My pseudo-clear-headed diagnosis of the season: Injuries killed this team. Covering for Framber simply enabled him. Depending on the returns of Garcia and McCullers were mistakes. Inexcusable losses against bad teams (right after series wins against contenders) reflects a potential lack of focus. Other contributing factors: Baserunning decisions by the coaches and players have been inexcusable. The entire organization is at fault for wasting games in thinking McCullers could get it right in the bigs. Espada's bullpen management with 4 run leads was infuriating. Walker can still field and dig throws from Pena/Altuve/Correa, but is too strikeout happy for this team. Pulling the rookies from late game situations for washed veterans stunted their development. Some extra inning games were lost due to Espada being too pinch-hit happy. How this team preps for subpar pitchers needs to be reevaluated. Defensive positioning strategies should be reviewed. If it is obvious that the other team decides to go slap happy and can do so (rather than focus on exit velocity, adjustments are needed). Hoping this premature post mortem can be laughed at when we hit a miracle run.
Why not? Astros broke the record for most IL injuries in MLB history. Mariners have had one of the best rotations in the league for years. They finally wisened up and fired Servais, got a new hitting coach, and picked up legit bats. Their lineup is now stacked top to bottom and most of them have a >.800 OPS. They're the best slugging team and have the most homeruns in the league..and they play half their games at home in a pitcher's park. They have the MVP frontrunner in Cal Raleigh. They are near the top in the league in baserunning and stealing bases. They play good defense. And they have an elite closer in Munoz. Hell I'm surprised the Astros were still in the race..they should realistically be 8+ games back.
Pareto analysis of the 2017 organizational roster vs current projected 2026 organizational roster: Altuve was an MVP caliber player who put up 7.7 fwar that season but enters 2026 projected as a 1-2 win player. The simplest, most realistic way to get the 2026 lineup on par with 2017 is to trade Walker in a salary dump, move Paredes to 1B, and acquire an elite hitter who can play LF or 2B; the Astros won’t have much money to spend so that will cost 3-4 of their high ceiling upper level prospects, which isn’t a major concern because most of them are blocked. Houston entered 2017 with 3 solid ToR SP (Morton, McCullers, Keuchel) and ended up getting 3.2 fwar out of Brad Peacock, whereas the 2026 roster has Hunter Brown and a questionable version of Cristian Javier. The simplest way to get the pitching staff to 2017 standards would be to acquire a legit ace to replace Framber Valdez and add another lesser pitcher who can be counted on to stay healthy and provide a steady presence in the rotation. The Astros won’t be able to afford to go out into free agency and sign a proven ace, so we will have to count on their scouts to find a diamond in the rough (à la 2017 Charlie Morton). The 2017 farm system featured Kyle Tucker (and Yordan Alvarez, although no one was yet predicting how good he’d be); the 2026 farm system does not have a prospect on par with the 2017 version of Tucker, however, they are poised to add 5 of the top 100 picks in the next draft and could be picking in the top 20 for the first time since 2011 (not to mention the possibility of winning the draft lottery), and have a very large group of high ceiling prospects in their lower levels who should provide a major upward trajectory for the farm system and could see a prospect emerge who is looked at as positively as Tucker was. There’s really nothing to do here except avoid QO free agents and try to draft and develop star level players.
Exactly. Everybody saying same old Mariners is being silly. This is a very good team and they aren’t going away next year and could very well be World Series bound this year. Everybody was saying same old Astros and same old Rockets before they won their championships. There is no such thing as a jinx or a city that is cursed. It’s just coincidence. Sometimes it is ownership like the Texans or Cowboys. We are lucky that is not the case with the Astros or Rockets.
Well well well. Look who is Top 10 and look who is bottom 3. Couple with injuries, this says a lot actually. Ready for automatic strike zone.
I'm curious if Espada lost the team when Framber nailed Salazar, made Salazar take the fall, and then was all "nothing to see here folks" afterward. They probably lost a ton of respect for him there.
I don’t think they’ve liked Espada for a couple seasons now. He’s definitely gone unless they make the playoffs and go on a run.
Need to really go hard in scouting and developing guys who can fill out the 2-4 spots on the SP rotation. I knew we should have moved Framber this offseason as well, maybe would have helped our outlook heading into next year. Also, they should have just either moved Diaz to 1B, or went all in on moving Yordan to 1B after Yuli retired.
If the Astros had traded Framber their season would’ve been over months ago. It is also likely they shopped him and just didn’t get a viable offer like they did for Tucker. I think Blubaugh, Ullola, and Pecko could all be very solid big league pitchers next season.
