Sure. I would assume such a deal presupposes them eating some salary. If you could get his obligation down to about 10 million a year (no idea if they would eat that much) that seems reasonable to me and shouldn't unduly hamstring us with Tucker.
Well, sure, if you get SD to pitch in $10M and 3 prospects of our choosing...you don't hang up the phone immediately. It's just not a deal/commitment I see the Stros being interested in. Or the Padres.
Only because this game offensively has bored me: 1. Eric Hosmer - His yearly stats (specifically his OPS+) was mentioned earlier. That's mainly because he did have a great start. In March/April, he had a 1.054 OPS. In both May and June, he has posted an OPS less than Yuli has for the entire year (.654 in May, .589 in June). So while his overall yearly stats don't look bad, they are trending in the wrong direction. Also mentioned above, Hosmer hits righties a lot better than lefties, which is completely true. However, for whatever reason, it is completely opposite this year and he has hit a lot worse against righties than he has lefties. I'm not saying that would continue, but that's what he has done this year. 2. Luis Campusano - he has all of 49 AB's at the major league level, and they haven't been good. I'm not in the group that believes the Astros need an inexperienced backup that MIGHT do better with a "change of scenery." If the Astros want an inexperienced backup, might as well call up Lee and ride with him. If the Astros get another catcher to replace Castro, it will need to be someone who can hit better than Castro and have experience catching at the major league level in case if Maldy has to miss any time. 3. Can we stop just throwing out trades that center around the likes of Chas, Solomon and Bermudez? Chas has not been good recently and basically is a 4th OFer that strikes out a lot, and Solomon and Bermudez seem to be having down years. Not going to be able to get much of anything for those guys, even with all three in the same trade.
Does anybody still think the Astros are looking for a catcher? They seem delighted to stick with Maldy. So am I. With Gurriel and Bregman rounding back into form it is tough to see a way to improve the infield. The same can be said of an outfield of Tucker, Meyers, & Alvarez. Uncle Mike is as good as any DH we could pick up and can still play a pretty fair left field if called upon to do so. Houston has 5 dominant starters now with more pitching waiting in the wings. Their relievers make up what is arguably the best bullpen in the league. Maybe you could add and a lefty. A bench catcher might be nice too. I would prefer to add Lee to the roster in August and carry him as a third catcher in the playoffs, These are trifling issues. So why are we still talking about trade targets? This entire subject is beginning to feel like a dead horse to beat on.
The Astros is a team full of stars and we do not have the prospects to trade for players good enough to improve on that even if they where available. So yeah I guess that is what I am saying. Thanks for making that clear to me.
Are you saying they cant trade guys like Leon/Santos for Contreras? Or find a top shelf reliever like they did last year in a trade? Prospects are cool, parades are cooler.
We do not have a place for Contreras The Astros are set on playing Maldy behind the dish. Contreras is a step down at any other position. I do not know of a reliever out there that moves the needle who is available for any prospects, and none I would rather have than our own excess starters that will be just sittin there lookin out the window anyway.
Maldy is fine. That's a mistake trying to get a bat at catcher and disrupting the synergy between our catcher and this pitching staff. Maybe a backup catcher as Castro not known for his defensive skills can't be hitting . 115 this late into the season. He's been completely useless up until today. We need a closer or a top notch setup man, this bullpen is simply smoke and mirrors and won't hold up in the long run. The track record of the relief pitchers in question says as much. And you wait out to see if Gurriel is finally on his way back to being a solid hitter before pulling the trigger for a first baseman. Pray Gurriel gets it together as he's showing in the last several games.
Contracts don't go down in MLB Maybe the amount he actually gets paid goes down but for tax threshhold purposes his AAV stays the same.
If acquired via trade, only the remaining years/money would be counted. So the AAV would, in fact, go down
Astros should have traded Altuve, Bregman, Alvarez, Tucker, Pena, Meyers, Framber, Javier, Garcia, and Urquidy when they had the chance.
I was looking for potential trade partners and thought of Seattle. But when I look at their line-up, it's a very good one. They are just losing despite their talent. It doesn't look like a rebuild situation. They might make a long run for a wild card spot in the second half of the season. I was thinking how France would fit in for next year mostly as he enters his 1st Arbitration year at age 28. In isolation, he seems like a good trade target if Seattle was a couple of years away in a rebuild. But that doesn't seem to be the case.
