My only dislike of Correa, besides his injuries, was when he wanted to leave Houston. But if he wanted to have a future here then I was all for it due to his playoff performances alone. Now, we have his replacement who absolutely killed in the clutch to win playoff games and people forget again as they feel it doesn't account for regular season wins. Absolutely no way should Pena be discarded in a trade right now unless you get top of the line grade A meat back.
IF and only if the Mets pay the majority of JV’s contract, take back Montero would I offer Gilbert and Arrighetti and no more than that. If the Mets don’t take back salary. Two 12-15 prospects should make it happen.
Cohen's stated objective is to improve the farm system while also competing next year. He has stated he will pay as much of the outgoing contracts to make sure he gets as high level prospects as possible coming back. Gilbert and Whitley possibly Arrighetti have the ceilings that the Mets will be looking for. France is ok just to keep the overall bust chances down. From what I have heard and read the Mets would have no interest in Urquidy or Parades. They will be offered 5-6 top 10 organizational prospects for that haul. No way the Astros compete by offering Whitley and Paredes. I'm not saying the trade isn't fair or that the Astros SHOULD pay more. I'm saying other teams will, so pay more or simply move on.
If you could get Cease and Gioleto from the White Sox for a Pena trade you do it. You gotta keep France as a Long man and you could then move Bielak, Blanco and try to Move Monetero how ever that will play out yo improve in other areas. Relief pitchers and bats. I'm pretty sure Blanco and Bielak could almost net you Hader or the Pirates Closer. You may have to add alittle more but young SP with years of control at very very cost effective rates. Goes along way And bringing up Shay would be ideal at this point if you do move away from Pena.
If you are OK going into the play-offs without a SS you are ignoring an important aspect of the game. Defense is just as important as pitching or hitting. We have plenty of pitching with even more on the way. Urquidy will be back soon and before the season is over Arrighetti, Gordan, or Kouba could also be joining the team. We have plenty of hitting too with more on the way. Avarez, Altuve and maybe even Brantley will be back soon enough. The Astros are not in a position of need. Suggesting trade proposals based in desperation is not realistic. I would go to war with our own players any time.
Dubon can play good defense at SS and currently has a higher OPS than Pena. I think the Astros would be fine getting by without him this season with Dubon as a replacement. To trade Pena though the Astros would have to view this season as not a fluke and more likely how he'll end up as a hitter.
Dubon is a very good defender. I doubt there would be more than 1 or 2 plays over an entire postseason that Pena would handle that Dubon doesn't. This Astros team CAN'T win a World Series without at least 2 additional pitchers. Do you remember 2021?
Brantley isn't coming back, and if he comes back he isn't going to contribute. He hasn't played a major league game in like 14 months. That option should not be counted on under any circumstances, even if by some miracle he started a game for the Astros, he is very susceptible to injury at this point. As far as shortstop is concerned, Jeremy Pena is a very good fielding shortstop and he is under control for 5 more years. However, Mauricio Dubon is an underrated shortstop and has positive marks across the board defensively at shortstop and he is under control for 4 more years. This year, Dubon has the better bat. Perhaps Dubon will prove that he is not able to play 150 games a year at shortstop, but he should be more than able to play SS the rest of this season and post season. If you tell me that I can get a STAR level player under control for multiple years for Pena, AND I get similar production from SS with Dubon this season, tell me why I wouldn't do it? The Atlanta Braves let Danby Swanson walk and replaced him with a bench utility player - Orlando Arcia, that has outplayed Jeremy Pena and the Braves have the best record in baseball. Also the Astros ARE in a position of need, they are not winning their division right now - they have lost 3-4 of their best starters from last season, they have holes in their bullpen, they need a left handed hitter as well. This idea that the Astros don't need to do anything is silly - the Astros improve at the deadline just about every season - from adding Verlander, Pressly, Osuna etc.
You like our pitching? Since June 1st Javier 6.57 ERA Stanek 6.32 ERA Maton 5.91 ERA Montero 5.85 ERA Brown 5.02 ERA Blanco 4.76 ERA Bielak 3.96 ERA Valdez 3.75 ERA Martinez 3.50 ERA Abreu 3.13 ERA France 2.66 ERA Pressly 2.35 ERA Neris 1.80 ERA That's the staff you want in the playoffs?
