[Official] Astros Off Season

Sign me up for Stearns.

 

Stearns, Brown or Harris would all be good with me. Just as long as it’s not Ausmus.

 

Negative value simply means he is being paid higher than his peers for similar production. It doesn't mean he is a below average player. Players like this have been traded simply in a salary dump before when a team decides they have to tear it down to begin a rebuild. More recently they take low value high upside talent with a low value in exchange. They an afford to miss if they get enough opportunities to hit.

It is typical to ignore the existing contract in evaluating a player and focus only on field value, but this is a fallacy. In many cases, a recent contract places a player in this position because he signed a contract for more than the simulation program calculated him to be worth. It also over reacts to year by year fluctuations in performance.

In this case, we might consider it an overpay worth taking or we may not. But at least he does have positive field value. He could also be motivation for a certain player who is balking at catcher to see a catcher making over $20M/yr.

To be honest, Greinke was a salary dump with Arizona sending cash to make the trade happen. We still paid a pretty penny, but not the full value of his contract. they could have sent it in the form of a player or prospects, but the chose cash.

There are many things wrong with the model, but including the contract in the valuation is not one of them.

I simply chose McCullers because he has the greatest negative value on the team. We don't have many and the few we do have tend to be recent contracts.

 

edit- already posted

 

There is no way in hell the Astros hire Ausmus...........right?

 

WHY? They have right handed relievers better at getting lefties out than any lefty on the market. Your lefty specialist does NOT HAVE TO BE A LEFTY.

 

I'm sure they are..... they just don't want to pay a lot for one.

Will Smith
Mike Minor
Zach Britton
Andrew Chafin
Brad Hand
Danny Duffy
Justin Wilson
Matt Moore

Maybe Daniel Norris....

There are arms out there, but most of the good ones wants a player option on year two or a chance to start.

Mike Minor would be a good arm to switch the pen but he has long said he wants to start...

 

I'm gonna say no. Ausmus being a legit candidate sounds like someone misheard or misreported something or his name is being put out there so fans/media are happy with the person they actually hire.

 

Yeah- I mean I never got the love for Ausmus the genius because he went to Dartmouth. He was a jock. I had a buddy of mine in high school that played football up there. He was “smart for a jock” but nobody viewed him as some towering intellect he was a JAG. Just like your run of the mill football player at Stanford. That’s not some argument for being in charge of a 2B business. GTFO with all that.

 

Stearns?

 

Astros/Jeff Bagwell trying to pull a Jack Easterby by hiring Brad Ausmus smh

 

No way to Ausmus. boy, that would be a big step backwards or twelve.

 

If Bagwell get Ausmus hired, this thing is going to go downhill real fast.

Ausmus was a nice guy, a smart guy and all. But I do not view him as a GM in the likes of Luhnow.

Nepotism is the way to sink a good thing into the ocean floor.

 

Honestly he wasn’t even a nice guy- he was kind of a prick.

 

Is there any way to convince Altuve to slide into the 4th slot? He hits lefties so well and he's be perfect hitting the lefty they always bring in for Alvarez. If you want to keep Pena in the 2 hole, swap him and Bregman.

R 1B Abreu 378 OBP
R 3B Bregman 366 OBP
L LF Alvarez 187 OPS
R 2B Altuve 160 OPS
L RF Tucker 478 SLG
R SS Pena 427 SLG
L DH Brantley 370 OBP
R CF McCormick 332 OBP
R C Maldonado 248 OBP

 

Supposedly there was some third party communication between the Astros and Stearns very early on.

I don't know what Crane will ultimately do.

I think people dismissing Ausmus probably shouldn't do that. He has a lot of people in baseball that think highly of him and if he were not a real candidate, I think he would have made some comment when asked.

What I will say is that the Astros are being very meticulous and have spoken to a number of top minds in the game.

Harris.... Brown.... Sawdaye.... Hill and others.

Stearns isn't perfect but he would be a very strong addition to the Astros... and he knows the owner.