Abreu is a sunk cost that will weigh the team down for three years. Doing whatever it takes to get him off the roster should be Browns #1,2,3,4 & 5 priorities. Trading him along with whatever talent and or cash it takes to find a taker without eliminating our our future is going to be difficult but since Luhnow traded Carlos Lee I am sure it can be done. Once he is gone If I where somehow able to get my choice Loperfido would be called up to replace him and I would be done messing with 1st base for the foreseeable. Then moving forward by getting Gilbert on the roster would be next. Fixing problems while looking to the future is always better than sitting by and b****ing.
I understand but. 1) Abreu has a track record and it's too early to completely give up on him. If he does not improve in May, then look for options in June to replace him in July (like Click did with Yuli last year) 2) Loperfido could be a great player for the Astros but it isn't this year. Don't put that kind of pressure on him or set him up to fail by skipping levels and putting him in over his head. That's a recipe to ruin a player.
1A) He is the weakest player on the team and if we are competing for a title this season too early is just silly. Although he does have a small chance to improve it gets smaller every day and the longer we wait the more it will cost to get it done. 2A) I simply do not agree with you on this point. Loperfido will be up this year in some capicity and he is ready for a first base role today. If there is a consensus of disagreement on this Diaz would be a slightly less effective replacement at first but would still be a major improvement over Abreu.
You can't compare the Carlos Lee situation to Abreu. Lee was traded in July during the final year of his contract. He was also performing much better than Abreu is currently. Lee had a .747 OPS and a 102 OPS+ for the Astros at the time of the trade. The Astros also ate ALL of the remaining money on Lee's contract except the pro-rated league minimum. Abreu isn't going anywhere, and the Astros don't have/can't afford to trade away the talent it would take for someone to eat that contract. You know how you trade that contract? That's something you try to dump when you are trading a Kyle Tucker. That's the kind of leverage you need to get someone to eat even half the Abreu deal. When the Red Sox traded Betts they included Price but still had to eat half his contract. Your best course of action.... root for Abreu to turn it around because the Astros are eating that contract one way or another.
You apparently thought more highly of Lee than I did. Lee was entirely useless, Abreu is just vastly overpriced. To sit by and hope he somehow becomes valuable again while your money makes circles in the toilet is extremely foolhardy. It is almost as foolhardy as committing to spending $60 million dollars over three years in free agency was in the first place. You can believe it will cost you $40 million or you can realize it will save you $20 million and potentially a lot more in opportunity cost. It is an expensive lesson to learn but like ripping off a band aid it is best to get it behind you quickly and move on.
I’m glad I gave this community something with St. Maldonado. You have taken that and turned it into something amazing. Bravo sir, Bravo.
I'm sorry facts get in your way. It's not my thoughts about Carlos Lee. It's what he was actually doing at the plate. He played in 66 games in 2012 with the Astros before being traded that season and put up these numbers. .287 AVG, 336 OBP, .747 OPS, 102 OPS+, 15 2B, 5 HR If Jose Abreu had those numbers people wouldn't be nearly as upset with his performance. You also don't get to just decide to trade a bad contract. It takes 2 to tango. Take off your Astros orange colored glasses. If you were the GM of another team how badly would you have to pillage the Astros farm system to eat even 20 million of Abreu's contract as you propose? It seems to be a popular hobby around here to come up with ridiculous trade proposals that drastically benefit the Astros but make zero sense for the other team.
The "fact" is .287 AVG, 336 OBP, .747 OPS, 102 OPS+, 15 2B, 5 HR was completely worthless to the 2012 Astros. We had other goals for that year and an aging failed outfielder playing a poor imitation of a first baseman was not going to help achieve them. As for deciding to trade a bad contract, it works every time it is tried. Making the decision is hard, not making it is stupid.
With all due respect, giving up on Abreu after a bad month is ridiculous... the dude has a 9 year track record of excellence. He might not be THAT guy anymore, but I'll give you 2-1 odds that he outplays Yuli the rest of the season. Or he's hiding a right leg injury that is sapping all his power, and then he's untradable anyway
Thank you sir. The tone of your reply did not go unnoticed and your civility is appreciated. It is my belief that the Astros made a mistake signing a player with easily discernible decline after dropping our own first baseman who was obviously in decline himself. It may or may not be worthwhile to note that Abreu was likely vetted by a first baseman who thought he could play through a chronically arthritic shoulder. Both Gurriel and Bagwell had long histories of excellence but eventually succumbed to decline, as has every player who was good enough to last long enough to get to that point. If all we needed was somebody that could outplay Gurriel this year most any decent prospect would have done it. I understand the reason to move cautiously but if a mistake was made the quicker it is rectified the better.
I see Abreu's ceiling right now for this season being singles-hitting version of Daryl Ward. Not load managing him (because he isn't running the bases too much) is going to sink him below load managed Yuli. But there is 100% likelihood that he will cost more than Yuli.... that money could have been used better elsewhere.
I do have to say that this is possibly the dumbest thing I've ever read on the Astros Forum, @Inchan: would say leadership-wise... Brantley, Altuve, Bregman, and Orbit are ahead of Dusty You can't be serious here, right?
Since you didn’t include the post you were responding to, I can’t figure out which of the hundreds of dumbass posts you were referring to. I guess that makes me a dumbass too, oh well. Age has its privileges and its disadvantages.
No idea why I didn't quote the post and instead copy/pasted it in italics. "Leadership" is just about the one thing Dusty does exceptionally well.
Carlos Lee was a productive player traded in the last year of his contract. That's a standard deadline deal that GMs make all the time. Trading Abreu now would be the definition of buying high and selling low. What is another team going to pay for a guy when they know you just signed him and have decided to give up on him after 1 month? If it makes you feel better, we could have also signed Willson Contreras to solve our catcher position for the next 5 years and, a month in, ended up with a DH/LFer and be back to Maldanado plus a $90MM commitment.
