I like Harper and would be fine if he were an Astro But dude does have a temper, and while in the end he usually gets his numbers, he is pretty inconsistent along the way to them. Gonna be interesting to see how he reacts even he is in the middle of a long struggle and Philly Fan lets him know about it. And trust me, they will lol
13/330 is actually quite a bit better than 10/300 with an opt out. Still too much money for me though, particularly given how inconsistent he's been.
"We're going into this expecting to spend money," [Phillies owner John] Middleton told USA Today Sports this week. "and maybe even be a little bit stupid about it." ... "It makes it fun," Middleton told USA Today, "but there's a lot of pressure too. ... We're looking at it like if things break the right way, we could be a really good team next year." And although Philadelphia is willing to take some chances in a potential shopping spree, Middleton isn't willing to let things go too far. "We just prefer not to be completely stupid," the owner said. -- 11/16/18 http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...y-spend-money-maybe-even-little-bit-stupid-it
This is a good deal for the Phillies, but would have been a bad deal for the Astros. Our ridiculously talented team who won the World Series 2 years ago has greatly increased the overall valuation of the team, if Crane wanted to sell tomorrow. Adding Harper would have provided a small, incremental increase for us. But for the Phillies, who just signed a great TV deal and have money to spend, adding Harper puts them back on the national map, and increases their overall valuation in a material manner. Their owner could sell their team for a lot more money today than he could have last week. Also add in increased ticket sales, concessions, and jersey sales, the $330M investment over 13 years isn't really bad when you consider the offset increase in revenue/value that Harper brings to the Phillies.
Too much money for you? LOL. He just sold 100k season tickets within the first 6 hours. Give me a fkin break. Harper is one of the top 5 marketable players in the league.
LOL they've cut payroll the past three years by over 40 million and they just signed a multi billion dollar tv deal. Who's running things? Obviously someone who has an understanding of business. I love how everyone forgets that baseball at the end of the day IS A BUSINESS.
Keith Law has HOU's farm ranked as 12th best in the league. Considering the "Keith Law tax" due to his hatred of HOU, I'd say we've got to be closer to 6th or 7th best. I don't know about other teams, but we're flush with good prospects. Even after the Whitley/Tucker drop-off, I feel like we have a bevy of B to A- prospects. Spoiler: ESPN ranked HOU 12th overall farm system QUOTE] 12. Houston Astros 2018 rank: 13 It feels like this system should be worse, given all the trades the Astros have made and their drop to drafting at the end of each round rather than the top, yet they're still here, and they even added a few prospects to their top 20 in a recent trade with the Mets for players they didn't need. The system has thinned out beyond the top 10-12 prospects compared with where it was three years ago, but the major league core is still young and the gap before the next wave of prospects arrives after Forrest Whitley and Kyle Tucker shouldn't affect the big league club too much. [/QUOTE]
[/QUOTE] He doesn’t hate Houston. He was offered the opportunity to run the Astros minor league system by Jeff Luhnow. He didn’t take the job because of his family situation and concern it would be a repeat of the Blue Jays. He thinks very highly of the Astros front office. Most of the issues is that Law just evaluates players different than the Astros. He is big on particular tools.
http://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/26134040/why-market-dallas-keuchel-slowed-crawl Why the market for Dallas Keuchel slowed to a crawl March 04, 2019 Dallas Keuchel generally aims at the area just off the outside corner on his arm side -- for the lefty, that means that little alley between the plate and the inside of the left-handed batter's box. He aims at that airspace, he has made his living in that airspace, far exceeding what anybody thought possible in his career, winning the Cy Young Award in 2015 and dominating the Yankees for six scoreless innings in that year's wild-card game. He's coming off a year in which he had a 3.74 ERA in an American League-leading 34 starts for the Astros, and he could help any rotation. But Keuchel, born on New Year's Day in 1988, continues to dangle in the free-agent market, under lousy circumstances for him. Ten years ago, or 20, he might've had a real shot at landing a deal for close to what his agent, Scott Boras, suggested to some teams at the beginning of the offseason -- a contract of six or seven years, at $25 million to $30 million annually. The recent industry wariness of performance (and investment) in players in their early to mid-30s has been well-established. But Keuchel has this working against him as well: Teams target high velocity; they train pitchers for high velocity; they trust high velocity. And Keuchel doesn't throw hard. Of the 57 pitchers who threw enough innings to qualify for ERA titles last season, Keuchel ranked 55th in average fastball velocity -- at 89.3 mph. Only Mike Leake and Kyle Hendricks