The Astros situation is amazing. Great offense getting better with young guys becoming more prime and no Beltran. The fourth starter might be 3.50 ERA with 160 innings. Two titles could be the under. Would be interesting to know what Vegas thought. Astros doing the thing for Houston.
[QUOTE=" I like this voodoo doll you're poking.[/QUOTE] I've been interested for a long time in the role of voodoo in professional baseball. I have no doubt that some people connected to the sport, somewhere (whether players, their relatives, or fans) are undertaking rituals related to that set of beliefs. Do they affect player performance and game results? The people involved must think so. Is there a way to measure it? Maybe a new frontier for Fangraphs.
Wonder if he (and the other 9) are now regretting turning down the 17.4MM qualifying offers. Cain, Hosmer, Moose, Arrietta, Lynn, and Cobb all remain unsigned. Holland and Santana are the only ones to sign.
Holland hasn’t signed either. Holland, Lynn, and Cobb may regret not accepting their QO. The others may not get nearly what they expected, but they’ll get enough to justify rejecting the QO.
Nice catch. With COL signing every other reliever, I must've thought they already inked him. What a weird offseason. You could make two wild card contending expansion teams with the amount of quality FA's still unsigned.
My mistake if this has been posted https://www.fanragsports.com/inside-baseball-scott-boras-weighs-in-on-slow-market/ Boras also refutes some of the theories out there as to what’s going on. And, while some have pointed to superteams (plural) taking over the game, Boras suggest there is one superteam that’s leaving everyone in the dust – yes, the World Series-champion Houston Astros. “Ironically, in our game, Houston may be the only team that doesn’t have a problem,” Boras told FanRag Sports in a series of interviews over the past week regarding what’s happening to the crazy-slow free-agent market, and where it will go from here.
I think there is a five part answer. First, teams are figuring out that these contracts longer than 5 years to players in their 30s are not working out and need to be reserved for free agents no older than 26 or 27. Without steroids players aren't maintaining their prime into their late 30s. Look at Pujols for example. The Angels still owe him 114 million over the next 4 years. He hit .240 last year with an OPS of .672. With those numbers he would be lucky to even get a contract if he was a free agent at his age.. Secondly, the free agent class is full of 2nd tier guys all with concerns. Darvish had his worst year since his rookie year and ended with a gigantic World Series dud. Arrieta only pitched 200 innings one time in his career and last year was his worst season in 5 years. He will also be on the wrong side of 32 when the season starts. Hosmer had a career year with a batting average 40 points higher than his career average and an OPS over 100 points higher than his career average. He's a career .280 hitter with 20 HRs and .780 OPS as a 1st baseman, and he's going to get how much over 100 million? Then you have another tier down with Lorenzo Cain, Moustakas, and Wade Davis... Third, the big spending teams are trying to reset the luxury cap so they can spend more in coming years when you have bigger free agents available. Giants, Dodgers, Yankees, and Red Sox are all being relatively frugal for that purpose. Fourth, teams have found their needs via trade. Boras already complained earlier about the Marlins fire sale and then the Pirates did it too. The Marlins trading Stanton plus Ozuna, and the Pirates dumping McCutchen took away 3 of the teams he was looking to create a bidding war with for JD Martinez. He's pretty much left with Boston and maybe the Dbacks Finally, so many top guys received qualifying offers so now it doesn't just cost you money but also a draft pick. So far only 2 of 9 players that received qualifying offers have signed. Those would be Carlos Santana to the Phillies and Wade Davis to the Rockies.
AstrosCounty How the 40-Man Roster was assembled: International Signing Jose Altuve (May 2007) Reymin Guduan (Sept. 2009) Yuli Gurriel (July 2016) Jandel Gustave (May 2010) Cionel Perez (Sept. 2016) Draft Alex Bregman (1st Round, 2015) Carlos Correa (1st Round, 2012) J.D. Davis (3rd Round, 2014) Dean Deetz (11th Round, 2014) Derek Fisher (1st Round, 2014) Tony Kemp (5th Round, 2013) Dallas Keuchel (7th Round, 2009) Lance McCullers (1st Round, 2012) A.J. Reed (2nd Round, 2014) Brady Rodgers (3rd Round, 2012) George Springer (1st Round, 2011) Tyler White (33rd Round, 2013) Trade Gerrit Cole (Jan. 2018) Chris Devenski (Aug. 2013) Evan Gattis (Jan. 2015) Ken Giles (Dec. 2015) James Hoyt (Jan. 2015) Jake Marisnick (July 2014) Francis Martes (July 2014) Brian McCann (Nov. 2016) David Paulino (Sept. 2013) Brad Peacock (Feb. 2013) Max Stassi (Feb. 2013) Justin Verlander (Aug. 2017) Free Agent Charlie Morton (Nov. 2016) Josh Reddick (Nov. 2016) Hector Rondon (Dec. 2017) Joe Smith (Dec. 2017) Tony Sipp (May 2014; Dec. 2015) Waivers Will Harris (Nov. 2014) Collin McHugh (Dec. 2013 Rule 5 Pick Marwin Gonzalez (Dec. 2011) Anthony Gose (Dec. 2017)
Feels like a bunch of welterweights showing up for heavyweight contest. I predict they are all KO'd by the 3rd round. Any takers?
