How does going from a 0.600 OPS to a 0.700 OPS in the 9 spot in 50-100 games lengthen the lineup tremendously?
They will likely add another catcher regardless and look to upgrade at another spot. Catcher was the spot they could make the most pronounced improvement offensively, but the cost was ultimately prohibitive and Vasquez isn’t exactly a great hitter either.
If he is healthy, he is capable of being a solid bat,especially in a platoon. He is also capable defensively when he isn’t banged up. Considered a very bright player too. There are others out there that have had some success in the past as well, including Zunino.
In which we went to 2 World Series' and won one? His bad batting average didn't seem to affect the overall team successes.
Bryan Reynolds is my favorite trade target. Looking at Savant, part of the reason behind his drop in numbers from 2021 to 2022 can be attributed to teams shifting him more when batting left handed (42.9% vs 74.9%). His WOBA without a shift as a lefty was 27 points higher. With the new shift rules, Reynolds will COOK.
@Nook what are you thinking about the DH/LF situation? Think we just bring Brantley back or make a move whether it's trade or FA?
3 years 30 million isn’t going after Vasquez. Astros could have offered that and still signed Yuli and Brantley
I think he is too expensive for the Astros from an asset standpoint. My guess is they will make an offer but it will not be enough. I think they are more likely to sign Conforto or Benintendi or possibly a trade requiring less assets. Reynolds would be a good fit for the Astros line up but with the team still feeling the impact of the lost draft picks, and a lack of GM and and head of player development, I am sure Cook and Gross is telling Crane to be judicious trading too many prospects. As much as I feel Benintendi is limited, he would stabilize the Astros defense and bottom of the order.
Regarding the Varsho rumors, here's one of the Phoenix radio guys weighing in. He seems connected based on what I've seen in the past.
Talk about a terrible fit, and for $25 million a year? Hopefully we don't take this tragic turn. It's not the Astro way.
From my limited perspective, I love Abreau and would not have wanted Bell. There is something about Bell that I just didn't like.
I mean, it really really really seems like it’s lining up for us to overpay a broken down Brantley to come in and be more or less worthless starting in May or June. The writing is all over the wall on this deal. Add that to Yulincoming back that everyone is clamoring for and we can have a platoon of **** that we pay 15M to, when we could have more or less just signed Conforto for that and moved on with our lives. This seems very very very stupid. I really hope I’m wrong. Not because if the Astros do the dumb we will be cooked or anything, but it’s sort of absurd that we can be about 40M below the tax line with an obvious top 5 team and decide to enter the season with 2 massive holes that are known. by the by, everyone keeps talking about us being 6 deep in quality hitters but we aren’t. Peña is a Jag offensively in the 2 hole. He’s got no ability to draw walks, is a whif machine and is all of 1% better than league average right now. We have an amazeballs hitter in Yordan, 2 more guys in their prime that are all star quality in Tucker and Bregman, a guy getting older that’s a top 10 MVP candidate in Altuve, another guy that should be above average but is old as **** in Abreu, 2 average guys in Chas and Peña that could certainly improve and 2 clownishly bad options for a WS contending team at DH and catcher. It would be irresponsible as hell to not fix one of those spots right now and at least do a little patch work on the second. We’ve got time, need to buy some insurance here and get better where we are terrible because there’s lots of room for **** to go pear shaped.
Of course it needs context. the point is to build the best team and to figure out how to best allocate resources to get there. Every team has holes - for the Astros, it's offense at catcher. Again, big deal. The Astros will be fine if Maldy is their starting catcher, just like they were last year (this time, without a torn groin).
