Care to tell us when standing pat is a great move? It's all about cost. For instance, I wouldn't give up Brown in a trade except for Melendez. I would easily give up Leon.
This is why they won't be winning a championship. Click needs to upgrade the catcher position. Will he do it? Doubtful When they lose another chance at a championship and posters say they gave it their best. Just know that Click didn't give it his best.
Offering Contreras for Yordan would be a crazy low offer by Chicago. The Astros refusing the trade is standing pat. Good move. Now offering Contreras for Siri would be a great move. Accepting that trade would be a great move. Most trade would be like Contreras for Meyer trading short term for long term, flip a coin. But I do not cotton to the idea that the only way to win is to mortgage the future.
I probably don't belong on this thread. Most of these trade proposals make my eyeballs bleed. I believe most here are severely undervaluing our pitching. Our rotation is elite, perhaps the best in the league. Any of these starters is highly valuable by themselves to think it would take two of them to make any trade is nearly unthinkable to me. J Verlander (Ace) F Valdez* (#1) C Javier (#2) L Garcia (#3) J Urquidy (#4) Waiting in Sugar Land are more just like them. L McCullers (#2 Injured) F Whitley (Prospect with an ace ceiling) H Brown (Prospect with a #1 ceiling) First on my list of players to shed. 1. Trade E Valdez, a near ready high ceiling 2nd base prospect for an equivalent 1st base prospect. 2. J Castro ( Buy out the remainder of his contract and allow him to retire.) Continue to play Lee and re-asses him vs bench catchers available at the deadline, late. 3. J Odorizzi (Package with cash & or Solomon & or Bermudez and trade early.) 4. T Jones, E Paredes, & N Goodrum (Trade or DFA at the deadline). Add Y Diaz (ist base/DH) and H Brown (SP) to the 40 man roster as soon as there is space.
You don't have to mortgage the future. Keep what you've got and trade minor leaguers. For instance, I think an Abreau/ Barber/lower level pitcher would get a deal for Contreras done and while giving up talent you aren't mortgaging the future. Would this trade hurt a little? Yes. Would it give the Stros their best chance to win a championship? Absolutely, so you do the deal. Do you think giving up Brown for Melendez is mortgaging the future? I don't.
Melendez is no way shape or form getting traded for Brown. Think Javier and Garcia if you want to make it a pitching package and you are likely closer to their asking price. he’s got to have a huge price on his head.
And if LMJ can't handle a starters workload or just can't stay healthy, and Brown doesn't make an impact (honestly, as much as we like him, a large percentage of pitching prospects of his ilk don't) then you have JV (assuming you resign him), Framber, Javier, ? and ? This team is where it's at because of our starting pitching
You obviously don’t do that deal unless you sign JV. you are hand waving Brown and LMJ away, but you also have Whitley and Bielak, whoever the Odo dujor is, an opportunity to get a guy at the deadline, etc. you don’t need much more than below average dude like when Fiers held down the rotation in 2017 and we won the World Series that year. Because your lineup will hit the **** out of the ball and win a ton of games regardless of pitching. But you’ve got enough pitching left over to be fine. You don’t need to go 11 deep in guys who can start.
Overall, standing pat is usually not the best when everyone else is getting better. As the adage goes, if you aren't getting better, you're getting worse. You also have to take into account how the locker room would react to not making a move. In 2017, Keuchel and Reddick (though both are not on the team anymore) were notably angry after not making any moves (other than acquiring Liriano) at the deadline (of course, that's when you still had the waiver trade deadline a month later, and we all know what happened then), and then the team went on a skid. The August 2017 slump may not have been entirely because of that, but it feels like it did play some role in affecting the locker room vibes.
Will just have to disagree. I'm not hand waving anyone away...but if you just count on Brown/Whitley to come in and do what our current young starting pitching is doing, you are doing it wrong. Too many of yall just take for granted that Brown is the next stud, and Whitley and whoever and whoever...the guys we have right now are special. We are on pace to win over 107 games because of them And saying you don't do that deal unless you sign JV...I seriously doubt we are extending JV during the season so your timing doesn't really work Also, Lance has been one of if not my absolute favorite of all of the current group. I would love for him to come back and be a key starter. But well before having TJ in 2018 we had been worried about health for him long term. Then a year and a half after TJ he has been back on the shelf and we are hoping to get something out of him. Would be awesome for him to come back and help lead us to a championship, but trading away starters so we can count on that to happen isn't how you build champions in my opinion I'm not ready to start making deals that could close the window for championships...
Also have to be careful who you trade away. It's one thing if you want to trade away Odorizzi, or prospects from Brown to Lee to Leon to Barber to whoever...that affects your overall talent long term, but doesn't affect your clubhouse None of us really know the makeup of the locker room. We know what the media tells us. We know what it "looks like" on the field. But we don't know the ties to each other and the leadership that is shown behind closed doors. You start trading away guys like Garcia/Urquidy/Javier like some want, or even trading for guys who will make Yuli/Maldanado be demoted, it has an affect on guys. Baseball is different from the other sports in that way because of the day to day nature of it. You aren't playing 1 game a week like football, or even 2-3 or sometimes (rarely anymore) 4 like basketball...these guys play damn near every day, they are in that locker room and on the field together damn near every day. Blowing up a roster like it's a fantasy league probably isn't the best idea when your current group is on pace to win over 107 games AND has just basically dominated the team that most of the nation thinks is the best in baseball
The More I watch Benintendi the more he makes since for the Astros. Just Like Melendez. I would offer a big big big Package for those 2 guys. Something like : Urquidy, Garcia, Lee, McCormick, Leon, Barber, Soloman and Ivey for Melendez and Benintendi and hope and pray they say OK. IF they do Hunter Brown is moving up with McCullers and Javier will get a chance to Start
Agreed, but I liked the fact that when Luhnow thought he had a chance to win a championship, he threw caution to the wind. The only guys it appears Luhnow was unwilling to give up were, Tucker,Bregs,Marte's, Whitley.
Relievers, sure. But I suspect the pitchers love and rely on Maldonado more than they feel they need a better #9 hitter.
Asking prices aren't always reasonable. Sometimes they are, sometimes they're close and sometime they're outrageous. Many times an asking price is just throwing it out there hoping yo find two foolish buyers or one foolish buyer you can convince is in a bidding war when he's not.
Listening to players is just a notch above listening to fans. It might be "responsive" to make a foolish move, but it doesn't make you better. What you need are smart moves if you want to improve. In your example, I suspect there were bad moves available which were turned down, upsetting players and fans alike. But this put us in the position to make the smart move.
