Mediocre? Yeah - depending on what you need him for. He doesn’t hit for a lot of power and he doesn’t walk a whole lot … but he does get on base. His .365 OBP would fit very nicely in the two hole or bottom of the line up. He also hits righties at a pretty high clip (.820 OPS). The cost should be relatively low - and a guy that makes contact, can play a solid 2nd, doesn’t strike out and hits righties well has some real value to the Astros. Hell - he could start at second against every righty and Altuve could against lefties.
I think you get now negotiations work. In any walk of life - politics, sports, business. I would be a fool if I'm trying to trade Judge and not marketing him as a 10 WAR player, or talking about his strengths. Telling a team what they can get from a player during his peak value. In general long term contracts are signed with the intent the player overperforms before he hits his 35/36+ seasons. If he performs after that, it's a bonus. Kind of why I hated the Altuve contract but as an owner I get he's a legacy player and would warrant it for being highly underpaid early in his career. It was one of multiple metrics i used, yet some posters keep bringing it up when they've got nothing better to do. Put simply, a marquee player entering his prime, I'm marketing him as a 10 WAR player to GMs. The Cubs GM was desperate for a marquee player and had a ton of young talent to replace Suzuki (look at PCA, Caissie, Alcantara) Tucker may not be on pace for an MVP season this year, but he's had a huge impact on a Cubs team that has the best record in the NL. His OPS is above 900 and he gets on base a ton. The Cubs aren't regretting it until Cam has a breakout year.
It's all moot because every team knows everything there is to know. It makes no difference what you "market him" as. Every team will have their own value of him. Makes no difference what the Astros think. And 100% of everybody, who isn't named YOU, thinks Cam/Paredes/Wesneski was not only a great return, but among the best in Astros history.
prolly cuz singleton is already in his 30s astros perhaps tryna build someone young, well younger at the 1B.
This might the the weirdest and most intense crusade I’ve ever seen here. Even if you believe the Astros could have gotten more - which is incredibly dubious - to act arrogant and certain it was a bad deal just defies any reality. To do it as naseum after being corrected by every intelligent poster on the board is a psychosis. Why this topic? Why so insistent? At best you think we could have done marginally better - why post every day on this one topic for 6 months? It is so, so weird.
Not an Espada fan, but I'm pretty surprised by how well the Astros are playing under the circumstances. He deserves some credit. I don't know how they are as good as they are.
Astros on pace to get 18 fwar combined from Pena, Paredes, Meyers, and Smith. Yordan comes back healthy and productive that’s 20+ wins they can count on from 5 position players all under control thru at least 2027.
The National League has gotten a lot stronger than the American League. The Astros aren't as good as they were, but other teams in the AL are getting worse as well.
We talked about this on our last podcast (breathing orange fire episode 108- on Spotify and apple! I think Espada has an incredibly easy managing job right now in the sense there are no bad decisions to make with regards to pitching (he still tries to though!) and the position player group is so depleted that his biggest decision against RHP (and that’s basically all we’ve faced) is does he want to dh Caratini and catch Yainer, or dh Yainer and catch Caratini. It’s not rocket science when you are down to 9, maybe 10 regulars you can play. He’s not polluting the clubhouse or a drag on the vibe- that’s about all I have as a positive.
