I'm on record as saying i would do the trade if Martes and Tucker was the cost. Having said that, Martes could literally be a better pitcher than Quintana this season. Musgrove could also be as good as Quintana. Now of course neither of them are proven, Quintana is (which is why I would be willing to make the trade). But this isn't the Astros hoarding players that may help us in years, Martes could impact the team this season. That's not even bringing the highly regarded Tucker into the equation. people will say they won't hold it against Luhnow if that scenario comes to pass, but they should. Trading away a better player is a mistake, not as big a mistake as not addressing the front end, but still a mistake. I don't really feel too strongly towards either position, I can see merits in both.
And Richard Hidalgo...Then he returned home ate a bunch of calories and lifted weights like a bodybuilder. The rest is history.
This is essentially how I feel. I have seen maybe a dozen of Martes' starts. The Astros coaches and scouts see him everyday, talk to him and are the ones that insisted on having him included in the Cosart deal when he was 17-18 years old. There are no guarantees but they know what Martes is capable of and how likely he is to reach his potential better than anyone other that Martes.
Y'all might think I'm crazy, but I wouldn't mind throwing a minor league offer to Ryan Howard. He looks motivated and is putting in the work this offseason. If he doesn't work out, so be it, but seems to be worth a flier IMO.
Baseball-Reference Fun fact: Juan Centeno was the first catcher to catch Billy Hamilton stealing in a major league game.
Yet he has made Hank Conger looked like Yadier Molina (ok, not that big of a difference, but a lower rate than Conger is embarrassing). He has been way better in the minors in that regard.
Yeah I know, I just think a minor league flier or ST invite isn't a bad risk. Just playing devils advocate, Howard did hit 25 HRs in 331 ABs last year (yes, albeit with atrocious slashes). Also, too funny not to share:
The risk is that the team has their hand forced (or choose to buy into the mirage) by a hot week either in the spring or in early season. That steals time from Reed/White/anyone that has more upside than Howard at this point in his career. Just by bringing him in, you're opening yourself up to bad possibilities. The only good outcome is him performing as expected and getting cut. So, please no IMO
I'm just wondering, do any of you remember when the final straw was? for me it was the trading of Hunter Pence. After that I knew we were just done lol. We had no one in the farm, no one on the team, and we were in for a large rebuilding phase. Now, here we are, top 5 team in the league, need a starter and maybe a LF/1B to complete it all and everyone is freaking out about what we are giving up.. You guys are new, you guys don't even remember what it was like to have no one. We are fine, and you guys are worried about 5 years from now when, guess what, we will still be fine because we spent 10 effing years building this. but whatever, losing a guy like tucker when we have a pretty controlled outfield, or martes who we got as a throw in of a trade is just too much. Remember when it was an accomplishment to lose less than 100 games? I think you guys got spoiled pretty fast.
That is the key to what many of us remember. A starter or 1B aren't necessarily completing this team. We are good enough to win. We were good enough 2 years ago, but blew it. We were good enough last year if were healthier. We are currently better than both of those teams. We can afford to wait and see if we have needs during the season.
Oh, I remember. I agree with your general sentiments. We give up what we have to get what we need, now. Even if it looks like we are overpaying for what we are getting. I understand putting guys like Bregman off the table. But we shouldnt shy from trading our 2nd tier prospects in the least. But I do find that every time we say we just need a that or this to complete the team, we find out during the course of the following year that what we thought we needed wasnt, and where we felt comfortable turned out to be a weakness. This furthers my feeling that you make the team better in any area possible whenever possible, not just where the glaring holes seem to be.
