2025 Season Astros General Discussion Thread

I HATE Spanish because they have about 180 sounds from 26 letters and I can't even hear, much less say, about 150 of them.

 

I'm not one to hoard prospects, but I would be extremely hesitant to part with Arrighetti.

While he quite possibly may never put it together, he's also already shown he has stuff that can wipe out MLB hitters. Pitchers with that level of dominance potential are the most important commodity in the game, particularly in October.

 

Unless you are a member of the Astros.
Sites Garcia and McCullers as examples.

 

Are you familiar with the English language?

It's about 20 times worse...and you'd absolutely love any of the Western Slavic languages (Polish/Czech/Slovak).

eta: OK, I exaggerated a bit: English has 44 phonemes (sound combinations), Spanish has 24, Polish has 37 (but a more extensive alphabet)

The Taa language, spoken in Botswana, has the most phonemes: 164

 

Of course I want to see YorDong/Yainer/Walker come up to average, if Smith works in CF, and how well LMJ comes back - but for the first time in years I'm thinking stand pat {minus trading Chas and/or deeper pitching prospects {NOT Spaghetti}}.

 

I think standing pat is viable for the first time in years. Getting to that point alone is a big accomplishment for Brown.

But Altuve is aging before our eyes. Walker should be the 5th-6th best hitter on the team, not the 3rd or 4th- And how is he going to be in 2026 and 2027?

Even if Rodgers proves to be an above average MLB 2b, he will be a FA again next year and no prospects are making a case for that job.

This team is projected to have unprecedented (for the Astros) SP depth in 2-3 months.

If they can use this depth to bring in a legitimate run producer with control that fits into the roster, they must do it.

 

Literally cannot hear it mentioned without thinking of this

 

Yeah I don’t disagree. My comments were more tongue in cheek as we have Javier, McCullers and Garcia on the shelf (JP France anyone ??) and those 3/4 alone could be good enough for a playoff roster when healthy. Would be nice if we could unload some of those instead of anyone on the current starting 6 - although I still would keep Javier

 

Isn't Matthews the future 2nd base? That could be next year, maybe even a late year call up.

 

It's funny. I would trade Javier in a minute.

Don't get me wrong- I'm not saying give him away in a salary dump, but I feel he will not age well, his success relies on hitters not adjusting or being able to lay off "his" pitches. He has very little margin for error and we have seen a lack of effort in maintaining himself in the past.

 

I believe in hoarding prospects when a team is on the upswing.
I believe in trying to be sustainable for a while by keeping prospects except in contending needing trades.

That said, the Astros have been good to great for about a decade causing a slow erosion of homegrown talent through trades. I'm fine with trades like Tucker's that gives good value now and in 2026 and 2027. For the most part, to get as much value this year and the next 2, most value in 2028+ can



Arrighetti for a better pitcher with less control. I'm fine with. Among position players, it would need to be a really good 2B.

 

Our starting pitching depth (with MLB experience ):

Valdez (TOR)
Brown (TOR-ACE)
Arrighetti (TOR potential )
Javier (TOR potential - solid #2)
McCullers (solid mid rotation guy ; 2-3)
Blanco (valuable pitcher mid, upside to #2)
Wesneski (solid depth piece - mid guy, great #5)
Gusto (jury still out but looking good - upside ?)
Garcia (upside fading but mid rotation guy )
Dubin (nice depth piece ; some team may seem him as a decent , back of rotation starter )
JP France (promising start - still value as a back end starter )

that’s 9-10 starting pitchers that may contribute in 2025 and besides Valdez, all under team control. That is pretty insane depth, 2 rotations deep. I think we should aggressively trade from strength and nab a bat - obviously some relief pitching and minor leaguers could be included in any trade package so it’s not like we have to raid our starting rotation to advance forward.

 

You don’t have to move Altuve to 2B. You could put Cam at 3B, move Paredes to second and play Dezenzo at RF. Nobody would be out of place with that alignment though I don’t know that any of them would be playing at their best positions.

 

I actually see the future of CF as possibly very good.

There aren't any slam dunks or even layups, but 4 mid-range jumpers (Melton, Corona, Gomez, Sullivan) and a rushed 3/4 court heave (Cole). One should go in.

I can't say that about 2b. If Matthews doesn't show enough this year, I could see the Astros offering Rodgers a reasonable 2-3 year extension if he proves to be solid.

 

I know our pitchers were bad in the past, but I just looked to see how bad they are this year.

Worse. They are so, so much worse.

Last year they caught 21.5% of runners (a bit above league average), this year opponents are 28/30 against us.

Since yall like to b**** about hitting coaches, I'd ask: do our genius pitching coaches not know how to teach guys how to hold runners on?

 

for a nice return I’d agree. I still think he has a ton of upside and would help a playoff team in a pinch - but how much has his value diminished due to injuries and what would a team offer for him THIS year at the trade deadline ? Not sure we sell low on him. At one point he was going toe to toe with Framber. He could easily replace his production next year **if** he lives up to his potential

 

It’s a big problem. Teams are gonna run on us until it’s fixed.