http://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=Standings#AL-W Projected by Fangraphs to win the division. Nice! But what caught my eye was the projection that we give up almost 1/2 a run more per game. Prude on our pitching?
Since the team was stripped for parts after he took over, the payroll has been coming up consistently 2013 25 Million 2014 45 Million 2015 70 Million (added 13 million in season for 83 million) 2016 90 Million (estimate once arbitration plays out) We'll probably add some salary before or during the year to get the payroll around 100 million. I suspect we'll be around 120 million next year. I won't really be concerned with the payroll until it starts causing us to lose players. They always said payroll would increase incrementally, and so far they have been true to their word. If we level off near the bottom in salary, then I will start to have a problem.
There's no reason why they shouldn't be at least league average/median. While payroll has steadily gone up, so has the league average/median... I think that is where some could get justifiably frustrated (rather than simply looking at the overall number).
The projections love them some Mariners once again. Surprised the Rangers don't project higher, with Yu and Hamels in the opening day rotation. It's a sneaky strong division. No pushovers.
Cespedes is kind of irrelevant. The idea of trading Springer for a high-end young pitcher makes sense for the Astros, and the Mets have tons of pitching and could use a young dynamic OF. The problem is that Wheeler doesn't have enough value right now.
Fangraphs have not added the ZiPs projections yet to their calculations. Steamer was about 4 wins lower than ZiPs so there is a good chance that Astros will be projected for 88-89 wins by the beginning of the season without doing anything else. The projection has about a +/-10 win range once it has both the Steamer and ZiPs data so I expect Astros will finish between 79 and 99 wins.
Not really, if they maintain their current payroll growth our salary will probably be up around the top 10-15 which is where we should be by the time these guys start hitting free agency. We aren't ever gonna be an elite spending team, so if fans are expecting that they are gonna be disappointed. We are probably gonna lose a player or 2 (everybody does except for the blue bloods), but I don't expect us to be a team that has to start trading people because we can't keep them. We should spend enough money to keep guys around.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Astros may not be done. They've tied for Upton and starters, and owner Jim Crane says they're "nosing around" a bit.</p>— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/689911714951872514">January 20, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Orioles and astros are among teams looking at Yovani Gallardo, the top remaining free agent starter — JonHeyman Spoiler <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Astros are the kid led by parents thru antique shop. Lot of looking—dont you dare pick anything up! Put. That. Down. <a href="https://t.co/dPviRU7lgH">https://t.co/dPviRU7lgH</a></p>— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) <a href="https://twitter.com/EvanDrellich/status/689940567405400064">January 20, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash">#Astros</a> have committed lowest amount of 2017 payroll ($25.4 million) among all <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MLB?src=hash">#MLB</a> clubs, per <a href="https://t.co/gRcwJmwP8e">https://t.co/gRcwJmwP8e</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/FOXSports">@FOXSports</a></p>— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) <a href="https://twitter.com/jonmorosi/status/689945650797133824">January 20, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I find it hard to believe that we actually tied for Upton and other starters. Maybe we posted similar but lesser asking prices. I'm also weary on Crane's "nosing around" comment...it seems like we're just seeing if anyone will sign below their market value, more so than actually contending with the market (which I'm fine with, at this point in FA). I'm not as harsh on Crane as some astros fans, but paint me as the "I'll believe it when I see it" crowd. I don't see any PR benefit is saying "we were close to signing X"...either sign the guy or don't speak on it.
