Did you know... the Astros placed 5 players on Baseball America's top 100 prospect list (including 4 in the top 50). The only team with more? The St. Louis Cardinals - and guessed who drafted everyone of them?... So our GM personally had a hand in selecting 8 of the top 100 prospects in baseball, and 6 of the top 50. It's early but that's pretty impressive.
In before the inevitable... ...Crane is a cheapskate ...Screw the AL ...Wake me when we're good again in 2049 ...are these guys major leaguers? ...name 3 players on the 2013 Astros ...we traded for who? ...will we have a .249 hitter this year? ...this team is a disgrace ...Crane is a cheapskate ...at least the new unis are cool ...I'll never go to another game ...let's get the next 5 #1 picks! ...Crane is a cheapskate Posts. Love your optimism, though!
Did you also know... the team spent $13-14MM on prospects last year and expect to spend $20MM this year...
I hear ya...I'm totally not on that bandwagon. I love the direction of the team which is long overdue. Sarcasm is difficult to convey on the interwebz. And I'll support my team no matter what division they are playing in.
Let me be pessimistic: JR Towles (53) Ezequiel Astacio (80) Taylor Buchholz (50) Jason Hirsch (42) Troy Patton (58) Chris Burke (51) Our only 2 top 100 prospects of the past decade to have real ML success are John Buck and Hunter Pence. The others have been injured or sucked. Former top 100 prospects on our team: Jason Castro (41) - Age 25 Jordan Lyles (42) - Age 22 Brett Wallace (27) - Age 26 Jonathan Villar (94) - Age 21 Erik Bedard (90) - Age 33 Jarred Cosart (50) - Age 22 Matt Dominguez (64) - Age 23 Alex White (47) - Age 24 Chris Carter (28) - Age 26 Carlos Pena (5) - Age 34 Brad Peacock (36) - Age 25 Fernando Martinez (20) - Age 24 I think the number of former top propects who are age 26 and younger are a reason for optimism.
By far the most we've spent. Lance McCullers basically got what Springer got, and more than DDJ despite being drafted way later and actually having spending limits. Even Ruiz got more than any player pre-2008 with the exception of Burke.
Irrelevant. Well, other than it's a main part of the reason we are where we are right now. But strictly looking forward, there's a lot to be optimistic about, I think.
So these guys we have now are more in the Roy Oswalt, Lance Berkman, Hunter Pence, etc. mold? At least let them be Richard Hidalgo.
damn. honestly, i was actually getting comfortable with the idea of not wasting a few hundred hours of my life watching them - good or bad. ah well. bring on comcast.
Reasons to be optimistic? 5 top 100 prospects, might add a few more with the upcoming draft and players improving. We have a great GM in Luhnow Reasons to be pessimistic? Trout Pujols Hamilton Trumbo AL DH More Rangers AL
The Angels are scary, no dobut. So i'll agree with Trout, Pujols, Hamilton. The whole AL thing doesn't scare me though. I mean honestly, Oakland was good last year but it isn't like we can look at the A's and say "dang bro, we ain't competing with those dudes". Same with Seattle. Texas has talent, but they are no where near the talent level they have been at the last several years. You don't replace Hamilton with Berkman (at this stage of his career) and not experience a downgrade. Same with losing Young. And they already let Wilson go last year. Rangers=Good, not great. This year will not likely be pretty, and that is fine. I'll take another first overall pick if that is what is in the cards. But I love the direction of this team, and in a few years when Anaheim is paying millions to players who are no longer worth their guaranteed contracts, we will be rolling in the AL West just like we did in the NL central in the 2000's
