the part i don't understand with the a's is their willingness to pay that amount of money to a prospect who it looks like won't play a legit game of baseball until next spring.
he can go take all the swings he wants in cages etc....but if he is working out with ou this summer that means he isn't getting all those reps with wood bats against a consistently higher level of pitching than he has seen to this point in his career.
maybe he is that good and maybe he is that talented, but he is also 21 years of age and yet to put in a full year's work into baseball. the one thing i continually hear from the astros' young players is the working on their routine, honing the process, recognizing the mental grind of the long season and having to adjust to the advanced scouting etc.......
bregman is 24 and it took him roughly 13 months to go from being drafted to move their the astros system to the big club in 2016. guy works his ass off, knows the strike zone, has great awareness of the game, and goodness knows how many swings between high school, all those games in college, summer league, and once he got drafted
they aren't the same types of player, but there was never a doubt bregman was dedicated to playing baseball and in all honesty, murray who is the 9th pick over all and turns 21 in august has never dedicated himself to baseball for one season.