Like many of us I wanted Bell. Hard to fault Click for not getting that done when he was thrown into the mega trade. One move I would have liked is Drury. Currently the Astros have 2 players with an OPS north of .800 in Yordan and Altuve. Neither Mancini or Vazquez have an OPS above .800. Drury is sitting at .855 and would have been a nice piece that has played 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, LF, and RF within the last few years.
They are perceived to have really strong prospects. Typically players that have loud tools, were drafted high or their system receives a lot of attention. I agree with you. Success is largely based on how well an organization navigates these waters. There are some organizations that are very good at drafting and developing players, but not utilizing trades.... and everything in between. I would argue the same. Possibly less, it really depends on the team and expectations and budget considerations. The now have an ace pitcher wrapped up for the remainder of this season and next, and they have other young starters as well. They will have needs arise, and they still have some talent in their system as well. I think knowing that your organization has to develop a #1 type starter is a lot more pressure IMO. The best organizations do both. The Astros traded nominal prospects for Verlander and several years of Cole. They signed Gurriel to a large contract as an international free agent. You ideally are good at both.
First, I would say Luhnow was the best executive in baseball so a comparison to him isn't entirely fair. Having said that, Luhnow certainly seemed less risk adverse than Click is. However, if you remember Luhnow was crushed for not getting the Orioles closer or improving the team at the deadline. The only thing that saved him was some luck. Verlander cleared waivers and the Cubs passed on getting him in a deal. The Astros closed the deal at the last minute. The Greinke and Gomez deals are also bigger deals than anything Click has done. The only reason I am not harder on Click is that the vast majority of known trade offers would not have been as good as his decision to hold onto players from within the organization. At some point he is going to have to make a big trade. I thought it would be when Verlander was hurt, but he didn't and it some how worked out.
Mahle has more value than Odorizzi. He makes 500K this year. He has almost the same FIP as Odorizzi. He pitches more innings than Odorizzi and is under control for 2023. Mahle also has far better stuff and strikes out more than a batter an inning. Jake is close to hitting milestones and seeing the value of his option increase. Players like Mahle and Quintana were just more attractive options.
I would have been fine with Drury but I will point out that he did a lot of his damage in that band box the Reds play in.
The defense has been below their standards regardless of who they have been playing over the past X weeks. And the hitting has been inconsistent regardless of who they have been playing. I am talking about what they are doing against lesser teams. How are they playing down to their level? I keep hearing that, yet, I have no idea what that even means. The issues you just described happen regardless of whether or not they play the Yankees or the A's.
Drury is a much better player than Josh Fields but I kinda look at the trade like that. Rental for super toolsy lotto ticket. I dunno if the Astros have an equivalent. And even if they did, there's no guarantee the Reds would prefer our guy to the Padres'. Basically, this trade stuff is hard and you both gotta have enough trade ammo AND have other people want it.
I mean we lose to bad teams. That's a fact. It seems like people have to reach to find anything positive about Dusty other than he's a nice guy
Other than the whole being 30 games over .500 and 10 games over the second place divisional opponent… Other than taking the prior season team to game 6 of the World Series… other than being a future hall of fame manager… Other than being universally beloved in the game…. Yea, he seems like a pretty nice guy.
I agree... I was giving an example of a trade that actually happened that I would have wanted the Astros to go after. Drury fit that bill. It's hard to say why didn't Click get Cooper, Happ, or Contreras when they weren't even traded. At least Drury did get moved.
He's terrible on defense just about everywhere and we already have Diaz, where does he fit on this team?
It's not just 2 months of Merrifield. Merrifield isn't a fa until 2024 and the Stros are going to be hurting in the OF next year with Brantley and Mancini most likely not at MMP. Plus who knows if Meyers makes it back. I see McCormick as a replacement level player. Hopefully Leon will be ready to begin Next year so Click will only need to find one OF in fa or trade. Merrifield would have taken alot of pressure off of needing to find another OF.
OT but I think Javier is a quality third pitch away from being one of the most dominant starters in the game. That guy is so close to figuring it out.
Merrifield has had an off yr. I think he would've been much better at MMP with the Stros rather than with the Royals. Look at his track record.
His track record is that he's 33 years old and has gotten consistently worse each of the last 4 years. This year is exactly on trend from an 0.811 OPS to 0.764 to 0.711 to 0.643. Dropping about 0.050 points per year.
