<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Source: Astros, Rangers talk Carlos Corporan trade. Teams have been logical fit for trade all winter. <a href="http://t.co/dhUi1LMFsY">http://t.co/dhUi1LMFsY</a></p>— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) <a href="https://twitter.com/EvanDrellich/status/555836346229460993">January 15, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
After trading away 2 top 10 prospects and another top 25 prospect, it's time to try an trade a catcher/Outfielder/etc. for some more prospects. There are only so many spots on the team. Astros need to be smart and maximize their talent by upgrading via trade. Too many ML catcher, too many outfielders, etc. I'm wondering what the Texas Rangers interest in Carlos Corporan, would yield in return.
Cardpire, I am with you on this one as well. Check this out for speculation. I was going to post this earlier this morning, but I got swamped at work. After acquiring Gattis, the more I think about it, the more a Jonathan Singleton trade makes sense. Singleton, who is young, talented, and is on an insanely cheap team-friendly extension, has to be appealing to many teams. One of those teams that probably fit as great trading partners just so happens to be the Phillies, who are looking for a replacement for Ryan Howard, who they desperately have been trying to trade. They are also targeting young catching prospects (MLBTR listed Blake Swihart and Austin Hedges earlier today). Guess who has a ton of depth at the C position? The Astros as well. So I am wondering if a Singleton, Stassi, and a 10-15ish pitching prospect would be enough for Cole Hamels? We could then replace Singleton with Carter at 1B, move Gattis to DH, and we just added a legit ace to lead the staff. A staff that would now look like Hamels, McHugh, Keuchel (for LRL balance), Feldman, and soon Appel. That's a nice looking rotation. Add in a solid-to-great bullpen, and an offense that now comprises of Altuve, Fowler, Springer, Carter, Gattis, Lowrie, Castro/Conger, and soon Correa, that offense can get it done most nights as well. I know we are both being probably overly optimistic, but the potential deal seems to make a ton of sense for both teams involved, and it would speed up our rebuild considerably. Even if we are both completely wrong about trading for Hamels, it still is a fun time to be an Astros fan. Things are starting to look up!
reports are saying the Phillies are looking for 2 top prospects...if they still value Singleton highly, they'll probably ask for Appel as well. Singleton + Appel + Stassi probably gets it done.... but thats a lot of our 'young' future we'd be mortgaging away. I'm guessing the Phillies will hang on to Hamels until they get what they want. His contract is "reasonable" for a TOR guy so maybe they'll get it.
That is what they are looking for, and thus far, all the teams have called their demands unreasonable. I think their asking price gets more realistic soon. And you could argue a duo of Singleton and Stassi do qualify as 2 top prospects. And the 10-15 pitching prospect for us would quite possibly be a 5-7 prospect for them. But if their asking price includes Appel, I quickly shut the door on it.
Astros reportedly still have money to spend and are looking for back of the rotation upgrades like Ryan Vogelsong and Kyle Kendrick
If we could move Fowler for prospects that Philly was interested in and then add in Stassi and another non-top 5 prospect, then i'd be very interested. If they want Appel in a deal with a guy like Stassi but no other real prospects, i'd have to consider it If they want Appel + other legit prospects, then no deal I'd love to have Hamels here though, could make us a legitimate contender
Agreed--these are all more realistic to me, and I agree on when I'd consider a deal as written above. As much as the previous poster wants to move Singleton, I don't think people are going to value him super highly or call him and Stassi anywhere close to enough. Another possibility would be to include Castro in a deal for prospects that Philly wants (along with ones from a Fowler deal maybe?) and then bring Stassi up to catch with Conger.
Yep, I'd certainly move Castro and Fowler for Hamels, so if we moved those two for prospects to flip to Philly, that would work also
yeah, I'm guessing someone else from our system would mix in with some of those prospects in that scenario. But it's hard to imagine Philly settling for anything less than Appel + something if they dealt with us. And the Astros can't settle for Appel + more than filler. So I feel like it'll boil down to Appel + a non-top-10 + a PTBNL. Who says no to that?
I'm now convinced the team will trade Corporan before the season, and then deal Jason Castro in July (unless somebody gets desperate before then).
I do think he signs a minor league non-roster invite deal, although Medlen managed to get an MLB deal.
I'd respectfully disagree. I think that since a few teams are interested, a few of them will be willing to give him a major league deal, to win the [smaller scale] bidding way. This is just a guess though, you could ultimately end up being absolutely right.
Yikes, if the Rangers get Gallardo, that's a pretty stout top of the rotation (Darvish, Holland, and Gallardo). Looks like we'll need the bats to rake this year!
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Sources: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash">#Astros</a> in serious discussions with free-agent RHP Ryan Vogelsong.</p>— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/557320490923343872">January 19, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>