I really like seeing the former Stros do well, and I follow them, but there's a whole lot of "I told you so" "This guy sucks, this other guy is amazing" I want to be right so I'm glad these guys suck/are good" schadenfreude going on.
LOL Not really. Some of these players have been in our organization for many years and since our MLB team sucked we, or I, took a higher than usual interest in them. For me that interest doesn't stop just because they're somewhere else now. VV is a good kid and he's really talented. I'm gad he's doing well and I wish it would have worked out for him here. Now if he gets hurt at the All-Star break you can rest assured there'll be some told ya he was injury prone stuff going on but whatevs.
I'm on the same page as you. I root for these guys, knowing that the trades were made knowing that some would work out and some wouldn't. But I come in and post some of the negative performances just because I feel like the posts in here are skewed so heavily to the side of "this guy is amazing, Luhnow is an idiot"...and I just think it's nice to have a balanced view.
Literally. People still b!tch about JD Martinez, for example. The only good roster move is a perfect roster move. The ones that don't work will be pilloried for years, the ones that do work out will not be mentioned very often.
I too am glad White is back to doing thing, which is hitting. Because I can see White in this thread relatively soon if he slumps for any period of time. I doubt White has the leeway that some of the other highly touted prospects have. But baseball longevity careers are about adjustments. Those that can adjust when the league figures them out, can find themselves playing for a decade or more.
Boy I feel the exact same way. I'm agitated when a player fails here, but I don't have any particular feeling towards a player we've traded. If they succeed good for them, I don't feel terrible for the what if's. The Gomez and Giles trades will succeed or fail based on Giles and Gomez's success, I really don't give AF what the guys we traded do, seeing VV or Hader succeed doesn't add any salt to the wounds whatsoever. But having to deal with the insufferable and constant "how did that idiot let player x go" nonsense if extremely annoying, I feel myself rooting against them just so I can avoid hearing about it.
The section's transition into the GARM has been absolutely seamless. I'm glad most of these guys are doing well with their new organizations, but I don't get hung up on "we should've kept them."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Mark Appel allowed 4 h, 4 r, 2 bb in two thirds IP for Lehigh Valley today. Velocity down significantly too. Topped at 89</p>— Jim Salisbury (@JSalisburyCSN) <a href="https://twitter.com/JSalisburyCSN/status/734444229947228160">May 22, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
How can that be? I thought he was dominating AAA! (as a former 4 year college pitcher, consecutive year high round draft pick, flush with bonus cash/hype/expectations... and was the *killer* inclusion in the Ken Giles trade).
I still consider the Giles trade was Velasquez/Arauz for Giles/Arauz swap. Don't think Appel, Obie, Eshelman amount to much value at the MLB level.
Same here... a calculated risk of trading VV based on his injury history risk. In the end, I expect the Astros to get positive value out of Giles... and he's still young/valuable enough to fetch more prospects in the future (if a guy like Feliz ends up being groomed as the future closer anyways).
But that's the biggest "if" of all the factors. Starting pitchers get injured/worn down year to year as is. Factor in a guy who's never been able to stay healthy, has never thrown 200 innings, and it becomes a sizable probability.
And he's already had multiple surgeries and missed parts of every year of his pro career. It's a long shot that he will be a 200 innings/year 8-10 year starter without further injury headed his way.
