Most of the headliners in the Astros' farm system from a year ago have moved on. Carlos Correa and Lance McCullers have graduated to the big leagues, while Mark Appel, Domingo Santana, Vincent Velasquez, Brett Phillips and Josh Hader departed via trades.
Yet there's a lot more talent where that came from, as evidenced by the Astros coming in at No. 10 on MLBPipeline.com's rankings of the Top 10 farm systems in baseball. Houston spent a record $19,103,000 on Draft bonuses in 2015, paying big money for Top 100 Prospects in shortstop Alex Bregman ($5.9 million) and outfielders Kyle Tucker ($4 million) and Daz Cameron ($4 million). A.J. Reed suddenly became the best first-base prospect in baseball, and right-hander Francis Martes also took a huge step forward.
• Astros' 2016 Top 30 Prospects list
All three of the Astros' top pitching prospects (Martes, David Paulino, Joe Musgrove) were acquired as minor pieces in larger trades and have blossomed into viable starters. Houston has more depth with position players, who claim 12 of the first 17 spots on MLBPipeline.com's Astros Top 30 Prospects list.
Team Top 30 Prospects lists
Biggest jump/fall
Here are the players whose ranks changed the most from the 2015 preseason list to the 2016 preseason list.
Jump: Paulino, RHP (2015: NR | 2016: 7)
Fall: Teoscar Hernandez, OF (2015: 8 | 2016: 26)
Best tools
Players are graded on a 20-80 scouting scale for future tools -- 20-30 is well below average, 40 is below average, 50 is average, 60 is above average and 70-80 is well above average.
Top 10 Farm Systems
Hit: Bregman (60)
Power: Reed (65)
Run: Derek Fisher (65)
Arm: Alfredo Gonzalez (65)
Defense: Cameron (60)
Fastball: Jandel Gustave (80)
Curveball: Martes (60)
Slider: Riley Ferrell (60)
Changeup: Chris Devenski (60)
Control: Musgrove (70)
How they were built
Draft: 14
International: 8
Trade: 8
Breakdown by ETA
2016: 12
2017: 9
2018: 1
2019: 7
2020: 1
Breakdown by position
C: 1
1B: 1
2B: 1
3B: 4
SS: 3
OF: 7
RHP: 12
LHP: 1