finished below him in that category. James Shields was 54th, at 89.4 mph. When the right-handed Leake was a free agent, before the 2016 season, he got $80 million over five years from the Cardinals, but he was three years younger than Keuchel is now, and even just a few years ago, the industry perspective on velocity was different. Shields got $75 million over four years from the Padres before the 2015 season. J.A. Happ is five years older than Keuchel, at 36. Like Keuchel, he's left-handed, with a little more fastball juice -- he ranked 33rd among the 57 qualified starters in average fastball velocity, at 92 mph. Last season, he had a 3.65 ERA while pitching for the Blue Jays and Yankees, numbers very similar to those of Keuchel. Some teams that had interest in Happ also did work on Keuchel, understandably, before being scared away by the asking price, and as the Happ bidding played out -- back in early December -- the question was whether any of the interested teams would be willing to give Happ more than a two-year offer. Eventually, the Yankees separated from the pack by arranging terms on a vesting option on a third year. Happ will be paid $17 million annually, and if he throws 165 innings or makes 27 starts in 2020, he'll get another $17 million in 2021. When Happ signed, there were a lot of teams with a lot of available money. But the landscape is now very different for Keuchel: This late in the offseason, there are far fewer teams willing to spend in the range of what Happ got, because some have exhausted their budget space or are bumping against the luxury tax. Keep this in mind, as well: Keuchel turned down the Astros' qualifying offer of $17.9 million and could be attached to draft pick compensation. The Phillies seem to have limited interest in Keuchel, and already have sacrificed their top pick to sign Bryce Harper, but they seem unlikely to offer anything beyond a very short-term deal. The Astros haven't been engaged on Keuchel in recent weeks, and while it's possible they could welcome him back, they might want to discount his deal because it's increasingly unlikely he'll be ready at the outset of this season, and because Houston would lose the draft pick compensation it might've gotten if Keuchel had signed elsewhere. The Padres could use a veteran starter, but they have already spent big on Manny Machado this winter. Keuchel might make sense for the Dodgers if Clayton Kershaw were shut down to the degree that L.A. could count on insurance money, but Kershaw has played catch three of the past four days and seems to be progressing. For a pitcher as accomplished as Keuchel, there will always be interest, but the clubs that seriously consider him now are vultures, more than likely, looking for a player whose market has been damaged. The market conditions for an unsigned starting pitcher, with Opening Day just 24 days away, are ugly.
What answer do you want? The pessimist: Spoiler Verlander, Cole, Miley, Peacock, Framber after McHugh develops a debilitating back condition. Miley, Peacock, and Framer will all be horrible. Astros are doomed. The optimist Spoiler Verlander, Cole, McHugh, Miley, and Peacock. McHugh, Miley, and Peacock are so awesome that the young kids are relegated to the bullpen. The likely scenario Spoiler Verlander, Cole, McHugh, Miley, and Peacock or Framber. **** happens. Hinch uses duct tape and Ouija board to figure out who is the starter as the season goes on. Astros win the division.
The Keuchel situation is super interesting. I was perfectly happy to let him walk for what we thought he would get this off-season but I'd take him back on a reasonable deal. If he is sorting through poo-poo offers he might as well stay at a contender and a place he is beloved (even though he has declined) and knows well.
I really don't see a lot to like about Miley. I think he's there for the sole purpose of eating innings for the first few months while we keep our younger arms protected for the stretch run. Maybe he has some good luck and ends up being solid, but I think he gets pushed out of the rotation before mid season unless there is an injury to one of our aces. Peacock and McHugh will both miss some time either due to an injury, or by design to limit their innings given they are coming back from the pen. You can never really account for injuries that are all but guaranteed, but just assuming no major ones for the sake of the topic Verlander 32 Starts Cole 32 Starts McHugh 20 Starts Peacock 20 Starts Miley 15 Starts James 15 Starts Valdez 13 Starts Martin 10 Starts Whitley 5 Starts I don't think Whitley or Bukauskas will ever be in the proper rotation this season beyond a few starts. They will hold them back to be used in the pen as multi inning weapons late in the season. Armenteros and Rodgers could also factor in. I think our rotation will be constantly changing with young players making multi inning appearances out of the pen, and later shifting to starting. It does obviously come with some danger running this many question marks out there, but I'm pretty damn confident a few of them will be awesome. Luhnow will keep a watchful eye, if we need a starter he will pull the trigger and get one.
They were talking on the Mlb Network how Keuchel is likely going to receive a 2-3 year contract at best. I'll be pretty disappointed if the astros dont somewhat make a competitive offer for a 2 year deal
