Yulieski Gurriel agrees to 5/$47M deal with the Astros

Pass what you have been smokin'. I can tell it is the good ****.

 

Exactly. Very well-said.

Fans - most of them, anyway - only see today; they don't see (or care about) tomorrow. But balancing the two - especially for smaller market teams that can't spend away their problems - is a general manager's toughest job. Not always: I think "tomorrow" fairly easily won the day in 2012-14. But right now, as the team teeters between contending and not; as it manages expectations around its internal timetable; striking the right balance is difficult.

I applaud the Astros for having greater self-awareness earlier this month. They looked up and (rightly, IMO) saw an uphill battle: they were trailing in both division and wild card races; their division's best team inexplicably has their number; there are 3-4 teams in the wild card race that are as good, if not objectively better than the Astros.

A bat or two, an arm - maybe it closes some/all of those gaps. But at what future cost? I don't think that's as easy an answer - especially if you're going to be clipped financially.

Longer-term, the Astros are probably better-served finding out what Bregman, Reed, Hernandez, Kemp, Gurriel, Musgrove, Hoyt all have in a meaningful pennant race than they are trading one or any of them for Carlos Beltran.

 

Jesus Christ. No, what it's gotten us is within six outs of the ALCS and a subsequent season of being in playoff contention as of August 16.

I swear to Buddha, the depth of entitlement among fans is startling.

 

Altuve's MVP caliber performance may already be over and he could fall back to being just a top 10 player next season. That would hurt. Lord help Clutchfans if he pulls a Harper and just puts together a very good season. Just too much uncertainty to even say Astros are going to be great next year.

That said, I expect the Astros to get to the point soon where they have enough MLB players that they start having a surplus of prospects to trade and can get really aggressive. I don't think the Astros are at the point that they can be too aggressive trading prospects.

When the Astros go crazy and prove they have a team at the trading deadline, I expect the Astros to go a lot more aggressive. I know this is a different sport, this guy hasn't won anything yet, and he should have listened to his own words.....but Morey said something like "The biggest mistake teams make is thinking they are better than they are and then locking themselves into a roster that just quite isn't good enough."

Luhnow is going to put his best team out there and let them prove how good they are before he settles on a World Series caliber core.

 

This. The FO saw the landscape and decided to wisely stay pat. With that said, 2017 will have to be the year where results start to matter much more. We will still be young and talented next year but several players will come off the books and we got a ton of money to spend. We have several core players locked up long term and still have some valuable chips to use but I expect us to open up the wallet and be spenders. We will surround our core and keep our farm system viable next off season.

 

Well so far he's 1-2 with a hr.

 

Just saw video of Gurriel's bomb... quite a shot

 

Cool

It was his words though, not mine

 

Problem is, or could be, the farther along we go the more expensive the core young talent we have will be

So as the cost to keep them together rises, will Crane be willing to take on expensive contracts in trades of our surplus of prospects?

And I'm not saying he is "cheap", but every year the core will cost more and more, so it's easy to say keep finding out about the prospects....but in reality our best time to really go for it is probably in the next 2-4 years

 

So looking at this coming off seasons free agents, who are we gonna open up the wallet for?

Not exactly a great crop this year

 

Where'd you see the video?

 

I agree with your earlier statement that the next 2-4 years is our immediate window. We have to take advantage of fact we have 3 above average to great players on cheap deals. While this years FA crop isn't great, I'd be happy with Encarnacion and Reddick, along with maybe a catcher. Try to sign them to 3/4 year deals, if possible. Now, we just need competent players added to the core of Springer, Bregman, Altuve, Correa and maybe Gurriel (assuming he's at least an avg major league player). Not a great market for pitching but I think that needs to be addressed via trade.

 

Hello AAA... 3 for 4 with a double and hr (2 runs and 2 RBIs)

 

Agree except on the pitching, at least offseason wise

1) I think Keuchels huge workload last year has had an effect. If we fall out of the race I hope he is shut down a bit early, has a full offseason and comes back dominant

2) if guys like Musgrove, Martes and Paulino can't be included in trades to help us now, then we better hope they are in fact "the answer"

3) Devo has been nothing if not great, can't convince me he couldn't at least be a well above average 4-5 starter

 

Would love to see that

With the lack of depth in the FA class though, I'll be very surprised if we end up the "top spender" for him or Joey Bats

Not saying Crane is "cheap" or that we won't try, but with such a small class of top performers, someone is gonna have to really "pay up" for those guys, and I don't see Crane being that guy

Hope I'm wrong

 

This is absurd. The Astros farm system is very good. The arms in A/AA are exceptional. The issue was that the Astros didn't want to trade away players like Musgrove, Bregman, Martes, Abreu, Franklin Perez, Tucker and Angel-Sierra for someone like Beltran.

The Rangers paid a high price for 1.5 seasons of LuCroy. They gave up a top 25 prospect, a top 65 prospect AND a player to be named later that is expected to be a top prospect as well.

The Rangers window is smaller than the Astros. Also Stearns got very little from the Astros last year in that trade. Hader is about it and he is expected to end up in the pen.

 

And a walk.

 

Exactically. about 70% of our lineup has been in a slump since last April.