Astros First-Round Pick Korey Lee Was a Massive Reach Per Baseball America

The Houston Astros, baseball's analytics giant, turned plenty of heads with their first-round pick in the 2019 MLB draft.

According to Baseball America, Houston's pick, Korey Lee, was a massive reach. The California catcher was ranked 173rd overall yet was selected 32nd.

Yes, we ranked Korey Lee 173....we did hear some late helium....we may have underranked him. We talked about pushing him up in the rankings and decided to stick with the rankings....blame me on that one.
— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) June 4, 2019

JJ Cooper, the executive editor of Baseball America, admitted that they might have undersold him a tad in the days leading up to the draft, but a 141 spot discrepancy just feels far too large to comprehend.

Lee was teammates with third-overall pick Andrew Vaughn, who won the 2018 Golden Spikes Award. If anything, it's possible that batting behind him might have actually inflated his draft stock.

Arm strength and power are Lee's two strengths. The rest of his tools were graded below-average by most analysts.

Had heard some serious buzz about Korey Lee the past few days. I had a coach who faced him recently tell me everyone was way too low on him. Loved him. https://t.co/Ho5BFFa7Lw
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) June 4, 2019

It's true that some scouts believed he was being undersold ahead of the draft, but for Lee to consistently get ranked as a third-round prospect only to go in the first is mind-boggling.

Perhaps the Astros saw something in him that nobody else did, but as of right now, the pick is a massive stretch.