Yeah- not going to sign him until 44. Unless he wants to do a 7 year 7M add on- just in case we want to keep him behind 2025
Pretty sure we have team control through 2026. He's making $719,000 this year. Your suggestion of a contract extension is once again preposterous. $1 million AAV? Unless he becomes a starter there is no need to try to extend him.
Weird priorities. Framber projects to age very well as a pitcher regardless of the shift ban. He’s not Dallas Keuchel out there.
Thank you for posting this. I was at game 6 and Framber was a machine. But I had never even seen an interview until this. Good to put some depth with the man that provided one of the most enjoyable moments I have (or will spend) with my son.
Dude it was a joke with the other poster who thought I was talking about giving Jose Abreu a 7 year extension right now when I was talking about Brian Abreu.this all should have been evident by our exchange and him saying oops I got the wrong Abreu, but if that wasn’t obvious I also talked about you know, him being 44 at the end of the contract. So, you could try reading a little better. I know my valuations backwards and forwards and have never suggested anything that doesn’t work or make logical sense. My strong contention on Framber is he should not be extended for any kind of big money- but I have enough loyalty toward him that if he wants to lock in generational money I’d do that for him (out of loyalty) and offer him up to something like 6/90- which I would expect him not to take.
I have never once brought up the shift ban with Framber. It concerns me not at all. Go read the fangraphs article I posted and explain to me why Framber projects to age well. Hint, he doesn’t.
You got me there I meant to start that post " If the team wants to extend Tucker he must be first priority not Bregman" Then all the Tucker explanation why the extension window is closing fast if it's not already closed. Sorry. My bad.
None of the guys in this test group were as good as striking guys out as Framber. The guys close to Framber's K numbers in that test group, were not close to Framber in generating groundballs. I think that study would apply to Dallas Keuchel types. Guys with a curve as best pitch, that get Ks like Framber (8.5>K/9), and have a high GB% are all under 30 or Sonny Gray. Framber getting groundballs is a plus. It is not the sole reason he's a good pitcher. Granted, I would find it highly amusing if Luis Castillo started to suck now that he's 30 and has an extension with the Mariners.
I would for sure wait on Framber until we see how the elimination of the defensive shift effects his numbers.
My wife will be happy, she hated that wind up.He should be able to adjust easily. His quick pitch was fine. Probably more of a mental thing for him than anything.
I guess we are going to see which point of view is right. FTR I am in the " Framber will age well" camp. He is simply in a category all his own. You can say he's kinda like this guy who didn't age well. But he's not exactly like anyone else. He is much more of a K pitcher than a typical ground ball pitcher. He has an elite curve ball on addition to the sinker. He has been durable and does not project to have injury concerns more than any pitcher does. He is very in tuned to the mental aspect of his performance to limit slumps or allow bad performances have long term negative effects. I am very pro Framber but not $150M pro. (I realize that report has been discredited) Look at the deals Robbie Ray ( as full FA and reigning Cy Young winner) and Luis Castillo (with 1 arb season left) got from Seattle. 5 / $115M, and 5 / $108M I know it was ONLY a report to make us nuts and bring attention. - but it worked
At some point Keith is going to be right about the Astros. He has been wrong literally 80-90% of the time on the Astros over the last decade. Some of it is that how he evaluates players is very different than how the Astros do. Law is HUGE on raw tools, and as much as he says plate discipline means something to him, it is only the case if the player has elite tools as well. Keith points to Seth Beer and Bukauskas as examples of failure, but there is no way to know how good they would have been if they stayed in the Astros system. As for Whitley, he is an enigma. Korey was the #32 pick in the first round and should at least be a long term reserve catcher. Guys that work hard, are solid athletes and have some pop tend to stick around long term. Also, there is still a chance he makes the adjustments and is a starter. Here is his list........... Here are Law's top-20 Houston Astros prospects: 1. Hunter Brown, RHP 2. Yainer Diaz, C/1B 3. Drew Gilbert, OF 4. Colin Barber, OF 5. Jacob Melton, OF 6. Korey Lee, C 7. Forest Whitley, RHP 8. Pedro Leon, 2B/OF 9. Justin Dirden, OF 10. Logan Cerny, OF 11. Will Wagner, OF 12. Miguel Ullola, RHP 13. Joe Perez, 3B/1B 14. Luis Santana, IF 15. Spencer Arrighetti, RHP 16. Zach Daniels, OF 17. Ryan Clifford, OF 18. Misael Tamarez, RHP Outside of the top 7-8, his list is really lazy. The Astros last couple international draft classes have been very good so far. Then again, Keith argued with me closing that Valdez was a #5 starter, Christian Javier should be last guy in the pen.
Which is why he writes for a living and no one has tapped him recently to work in the front office. I know I may sound like Bagwell, but there is something to be said about mental and character make-up which is why Valdez and Javier have developed like they did. It's hard to measure and quantify but you know front offices would measure it if they could and I'm sure the Astros score it to a certain degree. Bregman, Correa, Pena, and Altuve have it. Whitley obviously doesn't.
Shift or no shift Gb are still much better at run prevention than fly balls. They just don’t do that much damage. I’m really not worried about it, but yeah/ it’s another data point working against him.
I wonder if pitching machines can simulate players ball paths. I bet teams will eventually use VR technology to prepare players for pitchers.
Yes, competitiveness and make up definitely matter. Oddly enough, Keith Law was offered the position of farm director by Crane but he turned it down. As for Valdez and Javier, it isn't just make up. They both have measurable skills that make them very good. Valdez gets an incredible amount of ground balls, and a decent amount of strikeouts. He also is a bull that can pitch a lot of innings. You add all that up, and even allowing for walks, and you have a very effective pitcher. Last year Valdez faced 800 batters. Off the bat, 200 of them struck-out. That leaves 600 batters faced He had 66% of ball put in play end up as ground balls. That means that 400 of the 600 batters faced hit ground balls, and the vast majority of those were outs, sometimes double-plays. He walked a batter every three innings and gave up a about a homer per 9 innings. It is just a big mathmatical equation. As for Javier, it was obvious in the minors that his array of pitchers complimented each other very well, and as a result were better than each pitches value on it's own. It was also obvious that guys couldn't hit Javier. There were multiple hitters in the minors that said he was really nasty.... yet Law didn't like him as much as he should because of pedigree. **** pedigree.
Yeah, they can (at least somewhat) there are machines that are being worked on that can simulate particular pitches thrown by particular pitchers, that includes delivery etc. I have seen it.... it isn't perfect but it is a lot better than just a pitching machine. The angle, etc. is accounted for.
I'm in the treat him more like normal camp. Though, with pitchers that is extremely cautious with long term deals. Reading the FanGraphs article makes me only slightly more worried.
