I sure hope they're pushing for it though. I think where the market is now there are actually less suitors than there would be at the trade deadline. If they can tweek it even a little bit (2 of out of 3 plus others) then they need to make the deal.
In the midst of all this "will they, won't they" Quintana drama, Fangraphs put out a fantastic offseason article on Altuve today. A totally ludicrous hypothetical on how bad Jose Altuve would have to be for his dirt cheap 2018 and 2019 options to not be picked up. Checking my credit card bill a few days ago I realized I paid the Fangraphs member fee twice in a week. I just shrugged and thought "totally worth it". Their content is awesome and in this case extremely amusing.
History doesn't really matter as they've been through several regimes and systems. And while it's not a bad point, you can't make the Miller-Oswalt comparison in a vacuum. Do I randomly trade them into the ether with no ROI? Of course not. If I landed... Bartolo Colon or Kevin Millwood for the two of them....
Anyone have insider?: Midwinter report card: Sox, Astros at the head of the class http://www.espn.com/blog/the-gms-office/insider/post?id=13567
I would've posted the whole thing, but it's too long. There is a paragraph and graphic like the above for all 32 teams.
Ok so you would have traded the Astros most successful pitcher in history for Colon? Seriously? I honestly cannot understand that thinking. In the face of facts you still think its better to dump our super talent. The key is figuring out which kids are going to be franchise players and what are fools gold. Tim Redding, Hidalgo, Jason Lane and Chris Burke were all kids that had high value but didn't pan out. I believe so far Lunow has shown a great skill in recognizing what kids are worth holding on to. Springer, Bergman and possibly Martes and K. Tucker. etc are players you do not trade. While moving the kids who are not worth tons in the end. Like Cosart etc.
That's because the concept of hindsight is apparently beyond you. But congrats of knowing not to trade Roy Oswalt 17 years later.
In your defense, the Astros would have been in a better position to win the World Series in 1998 or 1999 had they traded a minor league Oswalt for 1998 and later Colon.
I want AJ Reed to have a shot at getting a spot on the team. If he isn't ready I'm fine with Gurriel at 1B. They can find something at the deadline if need be, maybe Hosmer