They should have sold the farm for Vlady Jr. Make them an offer they couldn’t refuse. I know maybe unrealistic. But Vlady would have looked good in an Astro uniform.
Brown was definitely hurt by Jim Crane's tenure as GM, giving him limited financial flexibility, but Carantini has been great and Hader has looked dominant at times. Taylor Scott has been flat out incredible. His top value coming in was supposed to be the amateur talent, which year one is looking good. Bloss, Pecko & Matthews definitely look like great picks so far. This is only his 2nd major trade. Getting Verlander was probably the right move despite this season being largely MIA. Clifford and Gilbert are a mixed bag this season, but who knows what they will be one day. If Brown can regularly sign/draft guys well, giving up talent in trades is something we'll be able to live with.
These are Dana's strengths. I like the guy and believe he's done a good job with the draft and mining under the radar guys. His weakness is being able to make deals at the deadline to fill holes. He's new to the job and learning on the job, so hopefully this improves. What I worry about is does Dana have contacts around MLB to make these kinds of moves.
I don’t think effective trade deadline management is about connections. Luhnow wasn’t liked by other GMs and was mostly an outsider and he did fine. These GMs aren’t out there doing each other any favors. It’s about evaluating the market, identifying the right players, and negotiating. Last deadline I think Brown was directed by Crane to get Verlander once he became available. I think if Brown has a weakness, it’s negotiating with other teams to minimize the winners’ curse and avoid overpaying. We’ll see how Kikuchi, Loperfido, Wagner, and Bloss perform over the next 5 years. For now that looks like a bad deal but it takes time to play out. Just as the Abreu deal was mostly lauded at the time and turned out to be a disaster, the Kikuchi trade was panned at the time and could turn out to be a big success.
This was not my favorite trade. But you can’t keep folks at the minor league wasting away their most productive years. all 3 guys the Astros traded away project as solid yet unspectacular talents. These are the type a fellas you get on a team that are solid and affordable, especially when teams are paying 500 million dollar contracts for MVP guys. As an Astros fan, I thought they could have rotten a better return; but as an overall baseball fan, it’s good these young prospects start getting serious at bats and innings at the ML level to see if they have the right stuff.
He has been good, but if he's one of the best hitters on the team, that is a perfect example why another bat was needed. So far Espada has used him perfectly. Put him in spots where he can succeed and not over expose him. He has a career wRC+ of 87 and the 2 seasons he had over 300 PAs were 74 and 84 respectively. Let's just appreciate what he is and what the Astros have in him and keep everything as it is. Start him once every 4-5 games and pinch hit him a couple of times per week when the matchup is good.
I bet they start using the lineup they used last night 3-4:times a week. It would probably be the regular lineup if not for Yordan having to play LF regularly.
They didn't start out fixating on Tampa. They had lots and lots of talks with teams for many weeks before the deadline. They were even close with Detroit at one point until the Dodgers and Yankees offered prospects that the Tigers liked more than the Astros prospects. The Astros felt they had a chance at Pades, Eflin and Diaz. The Rays loved Morel and the package from the Orioles more than what the Astros could offer. They wanted Hunter Brown from the Astros ..... so that left Diaz, who was one of only like 3-4 bats on the market. The Astros wanted a first baseman, so that it part of it - also part of it was that they believed they would be able to get Diaz. As for Turner, he isn't able to hit good pitching anymore. His reaction speed is falling quickly. The Indians also paid a high price for Lane Thomas. They gave up their highest upside pitching prospect, another top international prospect and someone projected to be a league average starter. So the only one that I would have liked is Jesse Winker. I don't know why the Astros did not get him - could be he was the Mets early target. Yeah - basically they were it. Winker and Turner were dealt but the A's and other teams said their better young bats were off the table. A's said no on Rooker - Astros tried. Happ has a no trade and the Cubs are also not rebuilding, they even held onto the Astros other top pitching target, Jameson Tilon. He has 3-4 years of control and the Tigers want to see what he can do. Tellez wasn't on the market.
They could have likely dealt for Soler, but they did not want to pay him 14 million a year in 2025 and 2026 - plus he and Yordan are a bad fit because Soler is a terrible fielder.
I get everything you are saying. Here’s the problem (I had both of these guys targeted and wish Dana would have just made these two light deals) Winker and Canha would have improved this team immensely. They also would not have cost much at all. He should have done those damn deals but he was out chasing his tail. He could has locked them down early, chased bigger fish and turned around and sold on them at the last minute of a deal like rooker ended up panning out. I mean/ I wanted Arrozarena but if you wanted to give Dana the benefit of the doubt and say he was ungettable fine. Canha is a 769 ops for career and 860 ops for the season against LhP. Singleton is terrible against LHP. Winker is a 830 guy this year and 850 for career v RHP. He could have platooned well with Chas in Lf. You could have fixed 1B and LF with these 2 platoon at not much cost. But you didn’t. Why?
Who would you start at 1b against LH? I’m fine with Singleton against RH. Is it Dubon (who has really sucked lately)? I wanted them to start Diaz at 1b a few times earlier in the year to see if he could handle it defensively. You wouldn’t want to start him there against all LH since that would be 25% of the time, but a 3 way platoon at first with Diaz or Caratini getting most of the starts against LH would certainly be a better option than just leaving Singleton to flounder.
That's exactly the problem. There is nobody. Dubon is the best option but he is wearing down and had a terrible July with more strikeouts than I ever would have expected. Apparently they don't want to play Yainer or Caratini at 1b which normally would be fine. Diaz needs to focus 100% of his fielding study/practice to catching and Caratini is simply another average bat. They NEEDED another bat. CAPITALIZED. Maybe play Dubon at 1b vs LHSP (30%) and sit him 100% of other games unless Altuve, Bregman, or Pena need an off day. But he's not a good hitter. I would like Aledmys to be released J.D. Davis should be signed. Play him and Singleton 50/50 this month and bring up Dezenzo in September if that doesn't work. Or, if Whitcomb can get some games in at AAA this month try him instead of Dezenzo. But by September there needs to be a different solution than Singleton or even Singleton/Dubon.
Caratini/Singleton platoon and call up Salazar. Let Caratini catch some with Diaz DH'ing and Yordan playing in LF. Bottom line is Caratini would be getting regular AB's playing 1B/C. Diaz would get regular AB's playing C?DH'ing.
But Caratini is a career 86 OPS+ hitter. He's having a good season but IMO it's because he has not been exposed. He still may be better than Singleton vs LHP but very unlikely to be by much. At least by bringing in J D. Davis or using Dezenzo there is some potential for an impactful improvement.
Caratini hasn't ever gotten consistent AB's and I'm betting that every player has a year where he performs way above his norms. This year appears to be that year for Caratini.
Yes to getting rid of Aledmys. Never understood that or him getting even a single start. If JD is cheap why not give it a try? Give everything a try. I am still disappointed they didn’t get a trade done for 1b, but it’s very possible that the asking price was just too high even for the 2nd and 3rd tier guys. Not many teams were able to get a deal done, so I’m not going to blame Brown unless something concrete comes out that there was a decent deal to be had. Singleton is an absolute a black hole in this offense against LH, and below average against RH. I blamed how slow they are to make changes on Dusty last year, but maybe it’s the whole FO that hangs out to long for a vet to come around.
