If Price shows a real willingness to come here, Feldman's $8m won't mean a thing. We're talking about a $200m contract here.
Do y'all really see Crane giving someone a $200M contract? I'm pretty skeptical we will attempt to sign any big fish to those massive deals.
It will be player dependent. I could see them trying to get Springer to sign a huge extension... and of course Correa should never be going anywhere for at least 10 years. They'll also have to decide what to do with Kuechel sooner than either of those two guys. There's still nothing to say that he "won't" give out a huge deal when needed... payroll going up every year is a "good" sign, along with more money coming in through ROOT than what was coming in through CSN. Lastly, there should be an attendance bump with continued success and possible playoff games.
Do we have any reason to think he wouldn't? We have had no reason to offer such a contract outside of last off season... I think we need to slow down the "cheapo Crane" roll until he proves he deserves it.
What? If Crane sets a budget every year and you go $8 million over next year then that means nothing? Of course.
I guess I believe that his budget (whatever it is) has a lot more leniency when we're in the $57M range that we'll be in after this year. If we were going into the offseason at $110M, I think yes, we'd have to be concerned about $8M because he might be less likely to add without moving that salary out. But at $57M, and with $8M only being 1 more year...I don't think it'll be a concern when it comes to spending on a big-time FA that will last way longer than 1 year.
57M is what the books will be at with Rasmus, Hernandez, Sipp coming off the books as far as I can tell. It'll be somewhere ni that range. I don't think he'll necessarily go to 110M (though note that 110M is the middle of the MLB this year--#15-18 payrolls--and I think Houston can easily support middle of the pack payroll if they have a winning team). I'm just saying there's a lot of room above 57M regardless. I can't imagine he'll blink at going to 90M if it means getting great players onto a team that's already really good. http://espn.go.com/mlb/team/salaries/_/name/hou/houston-astros http://www.spotrac.com/mlb/houston-astros/
Man, I was really hoping they'd make a move this week. I hate how quiet it is. Plus, I thought a move would be a good morale boost to start the 2nd half...especially with the way they finished the 1st half.
Their main move is to get on a hot streak again and get the offense clicking. Once Lowrie and Springer get back, I think we'll be alright. The Astros weren't supposed to be good until 2016, so Luhnow is not going to trade away the future for a rental.
I keep hearing that but Luhnow is smart enough to understand that, while you have to plan for the future (which he clearly does well), you have to take advantage of what you have today (hasn't had the opportunity to be a buyer yet). There's no guarantees they'll be back in this position next year. One or 2 moves doesn't gut the farm. I'd hate to think that they've passed on someone that can make us more of a contender this year in the name of preserving an unknown future. He's been involved with the Cards and knows how to add for now without destroying tomorrow.
Not to mention that we are likely to lose a couple guys in rule 5. Why not do a deal where we get something for them rather than just losing them outright? Yea, trading guys who would be lost in rule 5 wont net us a top tier return. But possibly a guy that can help.
you don't even have to trade the guys who "would be lost in rule 5". You can trade others on the 40 man that you'd otherwise keep. So you can use the Rule 5 clearing reason to get someone good (beyond just "a guy that can help")
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Astros GM Jeff Luhnow said finding a bat has become a growing point of focus as Trade Deadline nears.</p>— Brian McTaggart ⚾️ (@brianmctaggart) <a href="https://twitter.com/brianmctaggart/status/622173084217249793">July 17, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Ross would be very interesting because he is good and team controlled for 2 additional years. His road splits away from PetCo look pretty ugly in a vacuum over the last 3 years, but when you look at his various rates he would seem to be a guy that can have success anywhere. 2.5 K/BB ratio, 57% GB rate. His GB rate has been consistently coming up. Honestly I would like him more than Cueto, but I'm not sure what the demand would be given team control.
Rosenthal: Astros have scouted Carlos Gomez of Milwaukee, would prefer a RH hitter, although Gerardo Parra may come cheaper. 1B Jonathan Singleton is among the young players the Astros are willing to move.
