Alot like the Rays do business. Clck has impressed me this yr at the deadline. He thinks Chaz and Meyers are as good or better than Straw. Worst case they put Tucker in CF. I find it interesting that the game Dusty was suspended, Tucker started in CF with Alvarez in LF and Uncle Mike in RF.
We were in an NL park with a ground ball pitcher throwing, we won't see that OF alignment often at all
The Astros and the luxury tax, Phil Maton’s poor BABIP luck, and looking back at the Austin Pruitt trade https://theathletic.com/2744266/202...-and-looking-back-at-the-austin-pruitt-trade/ SAN FRANCISCO — After days of speculation that they might exceed the luxury-tax threshold to make a big splash for an elite high-leverage reliever like Craig Kimbrel or even an ace like Max Scherzer, the Astros acquired several much-lower-salaried pitchers and remained under the $210 million line with their projected end-of-season payroll after all. None of the four relievers the Astros added before Friday’s trade deadline make big money. Kendall Graveman is owed only the rest of a $1.25 million salary. Yimi García’s salary is $1.9 million. Phil Maton is making only $975,000. Rafael Montero actually has the highest salary among them, $2.25 million. Moving off the rest of Joe Smith’s $4 million salary counteracted much of their added salaries. According to Roster Resource, the Astros’ estimated luxury-tax payroll (which is calculated at the end of the season) is about $208.5 million. The Astros exceeded the luxury-tax threshold in 2020 (when the threshold was $208 million), a year when the financial penalties (in their case a 20 percent tax on all overages) were suspended because of the pandemic. The only repercussion then was that their compensatory draft pick for losing George Springer to the Blue Jays in free agency came after the fourth round as opposed to after the second round. If the Astros exceeded the threshold again this season, they would’ve been treated as a second-time offender and levied a 30 percent tax on all overages. However, it seemed like the diminished compensatory draft picks were a bigger fear than the financial penalty. They could have two compensatory draft picks in the 2022 draft considering that Carlos Correa and Justin Verlander will be free agents at season’s end. Seeing two draft picks drop from after the second round to after the fourth round doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but evidently it was a deterrent to the Astros. By navigating the trade deadline the way they did, they also hung on to their four best prospects: catcher Korey Lee, shortstop Jeremy Peña, right-hander Hunter Brown and center fielder/shortstop Pedro León. The young players they did trade departed as scouting and player development success stories. Abraham Toro and Myles Straw were drafted out of junior colleges — Toro in the fifth round in 2016 out of Seminole State College in Oklahoma, and Straw in the 12th round in 2015 out of St. Johns River State College in Florida. Bryan De La Cruz was an international signee out of the Dominican Republic way back in September 2013 for a $170,000 bonus. And the Straw trade happened, in part, because of the development of Chas McCormick, a 21st-round pick out of Division II Millersville (Pa.) in 2017, and Jake Meyers, a 13th-round pick out of Nebraska in 2017. _________________________________________________________________________ By ERA, new Astros reliever Phil Maton was an average performer for the Indians in the shortened 2020 season (4.57 in 21 2/3 innings) and during the first four months of this season (4.57 in 41 1/3 innings). The Astros believe he’s pitched better than his ERA, a notion supported by Maton’s FIP (2.22 in 2020, 3.13 in 2021). An extremely high batting average against on balls in play is another stat that suggests Maton has outperformed his ERA. Among all pitchers who have thrown 60 or more innings since the start of the 2020 season, Maton’s .378 BABIP against coming into Saturday was tied with Keegan Akin of the Orioles for the highest in MLB. Metrics such as these are the same that have kept Brooks Raley with the Astros despite his 6.39 ERA in 31 innings this season. Raley has a 3.54 FIP and a .358 BABIP against. But the bad-luck argument only goes so far, and the Astros will need Maton to continue to develop to justify giving up four-plus years of Straw for two-plus years of him. Maton has a high-spin four-seam fastball in the 91-93 mph range that he pairs with a 75-78 mph curveball. The 28-year-old right-hander rounds out his repertoire with a low-80s slider he throws mostly to right-handed hitters and a high-80s cutter he has tinkered with over the course of the season. He was a 20th-round draft pick of the Padres in 2015 out of Louisiana Tech. Two years later, he was in the majors. Two years after that, the Padres traded him to the Indians for international bonus pool money. The Indians, like the Astros, are a data-driven organization that has a reputation for developing pitchers. “I’m really thankful for everything they did for me,” Maton said. “I was kind of a project when I showed up with them from the Padres, and they put a lot of work and investment into me and I feel like I’m really starting to see the fruits of their labor right now. I’m just really excited to help this team out now. The only thing that matters now is winning games.” Maton said he’s excited to learn from the Astros about what he can do to improve his pitch usages and locations. Putting hitters away after getting to two strikes was an issue for him at times with the Indians. Still, he has a 34.3 strikeout percentage this season and had a 33.3 strikeout