Do you really want the train wreck defense of Cespedes? Maybe they are being cheap but also smart like acquiring an elite closer under club control for four years. It's going to take some money in the next 3-4 seasons to start resigning key pieces. Astros success was way ahead of schedule. This is far from a finished team. Still significant talent coming up at the corner infield spots adding Bregmann likely moving over, OF, An upgrade at the back ends of the rotation and bullpen. You can't rush and spend 100/150 mil and potentially block a guy like Reed, Bregmann, Cameron, K Tucker, etc. Guys who have the tools to become stars and would be under club control for 6-7 years after being called up. Free Agency is a huge disaster in baseball a very good % of the time. Carlos Correa is the type of player an organization dreams about someone hitting free agency at 26-27 and not 32-33. That's why not burning 75 mil on a slight upgrade offensively but a huge downgrade in the field and putting that away for Carlos is neccesary in this team being a perennial dynasty team or slamming the window shut in 2021.
I think that Cliff Lee wants to play for a contender, which the Astros clearly are this season. In absence of a bidding war, I could see Lee signing a one year deal with a contender or maybe a two year deal with a player opt-out after the first year. Guessing that Lee won't come cheap. Maybe $15+ million per year. Given that, I would not be surprised if the Astros sign Lee for a one year deal and move Feldman to the pen.
Agree, but playing devil's advocate...having as much cheap talent as we currently have--and will have in the foreseeable future--should allow us to spend now. I do agree in that most of the players on the FA market were overrated and/or mere marginal upgrades.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash">#Astros</a> lock down OF defense when Rasmus, Marisnick & Springer play... Springer has amazing range in RF. <a href="https://t.co/IQqjmXC4pW">pic.twitter.com/IQqjmXC4pW</a></p>— Daren Willman (@darenw) <a href="https://twitter.com/darenw/status/690269331159146496">January 21, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Fantastic article on Springer: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/george-springer-in-progress/ Also, good read on Moran, and why he should not have been left off Baseball America's Top 10 3B prospect list: http://www.crawfishboxes.com/2016/1/27/10837746/astros-moran-just-misses-mlb-top-10-3b-list
This is pretty damn awesome to see... really hope/wish that Springer can avoid the fluke injury this year. Stros were back to 15 games above .500 when he got hurt, and there would have been a strong chance that they coast to the division with him healthy for the entire run. As the playoffs partly showed, he can be the most impactful everyday player in this lineup (Correa included) both offensive/defensively/basepaths combined.
It's interesting that as much as the game of baseball has evolved, a lot of people (myself included) still cling to a lot of antiquated ideas. If my 3B can consistently post an OB% above .350, I'm not going to worry too much about his power measuring up to a standard set by Mike Schmidt 30 years ago. The Astros have enough power in their line-up to not be too terribly concerned about where, exactly, it comes from. I mean, if your 3B/SS can combined for 40-50 HRs, you're good.
Yup. It's all about lineup balance, and Moran might give us exactly what we need. I think the old-school requirement of power from the hot corners (typically 1B) has some underlying truths to it...players generally end up at 1B because they lack other tools (speed, fielding, etc, generally...). Granted, I don't see it that way with 3B. I like Moran a lot, I hope he gets a legit shot with us. If he could provide a .300/.350 line, he could be the ideal hitter at the bottom of our order. We were at our absolute best with Marisnick getting on base for the top of our lineup.
Just decided to check out how the Astros are shaping up for the new season. 105 pages! Can anyone provide cliffnotes of the offseason and how our lineup might be shaping up? Thanks!
we've had so much talk about potential free agents, etc. But the more I think about this season and our team, the more excited I am about the 1B/DH slots as is today. Gattis potentially building off his 2nd half adjustments and losing weight? Singleton maybe finally getting it--30% chance?) Reed widely projected as a likely legit ML player? White showing what he's got as he moves up..hopefully he continues his crushing I want to see all 4 of those guys beat the crap out of the ball in the spring. I think it's going to be really fun, and I think at least 1 should emerge as a legit threat (if it's Gattis, then that emergence = a significant improvement on last season while still getting full-time ABs). If we signed a FA for either spot, it would be a lot tougher to get those guys enough ABs to figure this talent jam out. I'm excited that we have the opportunity to see it happen, even with the uncertainty
Let Chris Carter go. Traded quality prospects for a top 5 reliever, Ken Giles. Resigned Colby Rasmus and Tony Sipp.
The reality is that the Astros are a mid-market team and can never spend like the top market teams. The Astros can not rely on filling all empty roster spots with FAs, especially making 20+ large a year. The reality is that the Astros can support 3-4 max contracts. The rest of the team will be filled mostly with prospects from the farm and a 3-4 mid-level FAs. The farm is now giving the Astros several possible candidates for first base: White, Duffy, Reed, and Singleton. It would not surprise me if 3 of the 4 candidates did not eventually become everyday MLB players. I fully expect the Astros to find their starting first baseman from this list. As alternative I could see Luhnow trading prospects for a first baseman, which would indirectly use the farm to find his first baseman.
And the reality is that the Astros way of doing things (provided they don't start trading away all their homegrown players before their paydays) wins championships and promotes sustained success, more often than not, vs. what the top market/big spending teams are doing. But right now, the Astros aren't even at mid-market spending. Their market size dictates that they should be near the median payroll... and possibly inch towards larger markets like San Fran/Arlington on an as needed basis.
I expect Astros are going to trade away more homegrown talent (probably pitchers more than hitters) than most fans are going to like even if they settle into a payroll in the 8th-12th highest payroll range ($140-150 million in 2015 dollars). Just a by-product of having a lot of good young players at one time. At free agent prices (about $8.5 million/WAR this off-season), Astros current major roster would be worth about $340 million. Astros are going to have to prioritize. Correa and Springer seem to be the top guys on that list among position players. Keuchel and McCullers are likely going to test how much the Astros are willing to pay for pitching.
What killed us was not having the lock and stop bullpen and that cost us that game against the Royals.....we need to look at finding another top reliever....we lost out for Kimbel and Chapman....so let's trade some of our young prospects for help in the back end of our pitching staff. Who do you think the Yankee may take for Andrew Miller?
