I agree with No Worries....we dont have any position players outside of Springer that can help the team in 2014. At least not early season. Maybe someone catches fires in AAA or AA and we open the gates for them. I'm sure the team wants to see more of Hoes and Grossman. Get that bullpen restocked. Its a disaster.
An entire interview where he doesn't put his foot in his mouth once... and is almost Drayton-like in the optimism. Crane's learning...
Pretty even with the A's. If he does it without a TV deal in place, I don't think we can complain about a payroll of that size. We are looking at half the roster or more being guys on minimum salaries, so it would still be a significant amount spent in FA.
It wouldn't be a smart move to bump the teams salary from $13 million to $100 million in one season. I would rather be selective in the free agents brought in over the next few seasons. As far as the team salary actually going up to $50, I'll believe it when I see it.
I'll be happy if it's 40 million. Still can win 70 games. Then 2015 go up to 70 million and make a run at playoffs.
I'd be happy with 30$ mil as they should be selective with free agency and not block a good young prospect from the majors. 17 mil should be more than enough to b
1. Not be the Astros. When a team has back to back to back 100+ loss seasons while also setting the record for strikeouts after moving to the designated hitter league pretty much everything about it has to be changed.
Yep. Catcher, 3B, 2B, SS, CF, LF, RF, & 1B/DH are spots that I think we have already taken care of. Cosart, Peacock & Oberholtzer have locked in their rotation spots. We have a horde of other guys that can fill the last 2 spots, though we could sign one FA to bolster the rotation. Lo, Zeid, & Chapman have earned spots in the bullpen. I expect Stoffel to join them. Backup catcher and middle infield are taken care of. I think we may sign another OF, SP, 1B, & 3 RP
really curious to see where Singleton starts. Wally is just not cutting it and Carter is a true DH. Wouldn't mind seeing a contract here if they commit to having Singleton down for most of the year.
When you look at the spots already locked up C-Castro 2B-Altuve SS-Villar 3B-Dominguez LF-Grossman CF-Springer RF-Hoes DH-Carter C- Corporan OF-Barnes SP-Olberholtzer SP-Peacock SP-Cosart SP-Lyles SP-Woj SP-White SP-Harrell SP-Ely RP-Lo RP-Chapman RP-Zeid I'm not sure how Altuve's contract is divided, but I'll assume it's spread evenly. All of these guys combined only make about 14 Million, if we're gonna go up to 50 million that's 36 million to play with. I'd probably sign 2 or 3 bullpen arms. Relievers are cheap and that would probably only cost 10-15 million. I would also go after James Loney, he has posted a road OPS of .821 over his career, given a chance to play in a more neutral park he could post a full season OPS close to that with good D. He is a local boy and would probably come relatively cheap. Maybe 2 years 14 million. When Singleton is ready he can platoon between 1st and DH. That would get our payroll at about 40-45 million, and much more competitive, 70 plus wins. I see no need to spend money just for the sake of spending money.
Agreed. Meanwhile, David Price expects to be traded this off-season. If anything happens, I really hope the TV deal prevents us being that sort of organization... even if they're constantly re-loading every 3-4 years, its still hard to get attached to players/a franchise that has that much of a revolving door. http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9801412/david-price-tampa-bay-rays-thinks-traded
I say we buy low on Michael Morse. He could play 1B until we feel Singleton is ready, which I am thinking will be coincidentally soon after the trade deadline. Hopefully Morse is healthy and produces enough to create some sort of trade value, and we can flip him for something at the trade deadline. He could also provide nice insurance in case one of our young corner outfielders falter. With his terrible down year last year, he can't command all that much. Positional fit (1B and corner OF), low cost, and potential high reward makes targeting Michael Morse a no-brainer for me.
Rick Ankiel & Jack Cust like signing. So we know Luhnow will look at something like that, even if it hasn't panned out for him.
I had almost forgotten about that 1-25 performance by Jack Cust in Spring Training a couple years back. Truly impressive. What about an over seas bidding for someone? I mean if they are interested in spending money, some relief arms and fourth outfielder aren't going to fill those zeros. A move that always interested me was the Werth singing in Washington. The 69 win Nats of 2010 went out and signed a over the top contract with Werth to show they were committed to winning in the future, and that they were going to do what they could in free agency to do that. Could we see Houston do something like that now or next year? Sure, we have a lot of farm guys that we need to see come up, but why not try and lock someone up now that could pay off in the third year of his contract?
We got that fat Mexican player -- Japhet Amador (de los tacos) that's all the "over seas" (or a trickling rio grande) bidding Crane will engage in
