The complainers from Clutchfans are right on the Hinch issue, and we ALL know he will be back, why???? Hinch was not signed to be playoff contenders, he was signed to develop young talent and LEARN to become winners. If instead of Hinch we had another manager with experience is those kind of games we would be playing Toronto and not KC. Are we wrong about Hinch? No. Are we saying he is not coming back? No, we are not saying that either, but expectations are higher now, so he better do a BETTER job next year because we expect this team to be BETTER and make a run in the playoffs. If we don't because the MANAGER CONTINUES TO MAKE MISTAKES, then he did NOT learn the lesson, and a change must be done.
Priority List: 1. Bullpen 2. Starting Pitcher 3. DH I think we can do with what we have at 1b and 3b until Moran and Reed are ready. We already have the starting pitcher, but bringing Kazmir can ONLY help. I also believe that we have the power arms in the bullpen for next year, VV and Feliz. There are few lefties in FA so thats why i say is a MUST to re sign Sipp. If we develop VV as a closer, a guy that can ALSO get lefties out, then we have a great setup man in Gregerson, a guy that could be great in the 7th Feliz with Neshek and Harris rounding the 6th or 7th when needed. Sipp pitching from 6 to 8 and long man Fields. (2 to 3 innings) Long reliever Feldman unless traded. Bullpend: VV Gregerson Feliz Harris Neshek Sipp Fields Feldman If VV and Feliz can do the job, this would be a great bullpen. Rotation: 1. K 2. McCullers (this guy show all year long he was a good number 2) 3. Kazmir (wow, this guy as number 3, what a rotation) 4. McHugh 5. Fiers This rotation is second to none. With this pitching staff, we only need to improve on our DH spot. Gattis was one of worse DH in the majors. Why did we do so good vs the NL? Because we did not really lose much when we did not play with our DH. Actually, if there was no DH in the AL we would had done even better this year (win/loss record). Can we fill stat spot within? Maybe with Singleton and Tucker. Is Carter coming back? Lets say we have those 5 and 8 in our pitching staff, that means 12 spots. 1. Castro 2. Conger 3. Carter 4. Altuve 5. Correa 6. Lowrie (that 3 year contract really hurts us) 7. Valbuena 8. Marwin Gonzalez 9. Gomez 10. Marisnick 11. Springer 12. Gattis? Where is Tucker? Where is Singleton? The first player we must try to deal, and is not going to be easy is Lowrie. What he does Marwin is better and cheaper. Gattis is cheap, maybe we should try and trade him. Carter? This player(s)i believe are not sure to be back: Carter Players that should NOT be back is Lowrie and Gattis You have 3 spots open there Singleton one last chance to be our 1b/DH Tucker at LF/DH And that last spot between Gattis, Carter or Lowrie
Not true, but let's go with this theory... Then in this scenario, the young talent may not have developed, they wouldn't have learned to be winners, and they wouldn't even be in the playoffs.
Nooooooo, remember, expectations for this year was .500, that for me is winning after so many year of losing so much. Second, to get to .500 you need to work with young players and develop them, THAT HAPPENED this year. Now, we were expected to be real good in 2017, so this year, we showed we were 2 years ahead of the curve. Hinch has never managed a winning ball club, this was all NEW to him, the playoff run, the playoff games and some times he made wrong choices and moves. Now, we hope he LEARNED from it. Was he able to develop young players? Yes. Did he had a winning record? yes. Was this team good enough to get to the WS? I believe that we did but thats where i have to disagree with some and blame part of it with the manager. Remember, this is not the same team we started the year. Remember when this was our rotation? K, McHugh, Feldman, Wojo and Roberto Hernandez, ouch We ended with this: K, McCullers, Kazmir, McHugh and Fiers, wow Now, i do believe Hinch is a smart guy and will learn form mistakes, lets hope so for the good of the team, if not, then we need to replace him.
Remember when a rotation of Keuchel, McHugh, Wojo, Feldman, and Hernandez went 15-1 (including a 10 game winning streak) that put us in 1st place for what ended up being a large majority of the season? I wonder what the pen was like then and if you were whining about Hinch's use of it? Nope.
So in other words, without him, we likely don't make the playoffs. In other words, your claim that if we had another manager, we're playing TOR doesn't hold up.
