You aren't saying much when comparing garbage to garbage. Phil Maton should not pitch important innings for the Astros in 2021.
Didn't have have similar numbers with the Astros through about this point in the season before he imploded?
He was garnering Cy Young notoriety before he blew so hard and didnt even make the playoff roster. Gawdam that team was so good -****ing Ferrari that ran out of gas.
.429 BABIP won’t last. He has done very close to what I expected, 5% bb, 29% k, .129 ISO. With those numbers and average defense he is a fringe regular. He may be able to slightly trim the k’s and raise the power a bit, but becoming more than a ~2.5 war player would be extremely surprising to me. I think Avisail Garcia is a good comparison for DLC’s 75th percentile outcome. Of course, Teoscar being as good as he is was extremely surprising to me too.
This is kind of funny - Toro currently has the second highest projected WAR (2.6) in the Steamer600 update of any position player on the Mariners. The only one above him is Cal Raleigh due to him playing C and getting a big positional adjustment. I'm perfectly happy with how Graveman has played, but in exchange for a rental reliever that just looks like a massive overpay. I was looking too at what the Padres gave up for Hudson, who has arguably been just as good as Graveman this year, and it doesn't compare at all to Toro's value - a 40 FV reliever and a 35+ FV hitter who looks like a worse version of Nova.
We should have gotten more out of Teo, but at the same time I don't know where he would have played had he stuck around. He's a fairly atrocious OF and since the Astros have become competitive Luhnow/Click have abhorred starting bad fielders regularly.
He would have played LF or DH. Lots of things might have changed by keeping him. Some good, some bad.
On Toro trade, it isn't easy being a buyer in a sellers market. Also, teams rebuilding tend to want 7 years of control such that the market is limited for a player with only 5.5 years that isn't likely a star. Finding the Mariners who were trying to win now and in the near future and willing to trade a closer (and then trade for a closer) was likely not easy. Though, getting rid of Smith was likely important to the Astros as well. I am generally against the principle of a trade has to happen as it puts a team in a position to make a trade that they don't get back as much. In this instance, I think it was clear Astros probably needed at least one more arm. Considering what was given up for Scherzer, Berrios, and Kimbrel, the Toro trade was likely a deal that helps the Astros without giving up someone at a need position at a cost less than what was paid for the better arms. I'm more concerned with the Straw trade. Unless the prospect is actually someone, I'd rather have Straw benched and tried to trade him in the offseason. Never know when Chas or Meyers will go on the IL. It really looks like trade was done because Click couldn't get Baker to play other people in CF.
