[Official] Astros Offseason

I like to play this card game calked "Play 9"

Without boring you too much the idea is to draw cards and replace your down cards with lower numbers.

Once you get a bunch of 2s and 3s, then its hard to get lower cards.

I see the middle and bottom of the Astros roster as cards that won't win you the game, but most of what's out there is not an improvement either.

Example: If you are strictly looking for an OF bat to produce vs RH pitching, 90% of the hitters in MLB project to be worse that Jesus Sanchez so its hard to get a replacement. But he is also not good enough to be a true impact type difference maker.

 

"Play 9" is a great game, but the one I like better is called "Play 162"

 

I think we should keep Suarez and do a platoon at least across LF and CF and maybe even right field. Suarez/Altuve in LF, Myers, Cole in CF. If we acquire another LH bat and hold on to Suarez we could do the same in right with Cam and any of the 3 LB. So against RH we could have as many as 4 left handed bats in the lineup. That may be problematic when the opposition makes pitching changes so maybe Cam or Myers plays some against RH. Finding enough bats for Paredes is still an issue if we don’t move Walker.

 

Do you mean Sanchez?

 

Would be very difficult to build a roster where we could platoon at all 3 OF spots

Cam Smith doesn't need to be a platoon guy. He is too young and way too talented to be put in a platoon at this point. Cam needs to be ready to make an impact, or go to AAA to do so down there. I think most are too down on Cam because of his overall performance last year, dude was a child who had barely played any pro ball at all.

 

I know we disagree on the value of defense, but an OF defense with Yordan and Sanchez both regulars would be really bad, add in Jose as the regular at 2B and our pitchers better have a ton of Ks

And Yordan as a regular in LF wouldn't need bad injury "luck", there is a high probability he would find his way to the IL in that situation

On the pitching, Verlander ended up being pretty good last year, but at 43 years old if he is your 2 the risk level of your rotation is already extremely high.

Javier i've always been high on, but reality is even before the up and down performance coming off injury last year (which should have been expected) his last full season (23) he had a 4.56 ERA with less than a K per inning. Until there is true evidence he can be the guy he was in 22 (4 years ago now) he is a back end rotation guy

I like Burrows more than most I think, i'd be happy with him as our #3

Weiss is a total unknown, was not good in the minors before going to Korea where he did well, but Korea is not like playing in Japan. The fact that we gave him only 2.6 million tells me he is a guy coming to ST to fight for a spot, but counting on him to lock down a rotation spot doesn't inspire confidence in me

Arrighetti is a high upside guy who has flashed some brilliance, but the bust level with his lack of command is also very high, and with our history of pitching injuries a guy who couldn't finish the season last year because of elbow discomfort scares the crap out of me if he is a guy we are trying to count on

In the perfect world yes, that team could win 86. But I can tell you this, even as a HUGE LIFELONG fan, if that is our opening day roster and they set the over under on wins at 86, i'm gonna be invested in the under

 

It has nothing to do with being a huge lifelong fan. The Astros currently project as the 10th best team by fangraphs. Last year the 10th best team won 87 games.

 

Wow

 

Sweet

So much for the "Japanese players will never sign with Houston" canard

 

Ok cool

Fan graft is pretty good, but I certainly don’t base all of my opinions on them

 

He does hate the Dodgers so…

 

So that’s basically all their available payroll. If they want to add a bat, they will need to shed some payroll.

I don’t know anything about Imai but I trust the Astros on who they target for pitching.

Dump Walker to free up money for a OF and a backup C and let’s roll.

 

And the huge lifelong fan part was about me, because I am

in any case, the roster is already better than what we were discussing!

 

I'm sure he can learn to hate the M's, A's and Rangers too.

 

Interesting to see Crane take a gamble on that much guaranteed money with opt outs

put all the risk almost exclusively on the Astros

Atta boy Jim

 

I'm happy. It has some risk but to add this level of talent is exciting.

Good job Dana and Jim.

 

Woooooooooooo

 

Salazar isn’t a bad option for backup catcher, I really hope this move precludes a Christian Walker salary dump. I’d feel a lot better about going into next season knowing Parades is the everyday 1st baseman and the infield is set.