He has been known to lead turnarounds everywhere he's gone, and they have a good team. IMO, this isn't football or basketball where you want a young, innovator. I think they wanted the veteran manager.
My assumption is that Cohen and Epplar decided with expectations to win immediately and media/fan pressures of NY they wanted a more known quantity as oppossed to a young prospect. Just like Crane choosing Dusty. I like it. Especially since they didn't choose Espada.
Maybe losing an assistant hitting coach isn't a bad thing? Considering the offense during the World Series was a major reason the Astros lost.
Let me say this- If other organizations are poaching your assistants, it means you're doing things the right way. Nobody would poach somebody from a dumpster fire. I'm sure Crane and Co. will find good successors.
Let's hope so, They're poaching all of the Luhnow guys. Hopefully Click knows guys that are upgrades. But that's TBD.
I'm sure he'll call a few nerds from Tampa and say "wanna go somewhere where we have more $$$ to spend?" True, we're no NYY/LAD, but we're a bigger market and a wealthier franchise than the Rays.
The bottom line is that in MLB talented people move up. If he/she is good then another organization will come calling. If there are no open positions for advancement then the organization loses him/her. It's just baseball.
@Nook had that first (Astros shopping Odo). I like Minnesota as a good fit. They already know him, and he was good over there. Despite obviously having a bad record, they were 5th I believe in homers hit, with the top 4 all making the playoffs. Of course, not everything, but something to work with as they hope to return to contention soon (Buxton's extension, I think, signals that). Royals, on paper, could have a quick turnaround too. They played everybody hard, have lots of young pitchers, and multiple Top 100 prospects knocking on the door. However I struggle to see them as a fit - They already have a ton of young, highly touted pitchers who they want to develop, and if they want a veteran in the room, well, Mike Minor already has that role. If we trade him (I hope we do), I'd rather we get somebody's #8-15 prospect or so, rather than a stopgap player, since those can either be signed out of FA or be traded for AAAA logjam guys. I also see SEA, PHI, TOR, STL as fits. Maybe a few others.
I like the idea of Odorizzi for Mondesi. Astros would have to include some money or prospects. Maybe Odo and Abreu for Mondesi?
Mondesi is a guy who has shown some flashes but hasn’t really lived up to his potential thus far, dealt with a few nagging injuries and whatnot. He doesn’t walk much but is a legit speed threat and could break out on a team like the Astros. He’s 26 yrs old and I think he’d be a solid get. Worst case scenario is you have a utility guy who can play SS, 2B, and CF with blazing speed coming off the bench. Not sure how much team control he has left but I don’t think he’d cost much more than Odorizzi and a mid level prospect, especially since Bobby Whitt Jr. is on the verge of debuting with the Royals at some point this upcoming season.
https://theathletic.com/3020762/2021/12/21/next-seasons-four-most-intriguing-bounceback-candidates/ Spoiler Top 20 Projected Bounce Backs by Steamer Player | Team | PA | 2021 wRC+ | Proj. wRC+ | Difference Cody Bellinger | Dodgers | 350 | 48 | 114 | 66 Jackie Bradley Jr. | Brewers | 428 | 35 | 73 | 38 Kevin Newman | Pirates | 554 | 54 | 85 | 31 David Bote | Cubs | 327 | 64 | 94 | 30 Jake Bauers | Mariners | 315 | 63 | 93 | 30 Jarred Kelenic | Mariners | 377 | 73 | 103 | 30 Austin Hedges | Guardians | 312 | 40 | 69 | 29 Marwin Gonzalez | Astros | 307 | 58 | 87 | 29 Andrelton Simmons | Twins | 451 | 56 | 84 | 28 Jason Heyward | Cubs | 353 | 68 | 95 | 27 Maikel Franco | Orioles | 403 | 62 | 89 | 27 Didi Gregorius | Phillies | 408 | 68 | 93 | 25 Carlos Santana | Royals | 659 | 83 | 108 | 25 Alex Bregman | Astros | 400 | 115 | 139 | 24 Gleyber Torres | Yankees | 516 | 94 | 118 | 24 Jeff McNeil | Mets | 426 | 91 | 114 | 23 Rowdy Tellez | Brewers | 325 | 89 | 112 | 23 Alec Bohm | Phillies | 417 | 75 | 98 | 23 Victor Caratini | Padres | 356 | 72 | 95 | 23 Willi Castro | Tigers | 450 | 69 | 91 | 22 […] If Carlos Correa really is leaving town, that means more pressure on Alex Bregman’s bat to come back to life. The worst-case scenario isn’t all that bad — Bregman has still been nearly 20 percent better than the league average with the bat the past two seasons, even if those two were basically the worst of his career. His ability to make contact and take walks means that his floor is the highest on this list, and the only one who was above league average in 2021. But if he is going to return to where he was in 2018 and 2019, when he was over 60 percent above league average, he’s going to have to reclaim the power he once had. What’s interesting about Bregman is that when he was hitting for great power, he was outproducing the quality of his batted balls. Statcast has a metric called expected slugging percentage, denoted by xSLG, that describes what a player’s exit velocities and launch angles should produce. Bregman’s xSLG has been much more stable than his actual slugging. Alex Bregman's Slugging, Real & Expected Season | SLG | xSLG 2016 | 0.478 | 0.427 2017 | 0.475 | 0.426 2018 | 0.532 | 0.464 2019 | 0.592 | 0.446 2020 | 0.451 | 0.391 2021 | 0.422 | 0.421 It’s tempting to say that the Astros’ extracurriculars explain the overproduction there in the middle, but those, in theory, affected his ability to anticipate the right pitch. Bregman’s ability to outproduce his exit velocities probably has more to do with where his hard-hit balls go than knowing what pitch was coming. Take a look at his spray chart over the past four seasons: Bregman’s hardest-hit balls tend to head toward the Crawford Boxes, the short porch in left field in Houston. You can see it where those short purple homer dots are clustered. That’s a nice home-park effect, but it’s not the only reason to pull your hard-hit balls. Pulled hard-hit balls regularly outperform opposite-field balls with the same exit velocities and launch angles. The idea, which we won’t be able to prove publicly until Baseball Savant and MLBAM release batted ball spin, is that pulled balls have less side spin and therefore fly truer and straighter and farther. The good news for Bregman is the three seasons in which he pulled the highest percentage of his hard-hit balls were 2018, 2019, and 2021. Now that he’s got a golf-ball-sized lump removed from his wrist, perhaps his approach will align with his health and make for another big year.
Just looking at rotation depth charts, in addition to the Royals, the Twins, Mariners, Rangers, and Tigers seem like fits for Odorizzi. Hypotheticals: Twins for Nick Gordon Tigers for Roberto Campos (Astros include Bryan Abreu) Mariners for Isaiah Campbell (Astros include $2M) Rangers for Davis Wendzel (Astros include Bryan Abreu)
Yeah, I want a prospect or two for Odorizzi. We can find those 25th/26th man/AAAA guys. Need some talent infusion in the AAA/AA lvls
Juiced balls and end of sign stealing may have hurt Bellinger more than anyone... Bregman... I am hoping it is just an injury year setback...
