We were the worst team in baseball and DFA'd JD Martinez (granted we gave him a much longer run). I'd love DeLoach over our current backups.
Episode 90 of breathing orange fire is up. We kick around the void and nothingness settling into the Astros offseason right now and then do Hall of fame. On Spotify or whatever other second rate platform you consume your pods on (probably). Listen, rate, review, share, tell me how we suck or what andrew got wrong.
The Astros have recently spoken to a number of free agents - prominently Nick Pivetta, Randal Grichuk and Andrew Heany. Take that FWIW. I have heard zero of the Astros talking to Boras about Bregman. Is it possible that Brown is shifting to getting a couple of free agents instead or Bregman? IDK, they are saying little
Pivetta for anything under $18M/yr and less than 4 years is a good deal. Heaney on any 7 figure deal is a great value, even though he’s 33 I still feel like he has untapped upside. Maybe they are shifting away from Bregman/Arenado to trading a pitcher for an OF then backfilling with a FA, which is a good plan imo.
A lot of this stuff is overblown. First, Altuve HAS shagged balls in the Spring and even during the season before. I have seen him do it when playing the White Sox and I have seen him do it very early before games with the Astros.... so him getting fly balls right now could mean something or could mean nothing. He did fine when I have seen him. He doesn't position himself well for the throw in - but I assume he would get better at it.
That is what my thinking is too - if nothing else it is apparently something that they are considering. It likely was an effort to find out where they are in demands so close to free agency. I would be happy with any of those three or even Lance Lynn. It would be nice to have another inning eater in the rotation.
I don’t see how Grichuk adds anything over the in-house options but I trust the front office. He won’t be expensive so it doesn’t really matter.
My guess is literally another outfielder with some upside in case Chas or someone else falls flat on their face.... also gives me an idea of what they think of Melton and others.
Is Pivetta attached to a qualifying offer? If yes, is he worth it? I guess if they are talking to him they must think so. Also they must see something in him because old rumor was they were after him before Kikuchi.
I want to trade Framber so badly (unless he extends then cool cool cool- I'm fine with that too) and this would make total sense. Heaney on a 1 year deal. Framber out for a really good OF and a really good prospect and an interesting prospect (or maybe a guy in the majors they think can be a decent 7th inning guy) and lets go to war. That leaves us some powder (not a ton but some) at the trade deadline as well to bring in a guy if we need it. I'm way higher on Arrighetti than anyone I know though- I think he's ready to be a 2 and Brown is ready to be an ace. This year. And I trust the Astros development pipeline to crank out a good starting arm and a couple bullpen arms basically every single year.
I wish I had the faith you had in those guys. Neither Brown or Arrighetti have proven to be what you are hoping they can be - not even in the minors. Spencer's a career mid-4s ERA, 1.33 WHIP in the minors. He walks way too many guys. That's Hunter's problem too, to a lesser degree - he was really good in 2022 but even then he walked way too many dudes. He's billed a JV Jr. but he's got to keep the walks down under 3 per 9 to make that a reality. They are both young though, and have great stuff. It's just a control issue. Framber's leap came in his year 26 season, so maybe the same will happen for one or both of them.
