Mariners lost again in South Beach. Rangers down 9-0 vs Angels. Appears the entire division will lose besides LAA. Somebody had to win that game. Astros 2.0 back
James Wood is exactly who we're hoping Cam to be -- same age, similar size, same position, with speed. Wood never struggled in the majors though, and is currently light years ahead of Cam offensively with an OPS 250 points higher.
James Wood and Elly De La Cruz looks like Giants compared to Cam Smith. Smith needs to upgrade from eating Whataburger. Earlier in the season Spencer Spaghetti went from the next best starter to Hunter Brown, now closer to Burrows. He needs a Hader buzz cut.
Man, this being mediocre sucks azz.............I am so spoiled, for the past decade we have been elite and I keep waiting for that "magic" to happen but it's not coming, we can't even get above .500 and this division is horrid, it's so hard to watch this BS and it makes me sad, I love this team but it is what it is, were not elite and it's time for Joe and Dana to go and start the makeover of this team. The golden age is done and now its time to grind...........we need to be smart sellers
They're mediocre because Dana did a bad job fixing the pitching staff this offseason and Espada is terrible at managing his pitching staff. Scored 11 runs and still lost that game. SMH
“We have pitching depth. I’m not worried about it” This is what your GM of one of the most dominant teams for the league over the past decade / and ever in Houston— planted his flag, dug his heels in, and stood proudly on… Crane - either spend some FU money and go out and build the chessboard yourself (hey bro, JerrahJownzzz seems to have done it halfass successfully)… -OR- let DB own the entire scouting / MILB - everything below big league level— AND BRING IN A REAL GURU WHO KNOWS HOW TO BUILD THOUGH ACQUISITION, ANALYTICS, RECLAMATION PROJECTS, BACK-END CAREER PROS WHO CAN BE TEMPORARILY “FIXED”AND FIND THE GUYS THAT DONT HAVE A RING, YET THEY’LL COME TO HOUSTON EVEN IF ITS JUST FOR A LEAGUE YEAR.
At this point, the real problem starts above Dana Brown. He was the best owner in this cities history, but he's become a liability. Correa is still a good player, but he's always been injury prone and more importantly we already had a good 3B and backup infielder on the roster when we traded for him. Imai could still work out, but he's another Crane "star" signing. Hader has been as good as you can possibly expect, but a closer only pitches a limited amount and and can't do much to help the first 8 innings. To add to that, they allowed Espada to obviously overuse him without at any point stepping in (meaning they probably agreed with it) leading to a possibly preventable injury. I'm not a fan of Brown, but he's no doubt been hamstrung by Crane. We have a bunch of bargain bin players all over the roster due to salary constraints imposed by Crane and his signings. Crane really doesn't seem to give a s**t about the finer points of roster building....just get me "stars". Maybe once a rebuild starts he will get his nose out of the GM's business, but I can't say with confidence that will happen...if he ever allows a rebuild at all.
The Astros are like a hundred year old large house in the Northeastern US that has had cheap fixes and problems covered up for years and years and now is beginning to fail. The Astros went into this off season knowing that they were losing the horse of their rotation and an ACE in Framber Valdez. So they lose their overall #2 starter and inning eater.... they also knew that they had ONE healthy MLB starting pitcher that was above average. They basically had to fill 4 starting pitching spots relying on guys that were coming off lengthy injuries and poor performance (Javier/McCullers) and a guy that had no lengthy track record of success (Arrighetti). On top of having to really fill at least 3 rotation spots, the GM was given close to a budget of zero and also all of the viable options in the minors were injured or not good enough. Which meant that the GM had to either sign minimum guys or trade for starting pitchers, but had almost no money to spend and also very little assets. The Astros also needed two outfielders - but no money to sign them, and no real assets to trade...... and if they traded for one, it better be on a low salary. Crane decides when he will go over budget and who that will be - it isn't the GM that decides it ....... that can be Verlander, Hader, Correa or even Walker (who was Crane's preference).... and Tatsuya. It is like plugging holes in the Titanic and it will eventually fail. Brown just had to hope Tatsuya worked out- He used his limited assets to get Burrows and hoped he would be a #4 starter and figured that they could work on his pitch sequencing. Lambert was someone he brought in to camp because of his raw stuff. He was praised by Brown for his Spring and then got touched up at the end and did not make the team - but the Astros convinced him to stick around and he has been very good overall. A lot of guys that were supposed to fill holes have been hurt -- Wiesnieski was brought in to be a big part of the back end of the rotation, but he has been hurt. Blanco was very good at the back end as well and is hurt....... Javier has never recovered...... the Astros looked like they may have found some gold in Brandon Walter but he suffered a major injury as well. So it isn't a surprise that the rotation is a complete mess.... and people can blame the pitching coach and GM and manager - but mostly it has to do with the owner, budget and some really bad injury luck. The Astros should be 15 under .500 at this point with this rotation.
When your entire pitching philosophy is emphasizing spin rate and torquing that number up and then you suffer a high injury rate among your starting rotation, no, I wouldn't call that bad luck. The reason some of those guys have succeeded was due to the same philosophy, but we can't bury our heads in the sand that there isn't a causal relationship to the damage it does to arms.
Astros have $60M tied up in Jim Crane contracts: Carlos Correa ($21.5M): aging, injury prone player at positions the Astros already had filled brought in for nostalgia. Tasuya Imai ($18M): mentally soft 2 pitch pitcher brought in partially to appease corporate sponsors. Josh Hader ($19M): expensive closer on a team with holes at OF and SP. They have a bad contract from the Click era in McCullers. So that’s $80M that Dana Brown probably would have invested differently. It’s hard to say how much involvement Crane had in signing Walker. The Javier extension is on Brown for sure. The other 2 big contracts are Altuve and Yordan and nobody would change those.
Nats are loaded with young talent. James Wood reminds me of Adam Dunn. His power and exit velocity is insane
At the surface, the Correa and Hader decisions aren’t terrible. They are only terrible when you then set a limited budget that isn’t near enough to fix your rotation that you know is losing a major piece and vital innings eater.
That benefit is likely Wood having more talent to be drafted earlier. The James vs Cam trajectory looks terrible right now for Smith. The most damming thing against Cam is the lack of improvement from last year. He may have gotten better in subtle ways. but the overall production is not there. Wood has improved significantly EVERY year. His number are ranging Top 5 MVP finish...... in his 3rd season. Yeah, Wood might finish with a better BB% too, plus quadrauple Dunn's SBs. He's an awesome talent and having a great start to his career. Cam has bat speed also so there's that.
Fangraphs and BA had James Wood as their #1 overall prospect when he debuted. Not sure why we are comparing him and Cam…other than a high bat speed they don’t have much in common. That said, sometimes progression takes longer for players. Just because Cam hasn’t had much improvement this season offensively doesn’t mean he won’t eventually figure it out. Look at Pena - it took him until his 4th season to finally truly breakout. Cam is so good defensively that if he manages to even somewhat close the gap between him and Wood then they could end up putting up similar WAR a couple years from now. Wood is not a good defender.
They can both be great. Makes no difference to me. I think the Astros would be idiots to trade Cam at this early stage for either other prospects or a veteran above average player and prospects. The Astros desperately need for one or two of their young guys to become all-stars. Cam is one of maybe 3 guys that look to have that potential.