percentage last season. He has a knack for spinning the ball. “Coming from San Diego to Cleveland, I was maxing out at 88 miles an hour with my fastball,” Maton said. “I still had the high spin, but it was one of those things where it wasn’t working. It was cutting. I had no idea how to load my lower half, no idea how to move down the mound properly. I’m really fortunate to have had some guys in Goodyear down there (with the Indians) who helped me out and kind of taught me how to pitch again, to where I got my velocity back and I got my breaking balls back to where they needed to be. “I just kind of turned myself into the pitcher I always knew I could’ve been, but it was just like I didn’t really know how to do it. Coming over here, I’m really excited to work with these guys and tweak kind of how I use my arsenal — obviously, you can’t overhaul a delivery in the last two months of a season when we’re trying to win a World Series — but figure out what pitches to use in what counts and what’s the best way to get hitters out.” _________________________________________________________________________ When the Astros traded two minor leaguers to the Rays for Austin Pruitt on Jan. 9, 2020, they couldn’t have predicted that Pruitt would get hurt. But that doesn’t change the fact that the deal, made four days before former GM Jeff Luhnow’s firing, has aged terribly. The reason it looks so bad? Peyton Battenfield, the pitcher they sent to the Rays along with outfielder Cal Stevenson, has quickly become an interesting reliever prospect. Battenfield, the Astros’ ninth-round draft pick in 2019 out of Oklahoma State, has already pitched his way to Double A, where he’s been working as a starter. The Indians traded for him Friday, sending major-league outfielder Jordan Luplow and Triple-A reliever DJ Johnson to the Rays. The 23-year-old Battenfield throws in the low-to-mid 90s with his fastball and has three secondary pitches: a changeup, a curveball and a cutter that has been his breakout pitch in pro ball. As of Saturday, the 6-foot-4 right-hander had a 2.72 ERA with 46 strikeouts against seven walks in 36 1/3 innings in Double A. He was promoted in June from High A, where he had a 1.45 ERA with 49 strikeouts against five walks in 31 innings. That’s a 36.8 strikeout percentage and a 4.7 walk percentage across the two levels. The Astros got only 2 2/3 innings out of Pruitt, a 31-year-old right-hander whose calling card is his command. After a strong showing in spring training of 2020, he missed the 60-game season because of injury and underwent surgery in September to repair a hairline fracture in his elbow. He resumed throwing in January, but the rehab process cut into more of the 2021 season than expected. Pruitt was activated from the 60-day injured list on only July 16 and made just two appearances, giving up a solo home run in each, before the Astros designated him for assignment, then jettisoned him to the Marlins as part of Wednesday’s De La Cruz-for-García swap. Astros general manager James Click was still with the Rays when they dealt Pruitt to the Astros, so technically he’s now twice been part of a front office that traded Pruitt.
Couple offseason trade ideas: Astros get: IF Eugenio Suarez SP Luis Castillo Reds get: SP Jose Urquidy RHP Peter Solomon IF Jeremy Pena IF Yohander Martinez Astros get: OF Byron Buxton RP Taylor Rogers Twins get: RHP Cristian Javier OF Chas McCormick RHP Angel Macuare OF Jordan Brewer Resulting roster: CF Buxton LF Brantley 2B Altuve DH Alvarez 3B Bregman RF Tucker 1B Gurriel SS Diaz C Maldonado Bench: Suarez, Castro, Meyers Rotation: Castillo, Valdez, McCullers, Garcia, Odorizzi Bullpen: Pressly, Rogers, Maton, Baez, Stanek, Montero, James, Taylor Astros add a ToR SP, an elite RP, and a star CF and only give up one of their top 10 prospects and not taking on any hindering payroll obligations. They add a struggling former star IF who shouldn’t yet be suffering from age-related decline, which means there’s some chance of a resurgence. Houston’s roster would be pretty set, allowing Click to utilize the remaining payroll flexibility for extensions. Twins add two relatively proven young players they can count on as fringe-core pieces with upside for more, along with clearing payroll and deepening the middle level of their farm. Reds get out from under Suarez’s contract and replace Castillo with a relatively proven young MoR SP, along with a 2nd tier pitching prospect and a fringe top 100 infield prospect.
Who knows. There are lots of reasons teams change their outlook or make deals they wouldn’t before. Why didn’t Houston trade for Gerrit Cole the previous deadline? No need to be a dick.
If Max would have approved, would you have done the Dodgers deal but with KLee/HunterB/somebody else (x2)? What would you have given for Pineda? What starter would you have given what for?
Would have been a tough call. Out of the moment, objectively, no. In the moment, nuts on the block, probably.
I would’ve given a 2nd tier prospect for Pineda. I’ve posted enough hypotheticals in this thread (and others) to give a pretty good idea of what I thought was fair value for various SP. I like where Houston is at with their roster. Outside of Scherzer there wasn’t a player traded that I really really wanted Houston to have. Guys like Pineda provided depth but wouldn’t have materially upgraded the playoff roster. Marte would’ve been cool in CF.
Oddly, it is the guys that were on their roster prior to deadline trades that are doing the work since the trade deadline. Since the first 2 games as a Yankee, Rizzo has basically been a well paid Robel Garcia at the plate without the defensive flexibility.