We talked about this on our pod- would you do Trout for Gilbert straight up? Trout has 7 years and 248.5M left on his contract. The last 4 years he's played 53, 38, 110 and 81 games. His hamate bone surgery should sap his power through all of 2024. He's 32 years old right now I believe. Also- the last 2.5 years, even though he's played like 220 games is all he's put up 11 WAR which is ridonculous. Gilbert- if you wait until May of 2024 to call him up which I think is a reasonable timeline, has almost 7 years of club control left for probably at absolute maximum 45M or so in salary if he's a super 2 guy. I think he has a very high floor, he has a moderate ceiling and you could see him playing in an all star game or 3 in his career. If Trout plays 130 games and is ready for the playoffs any particular year the idea of Trout, Alvarez, Tucker and Chas sharing OF and DH is absolutely fundamentally absurd and should be illegal. If Trout isn't ready to go what's the opportunity cost of that 35M not being spent elsewhere. My co-host said he wouldn't do that deal from the Astros perspective and I think I agree with him. Neither Trout nor Gilbert are on the top 50 fan graph trade value board.
I like what I saw of Brown since he got paired with DIaz again. He gave up 3 or 4 in Colorado in 6 but he was pretty damn dominant after giving up 3 runs to the first 3 hitters, and then he gave up what- 1 run against the A's in 6 innings? Javier is the concern. If he isn't a plus pitcher I don't see a path to us wearing gold jerseys to kick off 2024.
Doing something at the deadline is very different than doing something out of desperation. As far as SS is concerned there is no Astros player that rises to the occasion under pressure better than Pena. What we need in pitching is minimal, over half of our play-off pen will be made up of starters pulled from the rotation for the play-offs. We are missing two pitchers due to injury McCullers would have been in the pen for the playoffs anyway and Garcia would have been our #4 but is replaced by France this season admirably. If I was making the choice I would probably try to get a good reliever first and wait to see if anything good fell into my lap. We have promotable starters to eat innings and give our starters some rest. I am delighted with our current fielders as long as Alvarez and Altuve are back. I would probably want to carry Lee as a bench catcher and play Diaz at DH in most playoff situations.
Brown has made progress the past 2 starts andxI am hopeful, and I'm not worried about Framber. But Javier is the only other starter on this team who has good enough stuff to start a playoff game and he's a mess. And 4 are needed. The bullpen MUST find a way to get rest between now and the playoffs. If that happens, then it has 3 great pitchers and 2 more potential. If not it doesn't matter anyway. Adding 2 more pitchers could accomplish all of that.
We don't KNOW if Pena just had a hot streak or not. He could be terrible in the playoffs every year for the rest if his career Does the term "small sample size" mean anything to you?
Whatever the players look like after next week - I hope we start to look at a six man rotation from here on out. The bullpen needs it, the starters need it, and hopefully the standings start to inch our way with a six man rotation. Until there is more separation, we need to be winning every game possible and a better staff (or at least a more seasoned and well rested staff) will help. The standings are just too tight to assume we are even making the playoffs this year. Lots of you all seem to want to discuss the playoff rotation - as if that matters today. We need warm bodies with experience that can eat innings while maintaining a mediocre ERA just to give us a chance to win the division. Winning the division is the game right now - NOTHING else. The wildcard is going to be nuts this year and I don't want any part of it . . . I fully expect the AL East to take all of the wildcards. The Yankees and Boston are 3.5 back from us . . . let that sink in. We need pitchers and we need rest. Accomplish a strategy for that in the next week and let's talk in a month to see where things stand.
Does the term "small sample size" mean anything to you? Small sample size cuts both ways, Pena could also turn out to be great in the play-offs for the rest of his career. Either way he beats the **** out of no short stop which is what you get by trying to play a bench player against elite competition.
The concern I have with trading MVPeña is one of depth. I feel much more secure with Dubon on the bench, knowing he can come in for a spell at pretty much any posistion in case of injury. It would be a different story if we could bring back another SS, thus preserving the Mauricio "break glass in case of emergency" Dubon. I'd love to see us deal from our biggest positions of strength: OF and MoR SP. Any and all of our OF prospects (plus Meyers and Joolx) should be actively shopped for high level RP, SP, and possibly a CF/LF who can hit RHP. I don't see the point of keeping so many good OF prospects when there won't be room for more than one of them in the next three or so years.
It’s really all about Javier. If he’s back to last years form we are fine. Urquidy/France could be a credible game 4 starter and that’s onlyb1 game per series. You can live with that if Framber/brown and Javier are all going well.
