There's gotta be a couple moves after this. I get the feeling this could spark a cascade of moves and that the final 25 man roster could see a lot of turnover. For example: adding a second tier starter, trading a catcher, trading away and signing an OF, etc..... The only positions that I think we truly need upgrades at (3B,SS) are going to be horribly expensive in FA and they may just try to upgrade everywhere else on the margins.
sorry for being an idiot, but what exactly does pitch framing mean? does that mean he places his glove in a manner to higher the percentage of a strike being called?
Yep... typically has steady hands/footwork. Not a lot of glove movement when catching the ball. Also seems to "call" a good game, which goes into studying hitters tendencies and knowing his pitchers really well. Basically, we just got the younger Brad Ausmus... which on a "good" team is a good thing.
than how is this a bad thing? I get we lost an ok prospect but its time to start building a competetive team and Ausmus was awesome. Sure, everyone including mean likes the flashy catcher who can hit defend and all the above but they are rare. Someone has to hit 8-9 and its usually the catcher. id rather my catcher be great at defense and good at calling a game and throwing out pitchers. He is still young enough to improve and if not and stays the same way oh well. Its time to start winning PRO games.
Agreed, its not. Most of the "excess" of pitching prospects we have are overrated by many here, and most will be used to obtain MLB depth like this.
Pitch framing is one specific catching skill that doesn't directly correlate to game calling or defensive prowess (CS% or passed balls %). Perhaps the Astros FO has the stats to back up pitch framing being that valuable but from my vantage point this trade smells like another acquisition based on an esoteric stat. It's reminiscent of the FO's obsession with plate discipline (to the detriment of other skills/tools) and pitching mechanics.
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I love this trade. Conger's defense speaks for itself, and he has a sweet swing. Relatively low K rate. Nice to have depth.
Not sure how to feel honestly. I've always like Nitro. He pitched great in the minors this season. Hope Conger can get enough playing time to justify this trade. I still have hopes for Singleton, so I don't want Castro to be moved to DH while Carter mans 1st.
Carlos Perez had been added to the 40-man roster last week. I hate this trade. We didn't have a need at catcher. We have a need for Major League pitching. Only way this trade makes sense is if the team trades Castro for a good return.
Conger was the Angels backup catcher. Luhnow said yesterday that Castro is the starter and that Conger will have a backup role in Houston. I do agree that the Astros will trade a 40 man catcher (Stassi, Corporan) before of the next season.
It's not "depth" until it proves itself at the major league level. We don't have a depth of pitching. And if we're going to trade away a guy who could be a starting pitcher, then I'd like to see us get more back than a catcher who might start 70 games. Can't keep trading away starting pitchers pretending as if we have Maddux/Smoltz/Glavine up here to win games. If there's another trade coming, then fine. But this trade on its face is not one I like. If we were on the other end of this deal, we'd be talking about how great it is that we gave a backup catcher for a guy with Nitro's upside.
Translating that to WAR, that should add about 1.7 WAR (assuming replacement level catcher saves about 12 runs) if he was the number 1 catcher this past year. Granted, I'm not sure that stat gives enough credit to the pitchers. A guy like Keuchel is going to give a guy like Conger more chances to steal strikes. This trade makes me think the Astros value framing close to what the pitch framing stats say. Whether they are right or not, time will tell...maybe (suspect this could be a running topic for years if he becomes Ausmus 2.0).
This trade obviously didn't happen in a vacuum, so I'll reserve judgement until the offseason moves are done. I do like that they are taking a serious interest in defense with the acquisitions of Marisnick and Conger. Found this on another board, here's Conger showing off his wheels: Spoiler
I realize he said that, but that doesn't mean that is the real plan. The Astros already had one of the better backup catchers in baseball. You don't make this trade for at best a moderate upgrade for the 48 games Corp started last year. To me this trade only makes sense if Conger is starting most of your games at catcher, which is why I think they move Castro rather than Corporan. If Luhnow doesn't move Castro, I'd guess they keep Stassi over Corp simply because he has options.
No question we'd be posting fancy Luhnow pictures if we traded Corp for a guy like Tropeano (who led the PCL in ERA last year). We have Keuchel/McHugh who could be one year wonders for all we really know (I could definitely see Wandy Rodriguez like careers for both, where he pitched like an ace for that one season, but beyond that was more of a mid rotation guy). I certainly hope they can be the guys they were last year, but I don't want to assume it will happen again. We have hopes that Appel will become what those 2 were last year, but that is hardly guaranteed. After that we have McCullers & Folty that have big control concerns. Velasquez who can't stay healthy. Feliz is still a ways away, and Hader struggled in his promotion to AA. And we've needed help in the bullpen for years now. If the team does go out and pickup a good SP (Lester or Maeda would be good candidates w/ no draft compensation cost), it would be help because nobody wants to see Peacock back. Personally I think Lester wouldn't come here, so I think getting Maeda, Hammel, or McCarthy seem reasonably likely. FA Keuchel McHugh Feldman Oberholtzer
Definitely agree here. Don't know if this is a good trade or not, but this is first significant trade Astros have made in a while that they are getting less club control years.
