Why is there a belief that Iglesias or Hand are better in the playoffs than Giles or Rondon? Giles was a stud in Philly all the time. Is there evidence that Iglesias / Hand translate better, or is it just hope? Really just curious how they're being evaluated, because it seems like if Giles were still crushing in Philly, he'd be high on the list right now. (I realize Hand being a lefty plays in here.)
I've fallen of the Hand bandwagon, and I'm with you on Iglesias. He has Giles written all over him, and his outing today only reinforced that. Praying that Oakland craters these next 2-3 weeks so they fall back to .500 or below and at least listen to offers on Treinen. He is the one I really want, and I'm willing to offer A LOT (no Whitley or Tucker, though).
He completely, totally and completely, ignored defense. Watching his teams in the field was a comedy of errors. His draft history is pretty much crap. I do like Chapman though.
Did he ignore it, or was is one of the many tradeoffs he had to make with his payroll limitations? His "genius" was finding things that other teams undervalued, but he never remotely had the resources to pay for the players that were good in all areas. If defense wasn't undervalued, that wasn't going to be his priority because he couldn't get it at a discount - meaning that money would be better spent elsewhere. Relative to payroll, he probably won more any other GM in baseball before all the advanced analytics spread throughout the rest of baseball. .
Trading for relievers always comes with a lot of risk. Thankfully for us, it doesn't look like we gave up much to get Giles. Even with Giles' inconsistency, I'd much rather have him on the roster than have kept Velasquez and Appel. Apple is out of baseball. VV is a mid-level SP at best, and can't stay off the DL to save his life. Eshelman has bottomed out this year too (1-7, 6.78 ERA, 1.88 WHIP). The Arauz bros have yet to separate themselves. All that to say, I can see some value in a trade for a reliever at the deadline, but whatever it takes to get one better be weighed carefully. And the expected production of said reliever ought to be tempered a bit. As some of you have mentioned, even the best RP targets come with a healthy dose of reality. How likely is it that one of these RPs will play a pivotal role in the playoffs?
Here's an interesting read on our pen: https://www.crawfishboxes.com/2018/7/3/17527462/the-astros-have-the-best-bullpen-in-baseball
