Yeah, I wonder if our Gattis package of Ruiz+Folty+etc. would've been enough to land Donaldson. I wasn't really blown away with OAK's return for TOR, granted I'm not Billy Beane. I wonder what Donaldson's asking price for an in-division team would've been.
Was thinking this^ Astros can win this season though. The bats are good enough with Springer, and the bullpen will regain form.
I don't think we would had given as much talent at Toronto gave. For example, Barreto is a SS, playing at Class A+ at 19, he is 3.5 year younger than average players in the league, and is hitting .300 with slugging of .500. He is number 2 prospect in their system. Baseball America gave him a 60 (first division regular). For example, for 2015 the Astros only had 2 players with 60 or more, Appel with 60 and Correa with 70 (All Star). Then they got 2 starters, a lefty and righty in Graveman and Nolin, both number 4 or 5 kind of starters. They are number 7 and 8 respectively in BA A's top 10. Also got Lawrie, who is only 25, plays 3b and 2b, and can hit 20 homers per season. We don't have a SS, beside Correa who is untouchable, with the caliber of Barreto to give the A's. So probably we needed to offer a package of Appel, Moran, and McCullers (remember, last year McCullers was a 50 rating on BA and not even top 10 prospect ) I love Donaldson, but that is a lot to give, i think A's got a nice package, remember, last year Donaldson hit .255 and the OPS was under .800.
The A's current top prospect, along with a proven ML ready 3B and 2 pitchers were what came back for Donaldson. I think the package we gave up for Gomez/Fiers could have gotten it done, although Phillips prospect status was not quite as high when the Donaldson trade went down, so who knows?
I like the lineup tonight with one exception, Gattis playing and not Tucker. Second, Lowrie is very hot with the bat, and hitting 4th his OPS is almost .800. Move Gomez to 5th as he is also hitting well, and that way you don't have 4 righties hitting in a row. Then 6th Tucker, Valbuena, Conger and Marisnick. I think it was a great move by Hinch to play Marisnick tonight, he will have a good game, on offense, defense or both. Kazmir will have a great game, but we need the bullpen to deliver, i trust Harris will do good, and Neshek, if used on match ups the same with Oliver Perez, and then, closing Gregerson. Tonight we are going to win, goooo Astros, but Hinch, please, Tucker, play him a little bit more. One forum member gave a great stat, Gattis as DH is one of worse in the AL, i am not saying don't play him, i am saying, play him less, and give some games to Tucker.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tonight's <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash">#Astros</a> lineup vs. A's. <a href="https://twitter.com/scottkazmir19">@scottkazmir19</a> gets the ball at 9:05 pm CT. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Whiff?src=hash">#Whiff</a> <a href="http://t.co/Y1T5ebIZ0Q">pic.twitter.com/Y1T5ebIZ0Q</a></p>— Houston Astros (@astros) <a href="https://twitter.com/astros/status/641379828604764160">September 8, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Double that....has hit in 11 of last 12 Plus, if we are gonna go on another big run it's likely he will need to be a big part of it
Yeah, Gomez performing up to his level from the last 3 years (or close to it), and getting Springer back up to speed are huge for this team accomplishing what we hope they can. If so that top 4 looks really formidable. It isn't as if Gomez hitting well is unexpected, there's a reason Luhnow paid such a huge price for him. He's posted an .819 OPS over the last 3 seasons, and even this year his OPS was .780 in late July. He was just in a really ugly slump for about a month.
