it’s like taking a little trip to Vegas…you’re betting the odds. No one has any clue which of these expected top five guys is going to be a superstar major league ball player…not for certain. But there are the odds.

So this afternoon Jeff Luhnow and company will play the odds.

What keeps me calm, cool and collected is the fact that I think the Astros have an awful lot of smart baseball brains in the war room. Last Friday as the Astros hosted their first “Blogger Night” at MMP during the Reds game, I got the chance, along with about 7 other  bloggers, to spend some time chatting with Mr. Luhnow.

We, of course, asked all of the questions that he can’t answer. I can tell you this…they likely don’t know for certain right now at 9:15am central time who they are picking today at 6:00pm. Why? Well, because Luhnow’s surrounded himself with all of those smart baseball guys. He doesn’t have a bunch of “yes-men” who just say what he wants to hear. He’s got a room full of guys with impassioned arguments for why “their guy” should be “the guy.”  Luhnow indicated he’s not shared his opinions so he doesn’t impact what the other guys say to him. Smart.

That approach doesn’t make the job of the General Manager easy, but I would guess it’s going to result in the Houston Astros playing the odds pretty damn well today.

Regardless of which guy is drafted number one overall in this year’s draft, the Houston Astros have plenty of picks and we all know that superstars don’t just come out of the first round. After all, J.D. Martinez was drafted in the 20th round…not too shabby.

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

This morning someone asked me, “Can the Astros be fixed?” It’s a good question. The club is going on a handful of years of less than stellar performance, so it stands to reason that some repairs and renovations are needed and I don’t think that’s a surprise to anyone. But can it be done? I think it can. Will it happen soon? I don’t think so.

Why do I think the Astros can be fixed? There are several reasons.

#1 -The farm system has been struggling in recent years and although it’s not in tip-top shape as of right now, there are indicators that things are moving in the right direction. If you look just at AAA OKC, you’ll find a few pretty decent players. Jordon Lyles is the guy that’s gotten the most press and he definitely has big league potential. There’s one heck of an arm on the RHP and he’s been performing rather well in OKC (with the exception of yesterday’s rather rocky start). As April ended he was 1-2 with a 3.76 ERA with 19 Ks and 6 BBs in five starts. He threw 13 consecutive scoreless in innings in just two of those starts and he leads the club in innings pitched. Then there’s Koby Clemens. Koby’s .284 BA, 5 2B, 5 HR, 18 RBI in 20 games in April are nothing to sneeze at. He leads the Redhawks in homeruns and RBIs while playing mostly at 1B this season. Then there’s Carlos Corporan who has managed to throw out 7 of 12 attempted basestealers and has only had 1 error in 17 games that he’s caught this year. So there’s some talent up the road in Oklahoma. And if you know anything about minor league ball it’s that talent in the farm system is imperative if you want your big league club to improve. So although there needs to be more money siphoned into the draft budget and it still needs building, the farm system is improving. This is a great indicator that the Astros can and will improve with time.

#2 – Brad Mills and Ed Wade are not afraid of making changes and making them quickly. We’ve seen it all season as he keeps tweaking the lineup, the starting rotation and the bullpen. For example, Angel Sanchez is still getting playing time even with the return of Clint Barmes because Sanchez earned it while Barmes was on the DL. Also, despite Mills’ hopes that Nelson Figueroa would improve on last year’s reliever stats when moved to the starting rotation, he didn’t and Mills didn’t hesitate to move him back to the bullpen. After a couple of poor showings as relief, the team designated Figgy for assignment yesterday and is bringing up Sergio Escalona to fill his void. Escalona will join Abad as the only other lefty in the bullpen. The bullpen will, I’m certain, see more changes in the near future as it’s been a major downfall in recent weeks. At least 8 games have been lost specifically because of the failed efforts of relief and closing pitchers. This is an area that needs major renovation and fortunately is an area that is relatively easy to change on the fly during the regular season, so there’s potential improvement that can come from the bullpen.

#3 – Completion of the sale of the team is reportedly imminent. According to KTRK, the ABC Houston affiliate, all that’s left for Drayton McLane and Jim Crane to do in order to finalize a deal that will result in the Astros selling for an estimated $680 million is to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. Bear in mind that even when that part’s over, the MLB owners will have to approve Crane, and the word on the street is that it won’t necessarily be smooth sailing. We can anticipate a couple more months with McLane at the helm. But, a sale is still on the horizon. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – with a new owner will probably come big changes. Will we see those this season? It’s not likely as I expect he’ll get some input from Ed Wade as far as any acquisitions Wade’s wanted but hasn’t had budget approval for, so we’ll likely see a small amount of movement in the 2011 season, but I think if Crane’s in place before the draft we could see aggressive spends in that department. It won’t result in overnight wins, but will effect the longterm health of the club.

So be patient Astros fans. The team will get there. It won’t be this season and it may not be next season either, but there’s change a-coming. The Astros can, and hopefully will be fixed.

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the Senior Houston Astros Reporter for Aerys Sports. You can read her Astros blog at www.talesfromthejuicebox.com, email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her on twitter @agirlinthesouth.