in the off-season Whitley Tucker Alvarez Martin And possibly JB as top 100 mlb prospects. Insane, for a team possibly coming off a back to back championship.
You remember correctly, though I never saw anything about the CC deal getting finalized, so perhaps it just fell apart. This page has us listed as the owners. http://minorleaguesource.com/pdc.html https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ba.../2018-minor-league-affiliation-chart/?amphtml
And the minor league regular season has come to an end. With Buies Creek's win tonight, all 4 full season teams reached 80+ wins. On to the playoffs, missing only the GCL and the DSL.
19Ks for Fresno tonight. Final day HRs by Alvarez, Matejevic, Beer, and Rojas amonst others. Ernesto Jaquez, who has pitched so masterfully this year, laid an egg on the last day, .1IP, 9R.
I wonder what type of 'stuff' Hartman has. I hope that is the reason for his success, and that it wasn't just an aberration.
I really want to see him start in AAA next year. I was hoping he'd get promoted this year, but that ship has sailed. Glad to see he's having success, he, Valdez, and Perez are all legit LHSP prospects, an area where our farm is still pretty thin.
We have a bunch of pitchers that should be ready for AA/AAA next year and will be knocking on the door in 2019/2020 Projected 2019 Starting Level Forrest Whitley (AA) JB Bukauskas (AA) Corbin Martin (AAA) Tyler Ivey (AA) Peter Solomon (A+, maybe AA. Felt like he should have been promoted to A+ earlier than he was) Brandon Bielak (AA, maybe AAA) Ryan Hartman (AAA) And this doesn't even include Josh James, Framber, or Cionel. Looks like their plan for Cionel is the bullpen, wish he could have gotten a start in the bigs this year. Outside of Hartman, all these guys have 55+ fastballs and breaking balls. Whitley, Martin, and Bielak all have game ready changeups. Not much word on Hartman, but I've read he's 87-92mph and his changeup is his out pitch. Still working on the curve. I'm hoping we can resign Cole, I bet they let DK walk and I'm not sure if we can commit long term money to 35 year old JV. LMJ likely moves to the pen given his history of injuries. 2020 Rotation 1. Cole 2. Whitley 3. Bukauskas 4. Martin 5. Valdez/James (James could be a monster in the pen)
Couple comments: I just don’t see Luhnow giving $150M+ to a pitcher; too much injury risk and Houston has been too good a developing pitchers on the farm. Cole, Verlander, Keuchel, and McCullers will all be elsewhere when they reach free agency. I agree the upper minors and big league teams will be absolutely stacked with pitching next season; projected opening day slotting: MLB rotation: Verlander, Cole, McCullers, Morton*, F Valdez** MLB Bullpen: Peacock, C Perez**, Devenski, McHugh, Smith, Pressly, Rondon, Osuna Traded: Harris *I expect them to resign Morton, but this could be another outside acquisition instead. **There will be spring competition amongst all the upper minors arms for the last rotation and last bullpen spots. AAA rotation: James, Rodgers, Armenteros, Thornton, Dykxhoorn AAA bullpen: Bostick, Hartman, Ramsey, McCurry, Garza, Deetz, Guduan, R Ferrell DL/Released: Martes, Gustave, Emanuel, Sneed, Thompson AA rotation: Whitley, C Martin, Bukauskas, Adcock, Bailey, Bielak, Ivey, J Hernandez AA bullpen: Scheetz, Pinales, Blanco, C Sierra, J Ferrell DL/Released: Heredia, N Hernandez, Quiala, Winkelman
Baseball's marketplace has changed so much we may not have to worry about contracts like that very often. Cole is the only one of that group I see getting an offer of any decent size. Verlander is going to be 37 and that probably means a 2 year deal, with 3 max. Keuchel I see getting 3-4 years, topping out at around $80-85M. LMJ won't hit FA until the next labor deal, so who knows there. Cole, assuming he has a good walk year is going to command a minimum of 5 years and big dollars. The big factor is he is only going to be 29, and when you hit FA in your 20s, you still get paid.
Sadly, I think you are correct. Verlander and Morton might sign a 2 year deal, but the market likely will bear more.
Rotation Dallas K is gone for sure. I cannot see the Astros resigning Cole to a large contract unless he wins the Cy Young next year. Cole is young enough to get a team to over spend and over extend him, and that team won't be the Astros unless our internal pitching options just all collapse. I think that the Astros will resign Verlander to a 1-2 year extension if he is doing well and we are winning. I think we will try to sign Morton to a 1 or 2 year extension but we bow out if the bidding gets insane or Morton is true to his word that he is done pitching. Bullpen The Astros are very deep in the pen and in the upper minors for possible options to plug into the pen. Gone: Sipp and Harris. I could see the Astros try to deal Joe Smith and possibly McHugh this off season. Joe Smith has rebounded well enough to likely be movable this winter. He makes 8 million next year and the Astros could use the money for a bat or to resign Morton. There are certainly lots of internal options for the Astros within the organization. McHugh has played a big part of the Astros bullpen, but is arbitration eligible and may bring the Astros a player they value. The Astros have 5-6 high leverage arms all close to being ready or already developed to plug into the pen. Another guy that is a dark horse to get moved is Devenski. Line up I think Gattis is gone. He no longer plays the field and Tyler White offers more positonal value and a higher ceiling bat at a fraction of the cost. Gurriel is likely kept, with the belief that his power will likely return after a whole year to rest his wrist. The surgery he had historically saps a players power for a solid season. I think Marwin is gone as well. The Astros could look at someone like Dietrich or Iglesias from outside the organization or keep an extra infielder and use Kemp in the outfield to mix it up. Marisnick is back most likely. McCann is gone unless he takes a small deal. Maldonado will be interesting. I think they want him back at a 5-7 million dollar deal if they can add a bat somewhere in the line up or are confident enough that White will produce at a high clip and that Tucker is ready to be an above average regular. The Astros could use another thumper in their line up to have a top of the league type offense, but the problem is that they only have so many spots to plug them in at. The most logical spot is catcher, but the real cost for Realmutto may be too high.
If the FO really plans on letting all of the elite pitching go then I don't see how this team can compete past 2019, we already lead the league in attendance so we should be busting out the big bucks to keep guys like Cole if they keep this torrid pace up into FA. I agree we should let Keuchel go tho, while his FIP actually resembles his ERA this year, that is an aberration and not the norm. After giving up Perez in the Verlander trade and seeing Martez go down with TJS, only Whitley stands out as an elite pitching prospect, meaning that we can only really afford to let one of our top 3 pitchers go, and that assumes Whitley pans out as an elite pitcher. I would keep around Morton tho unless he retires (not a very financially sound decision after his performance the last two years).
There are more options than resign Keuchel/Morton/Cole/Verlander or fill spots with prospects. I suspect the Astros will acquire at least one starter from outside the organization this offseason.
At the all-star break last season we were on our way to a WS title without Verlander or Cole and had just overpaid some nobody in Charlie Morton. A shrewd organization can find pitching without paying huge money for it.
