Wasn't the pitching pretty abysmal too? Outside of Wade Miller and Roy O lol can't remember anyone else.
He took that step… just happened to be his rookie year and the league adjusted. He adjusted back last year, which saw the power go down to cut down the K’s…. But most 27+ year olds aren’t going to just find another gear as a hitter. He’ll still going to carve out a great career with his athleticism and defensive abilities alone, with the ability to go on some decent streaks at the plate (as long as you withstand the bad ones).
Shane Reynolds pitched the clincher that year. Dave Mlicki (wrong vowel in the wrong place dude) pitched a playoff game.
So who in the AL is? I'm not saying this Astros team isn't flawed on paper, but so was literally every team last season. The Yankees had a 3 man lineup.
I think it is too early to say if Brown is good or not, and some of the decisions are beyond his control. The Kikuchi trade was good - and I was critical of it at the time. It was good though. The Kyle Tucker return appears to be pretty strong. Paredes is a starter and solid and Cam Smith is an under rated prospect. Ronel Blanco was ticketed for the pen and Brown insisted that he be given chances and believed he would be solid. He signed Singleton as a minor league free agent as well. He did extend Javier but Crane wanted that done and it was a worthy chance. Most of the issues with the Astros were from when Click was GM and when there was no GM. Brown didn’t sign Montero, Abreu or extend McCullers. As for the draft, it’s too early to tell but his draft last year looks strong. That is true, and the market may be small again.
First, the league basically gave Crane a list of GM candidates acceptable. Second, when Click was hired he was told by Crane he wanted a GM to utilize the “guts” and people already in the organization. Crane said he understood - and then spent most his time wanting to change everything, alienating the other Astros employees and fighting with Crane.
Yep, most of the things working against the Astros happened before Dana Brown was hired. Montero/Abreu were Crane/Click moves and the McCullers extension was a Luhnow mistake. The draft pick penalties, 2017-2019 international classes, and 2019-2021 drafts all failed to produce and that is why the team isn’t better. Baseball GM is like how being a college football coach used to be: it takes a minimum of 3 years to really judge them. Brown’s meaningful moves: TBD: Pressly trade, 2025 Gamel, 2025 Int’l signing class (Kevin Alvarez), Walker, Tucker trade, Trammell trade, 2024 draft, Verlander trade*, Hader*, 2024 Int’l signing class Wins: Heyward, 2024 Gamel, King, Ort, Contreras, Hernandez, Blanco, Scott, Singleton Trending as a win: Kikuchi trade, 2023 draft, Julks trade Losses: Ferguson trade, Amaya trade, Cronin DFA, Cabbage trade, Coleman trade, Cousins DFA, 2nd Graveman trade He should also get some proxy credit for Arrighetti and Hunter Brown developing. I give him some blame for moves he didn’t make to shore up the rotation depth early last year. But it’s still too early to judge him overall. That Graveman trade was an underrated misstep because it put $8M in dead money on the books last season that could have been used to shore up the rotation or deepen the lineup.
I think it's time to pump the brakes on Garcia opening the season in the rotation. My guess is Framber-Brown-Blanco-Spaghetti-rookie rotation on opening day.
I believe they already said that he would not be ready to start the season. I remember Brown saying it a month back or so.
We have NO idea what the situation is with Garcia He may start games in May or he may be out all year. If yall haven’t figured out not to listen to Dana yet I’m not sure what to tell ya
I'm not really surprised Luis Garcia is taking longer to recover. He looks fat and out of shape. I am a million percent sure he didn't work as hard as someone like Verlander did after TJ surgery. Garcia had nothing to do but rehab and take care of his body. Looks like Krispy Kreme was involved in his training regiment.
https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/looking-back-at-astros-legacy-of-bregman-tucker-others They had Tucker to replace Springer. They had Pena to replace Correa. They added Paredes to replace Bregman. They don’t have a replacement for Tucker unless Dezenzo or Melton are way better than anyone is predicting. Position player roster evolution since 2017: C McCann>Maldonado/Chirinos>Diaz 1B Gurriel>Abreu/Singleton>Walker 2B Altuve SS Correa>Pena 3B Bregman>Paredes RF Reddick>Tucker>Gamel? CF Springer>McCormick/Meyers LF Aoki>Kemp>Brantley>Julks>McCormick>Dezenzo? DH Beltran>Gattis>Yordan UT Marwin>Aledmys>Dubon Pedro Leon being Cuban Mookie Betts like I dreamed he’d be sure would have solved a lot of problems.
Oh no, I don’t take anything he says as gospel. I was just saying that Garcia not being ready to pitch at the start of the season isn’t new news. Honestly at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if didn’t pitch at all this season, with the way he was supposed to return last year and he is still not ready. He seems to be going the Lance McCullers route. At least with Garcia we didn’t hand out a long contract before he broke down.
The locks for the bullpen: Hader, Abreu, Scott, King, Ort. That leaves 3 spots open. Which of these guys step up this year? Sometimes, you can catch lightning in a bottle with these relievers, Scott last year, Montero in '22 (which was a complete outlier for his career). Dubin (possibly injured as of this week) Whitley Montero Castro Sousa Hernandez Contreras Okert Otto Castro has a lot of mlb experience, but consistently sits at a little over 4.00 ERA (too many walks). Both Hernandez & Contreras are long time minor leaguers who have had pretty good success, especially of late, but have not been given much of an opportunity at the mlb level. Okert is a lefty and was bad last year, not good in '23, but fantastic in '22. Does Whitley break out and provide good, meaningful innings? Does Montero make the team?
Pitcher roster evolution since 2017: SP Keuchel>Greinke>Garcia* SP Morton>Miley>Javier* SP McCullers* SP Fiers>Cole>Valdez SP Peacock/JV>JV*>Brown CL Giles>Osuna>Pressly>Hader 8th Gregerson>Pressly>Paredes>Stanek>Neris>Abreu 7th Harris>Raley>Montero That 2018 pitching staff was one of the best in the history of the league. They should have re-signed Morton after 2018, might have another ring. That 2020 bullpen was weak. A lot of guys have been on the roster consistently but have been injured for long periods of time and so have had lots of guys fill in (*).
