Starting to get the feeling that Crane is content to more or less stand pat for now. I hope that isn't the case as picking up Abreu, while a great move, doesn't offset losing JV, but we hear year after year how aggressive Crane wants to be yet big moves have been very few and far between.
Maton is not an option to be traded. He is a free agent after this season and at $2.5-3M or so he is likely to get in arbitration any team will pass and want a player with more control. Maton is on the Astros or paid and released - only options.
Any deal that involves Brown and Urquidy/Garcia is an instant no from me. You can't let Verlander walk (which I was OK with) and then trade 2 more starters. We don't desperately need offense from catcher, we can add a bat at DH/LF without risking our rotation that much.
Agreed, if the Astros get Murphy (which I haven't heard) then they will play him behind the plate quite a bit. There is also this idea that he is young, and that isn't the case. He is already 28 years old and in his prime. He is a better all-around catcher than Contreras.
Nah. I am extremely confident Houston will make at least one more significant move, but I’d still put the over/under at 2.5 more moves. They will fill their roster spots and they’re not gonna do it with crummy players.
They aren't giving up on Varsho They literally have too many OF. Especially left handed centerfielders. They stated they prefer to trade from the others but are in a pickle ( a good pickle) It's not like pitching where you need 13+ guys at a time and 20+ throughout the season.
You could have a fishing net set up to catch the balls and a randomizer app to call pitches and the Astros would have been #1 in ERA. Maldonado might be good for chemistry but this line of logic about his game management is getting close to laughable at this point. Javier had a 1.31 ERA in 30+ innings with Vazquez catching and over 3 ERA with Maldonado back there. Abreu also had a better ERA with Vazquez back there. Montero had a 1 run per game better ERA with Vazquez. Just stop with this silliness that Maldonado is some sort of savant that turns Tim Redding into Pedro Martinez. He is OK and is also eminently replaceable.
Exactly, Y'all acting like we got 14 potential starters on this staff. We got 6. And one of them has only made a couple of starts in the Major leagues. And Junior could go down at any time, we know that. Stop giving away our starting pitchers. Plus no way Crane is dealing any of those guys. He values pitching way too much. We are 10 times more likely to add a veteran starter than to trade he loves any of our young starters away. I fully expect us to have 7 potential starting pitchers on opening day.
I would be extremely happy with Benintendi and Bassit When you really look at it, what playoff teams have gotten better so far? Yankees haven't (spent 360 to stay the same), Blue Jays haven't, Indians haven't...Mariners probably have although they are down a couple of really good pen arms Mets haven't, Braves haven't, Dodgers certainly haven't, Phillies have IF Harper is healthy Lot of money already thrown around and I just don't see who has put themselves in a situation where they are significantly better than they were last year Lot more moves to be made for sure, but right now we are without a doubt the best team in baseball
The Astros just had a season where a bunch of mid-tier prospects turned into arguably one of the best pitching staffs in history. Either the Astros are super-lucky that they hit on every random pitcher they drafted or there was likely some element beyond just the pitchers that helped make every one of them perform near the top of their expectations. That could be pitching coaches, could be cheating, could be Maldy, could be something else. But given the universal praise he gets from pitchers, the amount of work he puts into studying opposing lineups/etc (something that not all catchers do - specifically Contreras from Nook's reporting), and the fact that for years the Astros have refused to bench him, maybe there's some part of their success that's connected to him.
