Astros: CTH writers give thoughts on Houston’s free agency Your Climbing Tal’s Hill writers give their thoughts on who we *want* the Astros to sign and who we think they *should* sign: A summation: Who I want the Astros to sign: Jackie Bradley Jr, Marcell Ozuna, Kirby Yates, Brad Hand, Chris Archer Who I think the Astros should sign: Jake Marisnick, Jackie Bradley Jr.(X3), Brad Hand https://climbingtalshill.com/2020/11/08/astros-cth-writers-give-thoughts-houstons-free-agency/
According to WEEI out of Boston, Red Sox are talking with JBJ, but Astros have shown strong interest.
I will be very surprised if Houston fills both their OF holes with free agents, but JBJ and Brantley would make for a very deep lineup especially if they added a backup C who can hit. 3B Bregman LF Brantley 2B Altuve DH Alvarez SS Correa RF Tucker 1B Gurriel C Maldonado CF Bradley
Also 1 unidentified AL Central team. And now someone else is reporting that the Jays are interested in both Springer and/or Bradley. If Springer is out of the picture for Houston, is it worth getting into a bidding war for Bradley? Sure Marisnick is also available for a cheaper price but I don't want Marisnick to be their starting CF.
They were both born in Puerto Rico (~15 miles a part) before they were Astros. I'd guess Cora was the legend (or at least one of the legends) of the area of the guy that made it to the majors when Maldonaldo was growing up.
Feeling like Smalls from the sandlot. Who is Jbj? If I get a reply before a Google response I'll be "impress".
What's with the infatuation with JBJ? He's gonna hit .230 with 15 home runs and a bunch of strikeouts.
Javier/Urquidy give up a lot of fly balls, JBJ is a better hitter than Marisnick, and he should be cheap. Besides for trying someone like Profar in CF that involves more risk, JBJ is the best option in CF besides Springer on the FA market and probably better than anyone easily acquired via trade.
It's not an infatuation. It is just acceptance that Springer is gone. JBJ is the best CF free agent left after Springer and the Astros have expressed interest in JBJ. Jackie Bradley Jr. (31) Rusney Castillo (33) Jarrod Dyson (36) Brett Gardner (37) Billy Hamilton (30) Jon Jay (36) Jake Marisnick (30) Kevin Pillar (32) George Springer (31) Michael A. Taylor (30)
Jackie Bradley Jr. also has easy power to left field. I think he can do well with the Crawford Boxes. Watch his highlight video from 2020. Went opposite field quite a bit.
Early returns appears to be about $4-5M per WAR. I'd guess JBJ would be valued at a 1.5-WAR to 2-WAR player. In this market, that would be 10/2 on low end and 22.5/3 on high end. I think Astros will try to get at least 2 years. For one year, I'd expect JBJ to get at least 8M. Profar, I'd expect about 90% of JBJ at most.
JBJ probably still has a year or 2 left of good to elite defense and is a better hitter. Provided he's healthy, I'd guess Marisnick is the better hitter and defender at this point versus Pillar. Edit: Looking at projections, Pillar is still expected to be the better hitter/defender than Marisnick. I have no idea what happened to Marisnick in NY, but he left Houston a better defender.
I’m guessing that Jake coming back is probably a lock. Not as a starter, but as cheap depth I think it’s a no brainer.
