Knowing what we know now, show of hands for people who would sign Abreu to the contract we gave him? ️
I would not. I’d bump it down about $10M or make $10M of it bonuses based on pa or award incentives. But if he hits the way he has the last 60 days thru October, year 1 will have been a success.
I should have been more precise bout the intent of my question. Would we give him the contract we gave, or go with another option that might have been available at the time. I think I would. In a world of imperfect choices, I’m more comfortable with a slight overpay on Abreu and his bat in the postseason, compared to say what Josh Bell got and how he is faring. We needed a bat at 1B, and Yuli/Hensley weren’t it. I don’t recall whether there were other meaningful options that were on the table. of course, Yanier at first in hindsight would have been very interesting. But that really wasn’t an option before the season started
Knowing what we know about Abreu or what we know overall. Because knowing how the season would play out we 100% should have invested in starting pitching.
yeah another hole in my question. I meant knowing what we know about Abreu. Really I was wondering if people would stick to this solution at 1B or go with something else available in FA
If we're just talking who would you take, If given the option moving forward this season I would take Abreu over Rizzo, Bell, Mancini, and Yuli. Christian Walker is better than Abreu, but without knowing what the prospect cost to get him I can't say anything confident. With 20/20 hindsight, trading for him and throwing money at starting pitching is what we probably should have done. We're likely gonna have to trade prospects to address pitching anyhow.
If we had gone out and spent on pitching France would be sitting in AAA while our money was tied up in an overpriced free agent. France has been very good and will be cheap for the next several years. Next week Urquidy and Brantley will be back and we can move on. I will be delighted if Brown can find a way to trade away McCullers and Montero for some magic beans while people are in the mood to trade.
He has been the anti-Yanier-Diaz this season. If only they could combine them into one player: Abreu: Diaz:
You are correct on France - but counting on Brantley is a fool’s errand. He is taking BP - period. He isn’t hitting pitchers and he isn’t hitting stuff in the high 80’s-90’s…. He isn’t even running the bases.
My best guess on Brantley is IF we see him this year it won't be until the rosters expand in September.
Kessinger has been solid and deserves a chance way more than Singleton My money is on Grae doing better vs MLB pitching. But it doesn't matter they play completely different positions. If Singleton was brought up it would be for Julks or Meyers
Thru July Abreu: 26 xbh, 56 rbi, .657 ops Yuli: 18 xbh, 20 rbi, .713 ops Bell: 30 xbh, 48 rbi, .701 ops Mancini: 16 xbh, 28 rbi, .635 ops Rizzo: 26 xbh, 41 rbi, .708 ops
I miss Gurriel. I know fangraphs said he was a worse defender than Abreu last year, but its really hard for me to believe that. On top of that, Gurriel was a true core guy and teammate. Well loved, and brought good winning confident vibes. Wish we would have resigned him, but thats all in hindsight because I know most of us were damn happy when we landed Abreu.
Does anyone know Singletons contract situation? I know he was previously released to free agency and his original big league contract is long since expired, but he has less than a year of service time. So can Houston control him like any other player with <1 year of service time, or is he eligible for free agency at the end of the season?
Yuli has been better than Abreu, Mancini, and Josh Bell this season. That said, there are a ton of players better than Yuli. I don't miss the Yuli from last year or this year.
