definitely he had the best quotes about reed. i was just struck by the title of his new position. never seen it before.
Go read Morgan's old Wordpress or if you ever spend any time around him, you wouldn't be shocked that they gave him some bizarro new aged title.... He is very smart and does things his own way... He is in the perfect organization for his approach, he and Luhnow and Mejdal can all wear their electro current skull caps and discuss how using an oxygen chamber between innings will increase Kazmir's late season performance by 5%.
Doesn't look like we're the first to employ the 'mental coach': <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Morgan Ensberg though has a new role: mindset coach. Mental skills coach, basically. Other orgs have similar job. He’ll be a rover.</p>— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) <a href="https://twitter.com/EvanDrellich/status/657318066104221696">October 22, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Dont trade any of core players. Dont even touch the roster. I have high hopes for this team and we gonna see.
Agree we don't touch the core players but that's only correa, springer, Altuve, Keuchel, McCullers. The roster must be improved. We can't get complacent and think their growth and more young talent up the pipeline is enough. you can't count on 86 wins to get into the playoffs. The Rangers get Darvish back. The Angels are a high payroll team and will bolster their pitching. The Yanks will reload and Boston won't stay down.
While I agree with you, the growth and experience from this past year alone will improve this team tenfold. We don't need to overhaul the roster, just improve incrementally.
We had offensive issues last year. A full year of Correa will help, a full season of Gomez will also help. But with Gattis/Carter/Rasmus/Valbuena/Marisnick and the Catchers we typically had a massive block of high K, low OBP players. They need to do something to break that up so the famine stretches don't destroy the overall offense the way they did at times last year. Nobody is calling for an overhaul, but just bringing back the exact same team with a better bullpen would be a bad idea. There are some things we can improve, and I expect they will. At least 2 of those 6 high K, low OBP players will be gone IMO. Those that do return will have less PA than last season.
While I would tend to agree with you Basically all of those guys other than Rasmus had "disappointing " years If we could improve one of those spots, and the others improve a little themselves Adding a shut down closer could easily be enough
we basically need someone with average to high average BA. Also in this mix we need someone who to sure up our bullpen. We can all agree on this right?
Toronto did it with Osuna, NY Mets with Familia, and KC with Davis, yes Davis. Davis was a starter for the Rays, and he WANTED to start, but as a reliever he was great and stayed there. We have a surplus of starters, but need bullpen help. Why trade and give talent when we can fill those spots with VV and/or Feliz? I think we need to re sign Sipp and have VV as set up and maybe later on the year, closer. Gregerson/VV/ Sipp/ Harris/Neshek/Fields should be good enough. If we can get another power arm without losing draft spots or players via trade fine. The team needs to do something about our DH. I would try and sign Morneau for a 1 year deal and with what we have within should be enough. Is time to see what Singleton can bring in the majors, fight for the 1b/DH if Morneau is not sign with Reed, Gattis and Tucker. Maybe even a guy like White who is hitting everywhere he goes, and is a walk guy. I don't think we need major moves, I would not mind Kazmir back, with Sipp and maybe Morneau. Others, battle and the best players should play, and not like we did the WHOLE year with GAttis who did not hit much as a DH.
If the Astros go with the same pen but only add VV, then they are foolish. They need a hammer at the end of the pen and they will get one. The value VV has is as a starter. They would be better off trading him for assets because that is where his value lies in baseball. Why risk VV in the pen when they can get an elite closer in trade? You can get something pretty good for VV and Feliz in trade, possibly a bat or a front line starter at the deadline. The Astros do need a DH.... but they also need a 3rd baseman, short term 1st baseman and/or a catcher that can hit. DH can be filled the easiest, it can even be whoever is getting an off day on the field. Would you deal VV and Tucker for Lucroy? That solves the catcher situation for the next few seasons. You could increase the trade to Lind, Lucroy and KRod for VV, Tucker, Oberholtzer, Angel-Sierra and another top 10 prospect. You solve your catcher, closer and 1st base/DH problem in one trade for about 22-23 million in increased payroll. Altuve LuCroy Springer Correa Lind Gomez Reed (Third baseman) Marisnick There are a lot of options out there, the key is Luhnow properly evaluating his own prospects and maximizing the other ones in trade for players under team friendly deals that can plug holes successfully.
I don't think we invest anything in a full time 1B, Reed and White are gonna play 1st next year. LF/DH and 3B if they can find one. That's where we look to upgrade the teams OBP. A lot of guys have talked about going after LuCroy. I wonder if the Astros have any thought about moving Gattis back to catcher part time. Go into next season we a 3 man C/DH platoon of Castro/LuCroy/Gattis. Thay way you can keep LuCroy's bat in the lineup every day, keep him fresh, and always have a 3rd catcher since LuCroy will be DHing a lot. It would also allow you to play LuCroy at 1B occasionally. Gattis would really just be an emergency catcher, which may be a role he already played last year.
While true, it would be more worthwhile to know why, not simply that they did. Was it: 1) They were tired from over-usage? 2) Opponents figured them out? 3) Personal issues? 4) Clubhouse mojo? What?
VV was used seldomly and as long reliever most of the part. I want VV or Feliz used the same way Rangers used Kela, KC used Davis, Toronto used Osuna and Mets used Familia.
You can't go into the season banking on VV. You make a move for a top of the line Closer, and if VV progresses to the point where he's shutting hitters down in late game situations, you can move the Closer at the deadline to re-coup some assets. Also, just a couple points: 1) In the majors, he posted a 5.09 ERA coming out of the bullpen 2) In the minors, he posted a 4.05 ERA coming out of the bullpen, typically in the 8th or 9th inning. Granted, most or all of the runs came from 1 outing and it's still a small sample size, but I would be shocked if VV were our bullpen's saving grace.
If they acquire a top of the line closer and are competitive this season (as expected), they aren't moving him at the deadline under any circumstance. If VV becomes awesome, he'll be a great setup guy, but no competitive team is going to trade a proven elite closer midseason. Only way that happens is if the season doesn't go as expected.
Wait, so you're saying VV doesn't automatically become as good as Osuna if you "use him like Toronto used Osuna"? I assumeed they must be the same player.
