More than a lot think. Yes both are free agents, but you are getting possibly the best reliever in baseball that can take a large workload AND you also are getting a very talented pitcher that has been up and down, but is pitching very well. How much is THAT worth to a team trying to maximize their season and attempt at a WS?…. I’m pretty confident that it is a lot, probably a couple top 100 prospects if the Padres deal them together. Think about how much better you would feel about the Astros bullpen trotting out - Neris/Abreu/Hader/Pressly every single winnable playoff game…. The addition of Hader puts the Astros on par with the pen from last year. Imagine having Snell starting in your playoff rotation…. Valdez/Snell/Javier You can tandem start Brown and France if you want… send one to the pen… have Urquidy in the pen. Is that possibility to have a real chance to win the World Series again, worth someone like Gilbert and Arrighetti? What is it really worth to the Astros? I think a lot - maybe not Gilbert- but certainly several pieces at the big league level or highly thought of minor leaguers.
No it’s not - the food in NY is incredibly overrated. Chicago has good food - maybe the best in the USA, but Houston is a very underrated food city… only Chicago and New Orleans are better.
Sorry bro. I agree that Houston has great food. Austin has equaled it in the last 20 years. You are dead wrong about the food in NY. Dead wrong. Like wow so ****ing wrong.
I have never been to New Orleans, but years ago I dated a woman who was a chef and had previously owned a catering company in New Orleans. Man did I eat good those few months.
To be clear. I am in Albany, NY not NYC. Best food options up here are Italian, Indian/Pakistani, bagels, and Chinese. when I go back to Texas to visit, I gorge on Mexican, BBQ, and any place I can get fried okra, collard greens and a chicken fried steak. I grew up begging my parents to go to Luby's, Tookie's and T Bone Toms. Also loved the Flying Dutchman, and Clear Creek Inn no one here probably remembers that place, which was torn down in the name of progress IE the Kemah Boardwalk. Also loved raising the flag at Ponchos at the Alameda mall back in my college days. My life is food. I am the Campus General Manager of Dining Services at a college in Albany. and I can say nothing in the world is better than a smoked brisket sandwich wrapped in Butchers paper with a side of potato salad made with Miracle whip instead of Hellman's. My high school stoner days I lived on the 2 tacos for .99 from Jack in the Crack. We just got our first sonic up here last year and there is a Chick Fil-A coming soon. Hope to be back in Texas before it is completed.
I dont know what prospects it would take out of the Stros system, but I would try to make this happen.
I haven't been to Chicago and going to Wrigley Field is on my bucket list. Hopefully the crime wave will settle down. I'm looking forward to trying a piece of true Chicago style pizza.
No it’s not - the food in NY is incredibly overrated. Chicago has good food - maybe the best in the USA, but Houston is a very underrated food city… only Chicago and New Orleans are better. Nah - Austin hasn’t passed Houston in quality of food. They are better at a couple types of cuisine, but not better overall. New York has good food, but it is the most overrated food city in North America.
As long as you avoid 2-3 small neighborhoods in Chicago, it is a very safe city. All of the crime comes from those few areas. True Chicago pizza is called squares, but there is also pie pizza as well.
Born in Houston and have spent my entire adult life in Austin. Austinites like to tout Austin as a food destination. My opinion: It never has been anywhere near on par with food in larger cities. It is what it is, a mid-level city size surrounded by bigger metropolitan areas. People in Austin care more about the ambience and presentation and the wine list than the taste of the food itself. People in Austin tout “local” to the point that they’ll falsely raise the level of mediocrity to 5-stars. I’ll accept that what I state doesn’t match the city’s reputation, but in my personal opinion that reputation has always been a lot of talk and a lack of substance. That said, I’ll take the BBQ in Austin and surrounding locales over pretty much anywhere
Snake’s Top 10 US food city rankings: 1. Houston 2. San Francisco 3. NY* 4. New Orleans 5. LA 6. Chicago* 7. DC 8. Miami* 9. Austin 10. Atlanta *I haven’t lived in these cities and probably haven’t traveled to them enough to properly rate their food scene, but from what I have eaten there and read about, this is where they’d rank.
To properly rate Austin’s food scene you have to completely ignore anything you see online or read in a magazine/newspaper. The “trendy” restaurants that have exploded in number in the last 15 years that get all the attention are all 2nd rate imitations of places you find in bigger cities. But if you know what’s good and expand your evaluation to include less sophisticated cuisine, Austin is top notch. Its combo of BBQ, Mexican, Tex-Mex, and steaks is 2nd only to Houston. Austin is not on par with Houston or NY but it’s a world class food city.
That was kind of my point and to your point, Austinites “look down” on Mexican and BBQ (or at least think it’s fashionable to do so publicly). As I mentioned, I think CenTex BBQ is unmatched. Austin Mexican, however, too much west coast style and too little Tex-Mex for my tastes, but I would be curious to hear any recommendations you might have besides Matt’s, Maudie’s which I find OK, but a little overrated compared to other cities. Steak? I’ve often argued that Austin doesn’t seem to know what a steak is so I’ll take those recommendations as well though I do enjoy some of the Brazilian steakhouses from time to time
Buddy Luby is an old friend of mine, he grew up down the road from a Fed Mart I worked at about 50 years ago. His Dads restaurants were amazing. My favorite one was in the tunnels beneath the city. The place seemed to put endless people through effortlessly. Buddy is in his dotage now and has fallen on hard times but not so long ago when he got the urge he could cook like nobodies business. He could do a craw fish boil for twenty people without breaking a sweat and everything was delicious. The Luby's here shut down long ago and I really miss it.
Austin is a full blown food hub now 20 years ago, I would agree with you. It’s totally different now.
ALC is fantastic. I was the general manager of the Tavern (which is about 50 yards away from ALC, across the little parking lot) for several years in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. I still take my Dad to ALC.
