Translation: Astros working with a player. Other than that, I don't know what the hell I'm talking about this for.
I am starting to think I would be ok with Houston extending McCullers for 5 or even 6 years if the AAV is reasonable. He is only 27 and has a pretty low mileage arm. He also has a pretty high floor (excluding his injury risk). I would be comfortable projecting him for as much production over the next 5 seasons as he was over the previous 5 (10.8 fWAR). So something like $70M/5yrs with a vesting option for a 6th year player option would be ok with me. I would even be fine with some innings and awards incentives to give him a chance to earn more.
Would love these as occasional alternates. Prefer the black alternates from this era but bring back more retro unis on a select basis, would be cool.
Might get done tonight! 9:19pm: The Astros have made a “strong” offer to McCullers, and they’re “deep” in talks with him, Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle writes. Nice to get this done now and have a huge hole filled for beyond 2021 and a better idea of what $$ you have for the offseason.
Giving money to McCullers seems really risky. I certainly expect him to be good overall when he pitches, but he has yet to show the ability to pitch a full season. If that's factored in to his contract then OK, but if not it could hurt.
They didn't wear these too often because the players said they got too hot, but I really liked the black alternates with "Houston" on the front With fans coming back, maybe they should go full heel and embrace the role by wearing black with the star on their chest as the proverbial target on their back?
I think most hate them... was basically a change to reflect McLane's company colors, and tried to bank on the new ballpark with increased merchandise sales. Also in part because they switched back to the timeless look they have now, original colors, and many now wonder why the hell they ever switched. Thus, that being said, I have also grown to no longer appreciate the blue/open star late 90's Astrodome jerseys that basically morphed into the brick/red open star. The blue wave took away the H from the hat, got rid of orange, and basically defined an era where they couldn't get past super elite pitching in the playoffs (and striking out 20 times in one of the greatest games ever pitched). The brick/red at least made it to the World Series for the first time ever (after being the first Astros team to ever win a playoff series the year before), and they'll always have a small piece of notoriety due to that. The first Clemens/Pettite year truly did thrust the Astros to the national stage for the first time in decades and I will also never forget the way Enron/MMP felt the first time I caught a game there, first time I saw the roof open/close, first time I saw a pop fly HR, first time I saw somebody trip on the hill, etc. This was after watching games for years in the Astrodome, with a seat that literally had broken armrests, and a nice rat bite in the "cushion/theater" seat... that stadium also changed for me after the Oilers renovation (and eventual departure). TL/DR: The Brick-red/open star have been rightly criticized now in hindsight after the Astros went back to their best version of themselves (and ultimately winning it all in THESE colors), but at the time (and in the midst of 2004-2005), they were quite popular and not hated.
Yeah, I know they are our most polarizing jersey and they’re not my favorites in our history of top notch uniforms. I get why people don’t like them...but I think the hate is a tad overdone. To me, jerseys are nostalgic to eras, hence why I love the gold/blue unis, as those (and the early 2000) were my childhood Astros unis. I still love our classic color scheme, but, for better or worse, we did have our first taste of success in those brick uniforms and that does bring back certain nostalgic memories. I’m not saying we should play in the brick unis several times a year, or even every year, but I wish we would pay homage to them with a few games here and there. Or low key our early 2000 pinstripes...I prefer those to the brick. I don’t think they’re as bad as some fans make them out to be. Junction Jack on the other hand...
I also never hated the brick and sand, or the mud 'n blood as we liked to call them. Much much prefer what we have today, though.
The aughts unis sucked. But I’m totally ok with them using 3 home series each season for vintage unis (1 for 62-79, 1 for the 80s, and 1 for 90-2010) wearing different unis each game of those series. My ranking: 71 73 75 82 80 present 65 94 97 2000 2010
The 90's unis are still our best jersey design IMO. Had they not gone away from orange and the H-Star hats they would be far away my favorite. Never hated the blood and mud colors, but they were easily my least liked.
I never minded the color scheme but I hated the pinstripes. To be honest, I actually liked that era a little more than the late 90's ones. Nothing beats where we are now and I hope they never get another stupid wild hair and change again.
We really haven’t used the all out orange cap since our uni change and I would love to get those back in rotation. The all orange cap is fire, especially when paired with our home whites and orange socks.
