I haven’t been told the Astros won’t trade Diaz… but I have several times been told they view him as a natural hitter than can hit anywhere… so I would be surprised if they move him for a rental.
I think we are getting a Iann Happ for some reason him and Josh Bell. Idk after that but man I have this gut feeling. What do you think @Nook?
If the Cards really do want Odorizzi, I would add a 15-40 prospect of their liking to sweeten the deal and get a better return. I have usually talked about Brendan Donovan, but after the Mariners gave a lot for Castillo, hopefully this drives the price up a bit and we can pry away Burleson for 1.3 years of Odorizzi. Burleson is the #8 prospect in the Cardinals system, and has been crushing AAA. They do think highly of the guys they have, though, and he appears to be blocked since he still hasn't been called up. Take out that one disaster against Anaheim (the Ohtani perfect through 5.1 blowout game), and here are his numbers, so far: 52.1 IP, 10 G, 4-2, 23 runs (22 earned), 3.78 ERA, 1.204 WHIP. He may be the odd man out for us, but he is still an improvement over what some teams have at the #3/4/5 starter spot.
BINGO! We are spoiled into thinking our 5-6 are lousy when with most teams they would be 2-4 rotation fixtures. You don't undervalue them because WE have better. The point is THEY don't. These are ASSETS, not liabilities. PLUS, they have already shown they can succeed at the MLB level which prospects have not. Improving OUR team is hard because we are very good overall. Every weakness is with a player who is either in a slump, walking wounded or questionably trending worse except for C whose elite abilities don't show up on HIS stats, but on his PITCHER's stats. The worst player on our staff is not a bum, but simply there because his team mates are better and/or hotter. ie Gurriel is last years batting champ. Meyers is still recovering from injury and lack of PA. Bregman is off his MVP numbers, but still well above replacement level. We were worried about Altuve, until he had a typical hot streak. Tucker is in a slump, but is still elite in RF. Pena is off his red hot start, but still having an amazing rookie season. After being manhandled by the A's it's hard to believe, but we're GOOD. If we make a trade, it needs to be a good one, not merely a trade to pretend we are desperate because of the blasted window theory. All IN only applies to what you brought to the table, not all that you have at home. (unless you are an addict)
I have that feeling about SOTO until I read the asking price. I think Bell and Happ can be obtained for a reasonable price if we assume the talk is merely a way of getting some team to overpay. (like Seattle did with Castillo) ps The best player in baseball can be overpaid because this is a TEAM GAME and you have to be deep.
Have we actually made a trade yet? I'm a little lost after my computer crashed in an electrical storm and now I've lost access to my spreadsheets (I think it's a corrupted excel file since Word is OK and the data files are still there). But anyway, I see so much speculation and comments about players already being traded based on previous proposed trades, it's hard to follow. Specifically, have Leon or Whitley actually been traded?
I would try to talk the Cards into giving up 2 lottos rather than one legit prospect. Joshua Baez and Won-Bin Cho seem like good targets. If they just do one prospect I’d ask for Jonathan Mejia. Astros need impact prospects as their depth is fine.
Is there a GAP between losing prospect Status and losing Rookie Status? We seem to have several players near this/these line/s.
Is there really zero smoke on chafin? Haven’t heard anything about him but he’s a really good lefty reliever so that fills 2 holes we have.. reliever and lefty reliever. Not sure what he would cost tho.
The Astros have done a really great job of holding on to the prospects they value the most (especially during Luhnow's tenure). Have there been a few they traded away that in hindsight they'd like to have back...absolutely. Click hasn't been here that long but it will be interesting to see how things play out under his leadership. The one prospect that I would hold on to is Diaz. This kid is a hitting machine and I would very surprised if he's not on the big league roster next yr coming out of spring training.
I guess you lose Prospect Status when you qualify for rookie Status. Mostly 50 IP and 130 ABs, but with a few exceptions. But older age generally drops you in the rankings and off the lists at some point. I hope answering my own question isn't like talking to yourself and sign of losing it.
I haven't been the biggest fan of Click, but I do trust that he won't trade Urquidy for a rental Please don't make me wrong Mr. Click
Acceptable Game Trade: Nats get: Tucker, Urquidy, Leon and Siri Astros get: Soto, Bell and Corbin R 2B Altuve S 1B Bell L LF Alvarez R 3B Bregman L RF Soto R CF McCormick R DH Diaz R SS Pena R C Maldonado