Woah!!!! Did anyone see Kzone on that one? It looked like it was a solid foot off the plate! I have to be wrong.
Hardly went all-in on Giles... They could have out-bid any of the Rangers offers... They chose not to. Astros front office probably did not sniff out that the Rangers would pounce on Lucroy when the opportunity presented itself.... Stearns didn't throw his buddy a bone either.
It is definitely luck. It is something entirely out of their control. The teams with the best packages happened to be teams on veto lists. Lucroy wanted his team option voided.
Honestly, I see then working, not sure I agree or not but.... They're not playing for this year. They realized how close they were last year and went for it. No so much this time around. They'll jettison some vets and have a really exciting lineup/rotation of youngsters this time next year. I kinda like it, we as Astros fans have suffered long enough, I'm expecting some payoff next year. Or I'll just be disappointed again. Whatever, I'm just a Rangers fan.
Wasn't talking about Lucroy... Was talking about Hamels. I don't know if the Astros were on his no-trade list... I don't even know if the Astros made an offer. Had they suspected the Rangers would pounce... I think they would have been more aggressive... Lucroy certainly makes their overall lineup as complete as its been all year (probably even better than last year, even with a healthier Fielder).
The glaring holes on this team (DH/C/1B) are all holes we had last year, but they are even worse this year. Add on that Rasmus and Gomez have been mostly terrible and you have a recipe for massive disappointment after the run the team made last year.
Sure... He used it as leverage. Yes, they're fortunate... But they still have to execute and go for it. Did anybody have Lucroy on the Rangers radar? They were linked to Hamels quite a bit even prior to the Astros getting rejected.