One outstanding pitcher in Keuchel. One up and coming pitcher who needs to prove himself over more than half a season in McCullers, one pitcher who has been mediocre the second half of the season over the last 3 years in Kazmir, a very solid pitcher who has done a lot of winning over the last season and a half in McHugh and a solid starter in Fiers. Solid rotation - yes. Second to none - really? Overall, better than the Nationals? Dodgers? Mets? Rangers (especially with a healthy Darvish)?
I still don't know why you would put a free agent, high dollar, tired arm like Kazmir ahead of Collin McHugh who has won more games in mlb than any other pitcher over the last season and a half.
While I would agree it isn't second to none, I do think it is better than the Rangers. Darvish is coming back from surgery, which is never a guarantee. Hamels posted a 3.65 ERA, hardly dominant. His FIP over the last 2 years is only slightly better than McHugh, and most of that time was in the NL. McCullers FIP would have been the best on the Rangers, and Fiers has been just as good a starter as Gallardo over the last 4 years.
REPORT: ZACK GREINKE TO OPT OUT The Dodger starter plans to opt out of his deal, according to CBS Sports. His he has three years and $71M remaining on his contract. In free agency, Greinke, who turns 32 next week, could command a multiyear deal worth upwards of $30M a year.
My point (which I didn't make very well), was that even the Rangers rotation is comparable with a healthy Darvish (as well as everyone healthy for an entire season). I didn't even mention the Cardinals and a couple of others....
If McCullers can put together a full season of what he did, and McHugh can avoid that early season slump he had, that top 3 is pretty dynamite. It can be upgraded, but I think we enter next season with a top 10 rotation, you are making it seem like we still need to add multiple starters.
To piggy back on that, the Astros had the 2nd best starters ERA in the AL last season. Next season sub par pitchers like Fausto won't be making starts, so we should be even better.
I think if we can bolster our relief staff, our starters if healthy, are good enough to contend. If we can become the guys that take games late due to dependable late inning pitching, then that will be huge. What is our stat on being ahead when our starter is pulled? Compared to our overall record?
I was talking AL. Now, RAngers will have a healthy Darvish (and that is not a sure thing how long it will take for him to be fully healthy) but they will lose Gallardo. Right now their rotation is: 1. Darvish (healthy?) 2. Hamels 3. Holland 4. Lewis 5. Perez K vs Darvish? I go with K Hamels vs McCullers, i go with Hamels Kazmir vs Holland, i go with Kazmir McHugh vs Lewis i go with McHugh Fiers vs Perez, i go with Perez
One reason i don't like to compare staffs in the NL and AL is the DH. Is not the same to face 8 hitters and 1 pitcher than 9 hitters in each start.
Has anyone watched baseball since the Astros collapse? I know I haven't and probably won't. See yall in the Spring.
Dammit...this thread started out with some potential. Now it's cluttered with a lot of the same effing BS that clogged up way too many threads throughout the season. Geezus.
Ideal Offseason The way I see it, our biggest weaknesses are: 1. Bullpen 2. Catcher 3. Third Base 4. First Base 5. Starting Pitcher (Not really a weakness but always good to improve) My Ideal Offseason Plan: 1. Decline arbitration on Castro, Valbuena, and Carter. None of them are major league quality hitters plain and simple. Homers only get you so far. 2. Resign Rasmus and Sipp. Both were big parts of our success this year and better options aren't really available for very cheap. 3. Sign Matt Weiters and David Price. It's time for Crane to open the checkbook and these two players would really round out the team. 4. Trade Lowrie+Prospects (VV, Feliz, etc.) for Todd Frazier and Aroldis Chapman. This trade is realistic with the Reds most likely rebuilding and would elevate this team to favorites in the AL. 5. Last but not least, promote Reed to be our everyday first baseman. He can hit for power and average and I'm confident he will be a beast by the time the postseason rolls around. 2016 Roster: c-weiters 1b-reed 2b-altuve 3b-frazier ss-correa lf-rasmus cf-gomez rf-springer dh-gattis bench-conger,gonzalez,marisnick,tucker sp-fiers,keuchel,mccullers,mchugh,price bp-chapman,feldman,fields,gregerson,harris,neshek,sipp