excellent take, especially that 2nd to last sentence. If Straw is the starter in CF in a playoff game or if Stanek/Raley throw in high leverage in the 8th or 9th of a playoff game, I will be very surprised.
Yea if anyone is wanting to acquire a true “impact player” then prepare to be disappointed lol Even if he were willing to move one of the young arms we ain’t adding a big salary and going over the tax line, costing us picks I don’t think we need to do that anyway. Our lineup is as good as any, our starting pitching depth is as good as any We need a good defensive CF, a couple of solid set up men, and maybe a bench bat upgrade. Give me 2-3 of those types and I’ll wager on this team to win it all without thinking twice
I would throw those guys in on deals to try to add a CF and relief pitcher. I also would try to attatch Smith to any trade for salary relief purposes. The only guy I would try to keep would be Meyers because Goldstein really likes him and I fully trust Goldstein's evaluations. Myself I've only seen Toro and in college Papierski.
Agree but unless someone wants to take on Verlander for the rest of the year, and he would have to agree with it cause Crane by all accounts wants him back, then anyone we move would help with smaller deals but you still aren’t going to be able to take on a big contract and avoid going into the tax
Understood I'm talking about somebody taking on a deal like Joe Smith's or if Click determines Baez cant stay healthy attach his contract and throw in another higher level prospect to get a deal done.
Sorry it took so long to get back to... had a busy weekend... the data is from middle of last week but here's a shopping list I came up with: Paul Fry - Orioles (28) LHP: Better against righties surprisingly in his career but still good against lefties with a sub .250 BA and OPS for lefties in the mid 7s. Scott Barlow - Royals (28) RHP: Almost same figures in career as Fry, better against righties but .250 BA/mid 7 OPS against lefties Daniel Hudson - Nationals (34) RHP: Better against lefties in his career with a sub 7 OPS and BAA of .236. Righties hit only slightly better. Very consistent splits. He's been dominant this year with BAA under .200 and OPS is the low 5s. Bryan Shaw - Indians (33) RHP: Dominant reliever in his career outside of 2 seasons in Colorado. Slightly better against lefties but dominant against both in his career - .690/.713 L/R OPS split with both hitting under .250. Tejay Antone - Reds (27) RHP: Dominant Reliever over 2 seasons - better against righties (low .431 OPS) but lefties have .577 OPS against still. That's the best of what I found... personally, I would trade for all of them... if we had a bullpen with these guys we would clearly be the team to beat in baseball... Most of them shouldn't cost more than a prospect higher than #4-5 in our system...
Health fixes the bullpen as the odd men out from the rotation become high leverage, multi-inning arms. Also keep in mind, you don't need a 5th starter in the playoffs. Getting into the playoffs is the first hurdle though. Bad base running, erratic defense are fixable without outside help. Myles Straw though...
Yep. That’s one thing to remember, Houston has a dozen guys that it either isn’t possible or isn’t reasonable to option/release if everybody is healthy: Odo, McCullers, Valdez, Greinke, Urquidy, Javier, Garcia, Pressly, Smith, Raley, Baez, Stanek…that doesn’t include Paredes, Verlander, Pruitt, James, Scrubb, Abreu or Taylor. So it’s not like they have room to add more than 1 RP without sending out a guy who really deserves to be on the roster.
You missed a lotta back and forth since I posted that. That deal wouldn’t work because of the salaries involved, I was wrong about how eaten money is applied. But either way, based on how Garcia has pitched since then I would not do that exact deal at this time. Also, Ketel Marte is controllable thru 2024. A Marte trade including Garcia at this time would look something like: Astros get: CF Ketel Marte OF Jake McCarthy (#30 prospect) Diamondbacks get: SP Luis Garcia RP Andre Scrubb RHP Jojanse Torres
Astros get: Starling Marte Yimi Garcia 4 million dollars Marlins get: Freudis Nova Brett Conine Tyler Ivey Myles Straw
Barlow has been a guy I have had my eye on the last couple years, I think he’d be the best target from that group. Hudson is the other guy I think would be good if he came super cheap.
We should probably see how the year plays out before we start making proclamations. And you act like we did not offer any of those guys and that they would have come here at those prices. It's way too early to say what will happen to Scrubb and Paredes, I don't know why you would state this as a matter of fact.
Goldstein posted a rundown of where he thinks all the NL teams stand heading toward the deadline: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/scripting-the-reach-out-calls-national-league/. Good news is he has the Mets as the only team looking for a CF. Bad news is he has Starling Marte as the only available CF, as he thinks Ketel Marte and Bryan Reynolds will be viewed as long term pieces by their current teams and have extremely high price tags. Does anybody think Charlie Blackmon could handle CF? He hasn’t played there since 2018 but he’s been a league average bat and it likely wouldn’t be too expensive to get him even if Colorado had to eat the vast majority of his contract. If Click thinks he’d be passable in CF his bat would look fantastic in the 8 hole of Houston’s lineup the next couple years. Otherwise I fear Houston would be in a bidding war for Starling and could result in an overpay.
What is your thinking would be the Marlins motivation here? I can't see them paying down Marte's salary for Nova, Conine, and Straw. Is Ivey that valuable? If Ivey is that valuable, why wouldn't the Astros want to keep him as they need relievers as well?
Trade deadline is around the corner. The first trades usually start happening in mid-late June. Teams have to analyze what they have and don't have so they can make moves. The GM doesn't get to wait and see the whole season... he has to decide within the next few weeks and pull the trigger. Scrubbs is in AAA. Paredes is only on the MLB roster because Abreu got hurt. They are massive disappointments. Click can't count on them turning it around. Bullpen has to be addressed. I'm not going to pretend like I know who we offered what in the offseason. Neither should you. All we know is how much they signed for and where they went..... 3 of the Astros' top 30 prospects plus a 4th outfielder for 2 rentals and some cash... maybe it costs more. I'd throw in Solomon if they had to. Adding Marte and Yimi makes us the favorites in the AL in my opinion. Probably doesn't happen because several teams want a CFer and have better farms systems. Ivey has mostly been a starter his career. I think Solomon would be used in the pen before Ivey. We have to keep some guys that are on the 40 man stretched out in AAA in case of injuries to starters. Also, Conine just won pitcher of the month in AAA West. So his value might be a little more currently.
