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[Official] Astros Off-Season Thread

Discussion in 'Houston Astros' started by Castor27, Oct 31, 2019.

  1. Joe Joe

    Joe Joe Go Stros!
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    It is possible. It is also possible he wins a couple of World Series MVPs before free agency making him the most hated player outside of Houston.

    In the realm of possibilities, if Correa plays well the next 2 seasons, he will get paid, though not likely 40/year. If he has injury problems over next two years, his price goes down.
     
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  2. Joe Joe

    Joe Joe Go Stros!
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    Regarding Strom, here's some quotes found in https://blogs.fangraphs.com/sunday-notes-brent-strom-remembers-his-big-league-debut/....

    “Bernie Flaherty [high school coach], who is since deceased, had promised that if I made it to the big leagues he would be there for my first game,” Strom told me. “He flew from San Diego to New York to watch me pitch against the Expos that night, which was pretty cool. At least I didn’t disappoint him that game.”

    “The home plate umpire was the great Doug Harvey,” said Strom. “Ironically, he used to officiate my basketball games when I was playing at San Diego High School. I remember that he would be running up and down the court with a chew in his mouth. I don’t know where he spit, but he umpired my first game.”

    “When I came off the mound — the number-two hitter had flown out to deep right centerfield —Doug Harvey met me on my way to the dugout,” said Strom. “He said something to the effect of, ‘This isn’t high school; you better get the ball down.’ That was kind of interesting.”

    “I’m warming up in the bullpen, nervous as ****, and Jerry Grote is catching me,” recalled Strom. “He’d lost his position as the lead catcher — Duffy Dyer caught me in the game — so Grote has to warm me up. I bounce a curveball that bites him, and he’s [expletive] pissed. He throws his glove on the ground and walks away. So here I’ve just pissed off the biggest red-ass in all of baseball, and I’ve got to go out and pitch pretty soon. [Pitching coach] Rube Walker grabs a glove and he’s catching me as though it was like the 19-[expletive]-20s — half standing up, like in the old-time videos you see. I wasn’t feeling too good at that time. Fortunately, Duffy helped right the ship for me.”

    When I mentioned that he began the game with six shutout innings, Strom responded: “Well, that sure ended [expletive] quickly. Was I on the hook when I came out? Ending up with the loss would have just added to my illustrious career.”

    “What I most remember about Mays is being in the locker room, surrounded by the likes of him, Tom Seaver, and Jerry Koosman,” shared Strom. “My time with the Mets was short, but that’s something I’ll always remember.”

    “My next game, I lost to the Reds,” said Strom. “I gave up my first home run, to Johnny Bench in the top of the second. That wasn’t the most discouraging thing. After the game, I was icing my arm and listening to Ralph Kiner interviewing Bench. He asked, ‘What pitch did you hit out Johnny?’ Bench said, ‘I don’t know if it was a fastball or a changeup.’ That right there kind of hit me. Like I said, it was an illustrious career.”
     
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  3. awc713

    awc713 Member

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  4. dmoneybangbang

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    There just seems like a lot of misunderstanding of advantageous "sign stealing" is.
     
  5. Joe Joe

    Joe Joe Go Stros!
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    There isn't enough evidence to get a good idea because baseball stats has a lot of noise. Outside of saying it is likely less than noise in most stats for the Astros there isn't much to say. I suspect if Astros had a lot of low contact, weak plate discipline hitters, it would be more noticeable.

    For the upcoming season, I will be paying attention to low contact hitters across the league to see if they have a jump in chasing breaking balls and offspeed pitches.
     
  6. dmoneybangbang

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    Also its a moot point if there's any sort of counterintelligence involved by the other team.
     
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  7. Major

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    This all seems pretty stupid. Whether it gave them a noticable statistical edge is pretty irrelevant. There were numerous games in the ALCS and WS that were ridiculously close. Any crucial hit that was impacted by the cheating could have changed the outcome of either series. Besides which, the Astros clearly thought it was helping them.
     
  8. Joe Joe

    Joe Joe Go Stros!
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    Astros should get punished for cheating.

    That said, on the "crucial hit", Astros sign stealing was about as likely to have cost a game as won one because the edge is nearly statistically irrelevant.
     
  9. msn

    msn Member

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    Agreed, completely. Come to think of it: they were. With unprecedented severity. That said, how about the other cheaters? Shouldn't they get punished? There's some big-assed lumps under MLB's carpet where Manfred did some sweeping.

    This makes sense.
     
  10. Joe Joe

    Joe Joe Go Stros!
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    If they get caught, yes. Penalty on Braves was similar in severity...though like the Astros, the Braves weren't that good at cheating. Regarding penalty, Red Sox, though likely not helped too much, should have been leveled as a repeat offender the year following getting caught originally or the Astros penalty should have been less.
     
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  11. No Worries

    No Worries Contributing Member

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    The Astros should bang a trash can randomly during games this season just to **** with the league.
     
  12. SuraGotMadHops

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    Exactly this, how the "repeat offender" seems to not matter at all. It was the BoSox apple watch scheme that led to the Sept. 2017 memo in the first place. The Red Sox did it repeatedly, and for much longer after the rules were officially formalized prior to the 2018 season.
     
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  13. awc713

    awc713 Member

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  14. msn

    msn Member

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    TWO MORE DAYS!!!

    Worst off-season ever reaching its merciful end. I can't wait until this thread disappears off page one.

    Good freaking riddance.
     
  15. Snake Diggit

    Snake Diggit Member

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    Paredes and Scrubb looked great yesterday, Torres has looked great too. Maybe this is finally the year Houston’s lauded farm pitching depth manifests into some long term bullpen pieces.
     
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  16. Snake Diggit

    Snake Diggit Member

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    Betts getting 10 years, $350-400M from LA. Can’t be good for Springer’s asking price. Would have to think Springer can get $100M pretty easy if the market for Betts was that robust.
     
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  17. Nook

    Nook Member

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    Springer deserves 100 million for sure.

    We really will need to wait and see if we end up with collusion again in MLB. Springer isn't THE MAN, but you can plug him in anywhere in your line up and and anywhere in the outfield and really not worry. He was on pace for a monster season last year.
     
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  18. Snake Diggit

    Snake Diggit Member

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    My concern with giving Springer a monster contract is that he is only 2-3 seasons away from likely entering age-related decline, and when he can no longer play a good CF he will quickly lose a lot of his value. As an near-MVP caliber CF (which he has been and probably will be for another couple years), he’s easily worth $25M/yr, but as a RF with declining speed and power and potential injury/strikeout issues, he’s probably only worth $15M/yr.

    Id have been stoked with an $80M/5yr deal for Springer and wouldn’t balk at as much as $120M/6yr. But if Betts truly resets his bar, he’s prolly looking at something like $160M/6yr and that’s pretty steep considering the risk and Houstons likely constraints/needs.
     
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  19. Nick

    Nick Contributing Member

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    Every long term contract a risk at this point... but its the price to pay if you want to retain a player as important as him (as they did with Altuve).
     
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  20. sealclubber1016

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    There's absolutely no way a team gives Springer 160 million, not when he will turn 32 in his first season. Betts age and defense just put him on a completely different playing field, so I don't even think he's a good comp. He closer to Trout than Springer when you look at the last 5 seasons.

    My guess is that he will get something in the line of 4/100, or maybe somebody stretches him out to 6/130 at the absolute most. With so much financial uncertainty, I don't think the market will be all that ravenous.
     
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