If Maldy helps JV win the cy young again this year, i don't really care what he hits. I think its pretty clear that the Astros FO believes Maldy brings alot more to the table than he takes off. Maybe just maybe their metrics on catchers are better than you looking at a batting average. Trade what for whom? Alvarez was a winning lotto ticket. If player evaluation and acquisition were as easy as saying "that random guy who's never taken a bat in pro ball will be an all-star in a few years and all i have to give up is a mediocre middle reliever", team building would be a joke. Like it or not, we shoved a lot of our prospect capital in that '17-'19 period. Most of it went to established talent (JV, Greinke, Cole). Given our lineup depth, i would have been shocked if they traded prospect talent to get an up and comer. up-and-comer talent is pretty much the most expensive in the game. I think we've semi-reloaded our farm system since we made all those big trades. The choices we have now are to play the talent (e.g. Pena) or potentially trade them. I see personally see less upside in trying to trade that talent right now. Whining about the Siri's and Goodrum's of the world says 1 thing and 1 thing alone. The people that should be doing their job (the top 6) aren't doing their job. You aren't supposed to care about the 25th man on the roster. That doesn't move the needle at all.
Young guys say like Winkler get traded every year. Gotta upgrade over a guy who's batting avg is about the same as an anorexic middle schooler. I dont care if your this generations Johnny Bench you cant win a championship with a C that is this bad of a hitter.
He’s not that young at 28 years old. To get him, Seattle dealt multiple (I believe 4) prospects and had to eat Suarez’s 4 years and $48MM left on his contract. Why are you so consistently stupid?
You know you've lost the debate when you have to resort to calling people names. It was just an example. I'm not stupid I know a team in decline when I see one. Embrace the mediocrity. Like I said, with a couple of smart moves it doesn't have to be this way.
Why do you spend so much time and energy on a team that depresses you and talking about a person you don’t like? Surely there are better uses of your time than being a constantly negative force on a message board? I should just ignore you and move on, but I’m genuinely curious about what motivates someone to hammer on one negative point over and over and over again to a group of strangers who obviously either don’t agree, don’t want to hear it, or don’t like him. You won’t change anyone’s mind after the six thousandth post … what’s the point?
Depressed, LMAO, I just enjoy the debate and watching people bury their heads in the sand. I find it fascinating. I also like comparing what the former GM did compared to the current GM. When you do this objectively you can see where the problems lie. Ones single purpose was to win at all costs. The other not so much.
And you made a bad joke attempt using a serious eating disorder, so instead of insulting one person, you insulted a whole subset of people.
I don't know what I expected from Pena but I sure didn't think he had this kind of power. Hopefully he gets more consistent with more ABs, but you have to be encouraged by this kid. He really looks to have all the tools. Now if we could get a catcher with an OPS over .100 I'd be stoked. Give me some Korey Lee!
I love what Maldy brings to the table defensively but he currently has a negative WAR. There is a line where total incompetence at the plate crosses out everything you do defensively, and frankly he's crossed that line. My worry is I can see him legitimately starting an entire season and not getting his OPS above .400. Objectively, that is a problem. There's really no talking your way around that. Goodrum on the other hand just never made a whole lot of sense. There were plenty of better options, and it was a "being too cute" kind of move. We aren't THAT strapped for cash that career scrubs like him should routinely be batting #2 in the lineup. My expectation year in and year out is WS, bc theoretically, not paying huge contracts to players and building through a cycled farm system, using analytics, and being a damn good organization like the Astros are, should command that expectation. With that said, it is still early, and there is plenty of time to improve, but I will be disappointed if additions aren't made at some point to try and jump start some more offensive production from those positions.
Th Except you aren’t debating or engaging on literally anything else. You are just making the same points over and over (the same points you made last year before going to the AL championship). It seems sad, personal, and a waste of whatever else you might have going on. But you do you.
Remember, before Carlos Correa, a time when this Astros team struggled and struggled to find a legitimate star shortstop? I was as big a fan of Adam Everett's defense as anyone, but we all were hoping to find someone that could play defense AND hit a little. It was a barren wasteland guys that might show promise but never pan out, or were always just placeholders until we could find someone better. Then we got Carlos Correa, a guy who was easily the best SS this team ever had. Then he left and we were all sad. But then IMMEDIATELY following that he is replaced by a rookie SS who looks every bit the part of Carlos Correa defensively and offensively. Can we just all bask in how awesome that is, after so long of not having much anything out of that position?
Having two great shortstops in the system at the same time is a unicorn type situation. Must clubs would be happy ecstatic just to have to not worry about the position. I'm convinced Pena is the reason why we never gave Correa an offer that he would even think about. I miss Correa a lot but Pena has definitely made it hurt a lot less.
Armchair quarterbacking at its best. If they make moves which you deem smart, they'd be a winning team. You and no one else knows anything about the Astros, despite the fact that this is probably one of the best Astros forums on the internet. The team is underperforming. Anyone with eyes and a brain can see that. Several people (including myself) would argue it's not even close to being too late to fix that. Hallmarks of the successful Astros seasons were making in-season moves to shore up weak spots. Getting JV/Press/Cole or even Graveman/Montero. Having Siri and Goodrum struggle, in my opinion, is a no-big-deal in April. They're low-upside/low-floor players. Those 25th man-type players are exactly the type of player you can pick up on the cheap at the deadline for a low-level prospect. I kinda appreciate they gambled on Siri/Goodrum and perhaps saved prospects that could go to fill a different void in July/August; it thus far hasn't worked, but the fact that they saved some prospect bullets for later is smart. I'm a Luhnow fan and will be forever grateful that he got us a WS title, but you gotta have some kinda crazy selective memory to only appreciate the positive moments and ignore the mediocrity and failure during his tenure. The dude oversaw 3 consecutive 100 loss seasons, blew 2 of his 3 #1 overall picks, created the baseball "tank and rebuild" model which was reviled across MLB, made lots of low-key signings that didn't workout (remember Rick Ankiel?) and not to mention had a historic cheating scandal occur underneath him which ended up having him banned from baseball for a year (to which he never returned). Compare Click's 2 years to Luhnow's first 5 and you'd be shocked how reasonable Click's tenure has been so far.
Peña Poppers https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=ebe85d7c-a281-4655-b5e2-435229303860 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=fb3f17b4-592a-4df8-92cd-b72e39592d51 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=ebd8ffc9-a57f-4739-9e9b-3e2ebc8b1568 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=fcdacf19-4633-43eb-9c23-2ea4d26f20c4 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=7b5834b4-57c4-451c-8bf1-032ae3bf82d1
Pena is actually in the midst of some brutal BABIP luck here recently, 2 for 28 on balls in play. He still has quite a few rookie AB's, but he has extremely quick hands and the power is absolutely true. If/when he starts having a more patient approach he's gonna be a monster. Everything we've heard about him, from basically everybody, suggests he will absolutely put in all the work needed to improve that as well. Even if he doesn't, he's gonna be a plus defender with pop at a premium position, which is extremely valuable.
His "worst case bust" scenario seems to me to be a .225/.300/.425 guy who can hit 15 homers a year with ~90th percentile speed playing ~90th percentile defense at SS. That's a super valuable player, and that really looks like worst case. Best case is he's a Correa clone at the plate and Brandon Crawford in the field.
I think he could better than Correa at the plate from a consistency standpoint. Correa was never disciplined at the plate which is why he went through some real bad slumps.
