I don't think anything can top the first Space City Connect Astros gear. Especially the cap. That cap is one of the best of all time from any team.
It’s sad that one of the easiest projects a team can have… gets continuously flubbed. They know a lot about what merchandise sells. What their season ticket base buys. What gets sold most online. What gets bought most at retail outlets. They could easily get a focus group with all different age groups, ticket holders of various demographics, or even start the project during the previous season and poll people at the games… Maybe they do all this already and still don’t stick the landing…. Although I’ve never been asked amongst all the teams, and at one point I’ve been a season ticket holder for all of them.
From the most important to the least important parts of our society, things are falling apart at an alarming rate.
Anyone got a Cliffs Notes of the Astros offseason for those of us who don't follow all of the offseason moves? How screwed are we?
Not screwed by any stretch. The team probably has more risk than it did from 2016-2022. A recap: Minute Maid Park is now called Daikin Park. Kyle Tucker was traded to the Cubs for a badass 3B/RF prospect (Cam Smith), an all-star 3B/2B (Isaac Paredes), and a BoR SP (Hayden Wesneski). The prospect has looked amazing in spring training. The 3B should thrive in Daikin because he pulls the ball a ton. The SP is a local kid with a pitch mix Houston can tweak. Jose Altuve is a LF now. The Astros brought in former Rockies Brendan Rodgers and former Met Luis Guillorme to compete for the 2B job along with Mauricio Dubon and rookie Shay Whitcomb. Alex Bregman now plays for the Red Sox. Justin Verlander plays for the Giants. The Astros signed Christian Walker to play 1B for 3 years. Some people are scared it could mirror Jose Abreu’s contract but Walker was a top 5 1b in the league the last couple seasons. Ryan Pressly was traded to the Cardinals for a decent young pitching prospect. It was mostly to clear payroll space. The Astros are currently under the competitive balance tax and should have some money to spend at the trade deadline or in a last minute spring trade. The Astros had a trade lined up for HoF 3B Nolan Arenado, but he used his no-trade clause to nix the deal. There’s a chance that trade still could happen; if it does, Paredes will move to 2B. Luis Garcia and Lance McCullers both have stayed on track to return to the rotation by mid-May. Right now the Astros project to be the 8th best team in the league (3rd in the AL very close behind the Yankees and Rangers), with the 7th best position player group (2nd in AL) and 15th best pitching group (8th in AL), all per fangraphs. The Astros have questions at 2B and in RF/CF. They have 4-5 good prospects who could break in this season to fill those holes. They have a shallow bullpen but with a lot of upside. They have much more rotation depth than they had in April of last season. A serious injury to Framber Valdez or Yordan Alvarez would likely be a death blow for the Astros 2025 ring hopes. If they want to go deep in the playoffs, they will need some combination of better than expected production from lagging veterans (Rodgers, McCormick, Meyers), rookies (Smith, Whitcomb, Zach Dezenzo, Brice Matthews, Jacob Melton), injured pitchers (McCullers, Garcia, Cristian Javier), and unproven high upside pitchers (Arrighetti, Blanco, Wesneski, Miguel Ullola, Ryan Gusto, AJ Blubaugh, Forrest Whitley, Logan VanWey, Ethan Pecko, others). The starting rotation is set as Valdez, Brown, Blanco, Arrighetti, and Wesneski. McCullers and Garcia should return in the first 6 weeks of the season. The bullpen has Hader, Abreu, Scott, Whitley, and King locked in. There’s competition for the last 3 spots between Montero, Luis Contreras, Bennett Sousa, Steven Okert, Jalen Beeks, Logan VanWey, and Nick Hernandez. The position player group has 10 guys locked in: Diaz, Caratini, Walker, Pena, Paredes, McCormick, Meyers, Dubon, Altuve, and Alvarez. The guys competing for the last 3 spots are Rodgers, Guillorme, Whitcomb, Dezenzo, Ben Gamel, Singleton, Cooper Hummel, and Cam Smith. The Astros have a good team. They should win between 89 and 99 games.
The Astros got an upgrade at 1B with Christian Walker. Unclear who will start at 2B. Brendan Rodgers is a reclamation project (who may not even make the team). Dubon might be the best bet. The Astros hopefully made a sideways move at 3B, Paredes for Bregman. Tucker's bat is a huge loss. The Astros don't a RF with an average bat and glove, right now. The 2024 Astros OF outside of Tucker was a hot mess. LF gets a hitting improvement with Altuve but also a fielding downgrade. Meyers is likely the starting CF, great glove and questionable bat. RF is a huge question mark. Gamel, definitionally a replacement level player, is the likely starter. The starting pitching has two anchors, Framber and Brown. The remaining starters are young. Blanco and Arrighetti pitched well as rookies last year. The last spot in the rotation is new-to-Astros, Wesneski, who came over in the Tucker trade. The remaining starter possibilities are recovering from injuries: McCullers, Garcia, Javier, and France. None have yet to pitch in ST. Who knows if or when they get healthy and contribute in 2025. The bullpen like last year have two very good closers, Hader and Abreu, and a bunch of pitchers with checkered past. Both the starters and the bullpen look league average on paper, but are well coached and likely will overachieve. Bottom line: Matching last year's 88 wins as a team will take a bit of luck. The Astros Farm has supplied many surprises over the last 5 years or so. There is hope that the Farm will continue to produce.
Tucker didn't even barely play last year and we won the division. As long as Altuve and Alvarez don't take a dive, our offense should be better than last year overall. Our pitching will come down to health of some of our guys. It could even be a lot better than last season. Just lots of question marks.
This was way more detailed than I was expecting thank you. I do have some questions though. Is the team still high on Peña? He seemed rather lackluster last year. So the 2B spot is basically up for grabs unless Arenado goes through with the trade? Is McCullers actually viable? Who is the designated closer (Pressly replacement)? Are we potentially going into another year of dreading the back half of the lineup or does this year actually look more viable?
Yes, team is still high on Peña. His defense should be elite with slightly above average offense to produce another 4+ WAR season. We hired a new 3rd base coach to replace Pettis. His specialty is infield defense so I expect to be sharper in this area. Arenado trade is unlikely at this point so if I'm betting on who starts opening day at 2B, I'm going with Brendan Rodgers. I think he's a good bounce back candidate to recalibrate his swing to play most games at sea level. Still only 28 and won a GG as recent as 2022. McCullers just threw a bullpen yesterday and touched 94mph on his fastball. He will pitch on a Grapefruit league game next week. Must take it one game at a time with Lance but we know better than to hold our breath. Josh Hader was signed to be the closer last year and will continue to close this year. Pressly was the 8th inning guy so Abreu will slide up with numerous options like Scott/Ort/King/Whitley to backfill. New lefty vet Jalen Beeks also an option. Last question to be determined... lol
They don’t want him around the team. He was often late to games, didn’t work hard and didn’t care. So he gets to rebuild his value and show that he can still contribute. Teams will stick with a 25 year old with an 800 OPS that has maturity issues…. Not so much for 29 year olds with a declining OPS and an attitude.
Agreed. Reportedly he is a clubhouse cancer. How much better is he than Chas or Gamel? He would just block Dezenzo and/or Smith even more. Just Rip off the bandaid and let one of THEM play.
