I do expect him to keep spending, but I’m fine with waiting until the deadline to figure out what our needs are.
Brantley and Abreu are “par” IMO when you consider that we lost the Cy young. We’re down a lot of innings from the starters, and needed to make up for it with runs. Now I think we can be patient and see how the roster shapes up. Is Brown really JV 2.0? Will Lee or Diaz wrestle the starting job from Maldonado, or at least justify a platoon? Will McCormick or Peña take a big leap forward? Can Meyers reclaim his initial potential? Not all of these will happen, but one or two could, and that may play a big role in our next move.
Absolutely. I’m a fan. I’ve spent mid 5 figures on the Astros over their run since they’ve gotten good. And it certainly could work out for any of those guys (I think Brown is a virtual certainty) or even all of them, as you say. And I will be rooting like hell for that to happen. But yeah, a baseball season is a meat grinder that waylays the best laid plans of all of us, so the idea of going into the year with multiple question marks when you don’t need to have multiple question marks seems unnecessarily risky with a team this awesome.
The rotation was so deep multiple serviceable or better starters were getting under utilized in the pen. Eating JVs innings shouldn’t be that big of a problem, now, obviously you probably won’t get the same quality but guys like Brown, Urquidy and Garcia had a lot more to give.
Yeah I could see the 6 man rotation being a new trend soon. Keeps everyone extra fresh if your starters can stack quality outings.
Yeah. Maybe Whitley puts it together. I’m perfectly fine with Bielak making 10 starts during the year. We certainly don’t need to do a 6 man rotation the entire way, just off and on. And, you only need 4 starters in the post season so 2 can bust and it’s no big deal in October. I’d also LOVE to see Abreu given a chance to start. Strom thought he could be awesome at it and I see no reason to doubt that. A starter is about 225% of the value of the highest leverage reliever so it’s certainly worth a shot. If none of that works out then you can get an Odorizi type essentially for free at the deadline most of the time to eat innings during the dog days. If we are signing someone so we can trade someone so we can fill another hole cool I guess, and since there are basically no more money moves to be made in FA it’s not like it represents an opportunity cost.
Likely better: Tucker (shift is gone) Chas- younger, starting to settle in Peña- younger- starting to settle in likely worse: Altuve- age and that was an amazing season, probably just best offensively of his career Abreu- Age related decline Brantley- Age and injury Same: bregman- he’s in his prime- this is what it should be at that age and that production Yordan- help from the shift going away- but he was just freaking awesome so always bet under on that Maldy- he was so awful at the beginning of the year it dragged down his overall numbers. Age should make him worse. Bet it all ends with a push. The biggest room for improvement in our lineup between now and the end of the year is just Maldy playing much less than expected as far as the number of games goes. Last year we scored 737 runs and came in 8th overall. That feels like the worst we’ve been over a film season since 2016. I’m betting on about 820 runs this year (that would have been 2nd in the league last year) and a top 5 run scored deal. Offensive environment should improve with the changes being made to the rules.
I would actually low-key like this. Looking at Savant, he would likely benefit from no shifts because his wOBA as a lefty is higher without shifts, and he was shifted on a large percent of the time. He's seen as a good framer, and already has 2 Gold Gloves to his name. Does he have to be an All Star? No. He just needs to be a good second option to relieve Maldy and give the AAA guys time to develop. He and Maldonado could also join together to make a decent platoon.
Okay. I mean, it's not a "Splash" signing at all, but I would like the move as solid depth, I should say. Depth is very important. It is much-needed over a long, 162 game season, even if those moves aren't the ones that dominate the headlines.
Would you have a problem if Brantley only DH for 65 games and the playoffs next year? Give me Barnhart is a chance to trade for Jansen doesn't happen? A trade can and most likely will be made at the deadline to shore up the weaknesses.
