I'm not sure if saving $1.5M is much incentive. He would be replaced by somebody and the prorated minimum is $570K so its a savings of less than $1M.
I believe the Astros should play Altuve for as long as he wants to play. He has meant that much to them. He is not a full time position player any longer but can still get plenty of plate appearances from the bench as a pinch hitter, DH, second baseman, and LF. I could not care less about the HOF and neither should the team. It may incentivize Altuve but it is not something he or the Astros can control.
To overcome the propaganda of shills who tow the company line like yourself They knew they couldn't resign him, left it late, and sold him at his lowest after the Soto contract when teams knew they had them on the backfoot Got very lucky with a Cubs GM that was desperate for a star, but still couldn't get Suzuki out of it This comes down to lack of cutthroat ability and no real vision I will continue to hammer this home as this team watches Tucker and Bregman dominate
That's his potential as he ENTERS his prime with years of a track record. He has a ton of value as a multi tool player. Judge is on course for 14 WAR, doesn't mean that's his expected production rate but you use it in negotiations to highlight his potential. Tucker is a guy who pushes you over the top, not producing in the playoffs early in your career doesn't change that. A cutthroat GM needs to be on the phone constantly gauging his value when you work with a low revenue franchise that can't afford these big contracts (which I understand). You can be reactionary when you're with a NY LA type franchise that keeps throwing big contracts at everyone, and hit or miss, doesn't really get affected, but with lower revenue teams the impact of even 1 miss is felt immediately. Did Abreu and Montero affect the ability to resign Bregman short term at a slight overpay? Because Stanton, Rodon and the rest of NY expensive miscues wouldn't impact their ability to easily match Bregman if he was their player. Atlanta will be a perennial contender if they can ever be healthy because of their ability to lock in players to affordable long term contracts . Elite talent like Merrill just signed a very affordable contract with SD, likely the biggest pay underpay in the history of modern MLB. That process starts early and isn't a last minute reaction to the market. They FRONT RUN the market.
Is it though? 2024 was 1 vs 1. 2023 was 6 vs 6. 2022 was 1 vs 6. 2021 was 2 vs 3. There's as many 6 seeds as 1 seeds making the WS since the expanded playoffs began. There might something to be said for having to fight your way in and play high-stakes games all the way until the end of the regular season.
Are you under the impression that a team that was going all-in on this year by trading for Tucker was going to trade away their best hitter to get another great hitter? What's would have been the point of that from the Cubs' perspective? This isn't fantasy baseball.
The Astros pitching is ran but Miller/Murphy and they are completely left alone by Brown. If they want a resource, Brown gets it for them. He is very smart to let them run pitching in majors and minors to the extent that they want. They also are relentless about getting information. One of them (I don’t remember which) spend a lot of time meeting with and talking to high school coaches through the Japanese and Korean league coaches to keep ahead of the curve. They have college professors that study arm angles and release points - etc. The level of preparation is amazing and that is likely why the pitching hasn’t been impacted as much as other’s organization. I wonder how long the Astros will be able to keep them together - supposedly they really enjoy working together so there is hope.
I think these next 6 games could define the season. These are winnable series against the Royals and Reds before heading into a tougher stretch to end the month that includes 4-game series against both the Rangers and Mariners. The June schedule looks pretty light before a mixed July followed by brutal August and September slates. If Houston builds some momentum over the next 6 games then they can use the subsequent series to take the division lead then cash in on their easy June to build a cushion. If they lose the next 2 series, they will go into that intradivision stretch pressing to catch the Mariners and could end May 5+ games back, which would be a disaster.
17 straight games with no off days, this will tell us a lot of who we are or who we are not............I "think" were a tad better than a .500 club, but this stretch is important
I think things would look a lot better if Altuve and Alvarez had been doing their part. Alvarez will come around but who knows with Altuve being in his mid-30s. Dezenzo, Rodgers, and Smith are all hitting the ball well. Meyers has been streaky but overall is putting together the best season of his career. Diaz is beginning to come around. Just need to get hot.
Positional fwar rankings thru 6 weeks: C: Diaz 58th, Caratini 39th 1B: Dezenzo 24th, Walker 67th 2B: Dubon 19th, Rodgers 45th SS: Pena 6th 3B: Paredes 6th RF: Smith 19th, Dezenzo 32nd CF: Meyers 8th, McCormick 37th, Dubon 57th LF: Alvarez 64th, McCormick 84th, Altuve 103rd, Dubon 104th, Dezenzo 132md DH: Altuve 56th, Caratini 73rd, McCormick 91st, Alvarez 142nd, Diaz 147th I kinda wish Houston would’ve avoided Walker and given Dezenzo a shot as the everyday 1B.
Gotta love the strategy of being too risk averse to pursue topline free agents so instead you sign guys in their mid 30s with limited tools to $50M+ deals lmao. This is like checking too often in poker. Either fold or raise Jimmy!
Limited guy? Walker is a GG 1B that hurt his oblique at the end of TC. Espada not having his team ready to go at the start of the season every yr is a big issue.
Limited in that he plays a position of limited defensive value so if he stops hitting he starts creating a lot of negative value.
Our best stretch of the year was the 10 game stretch from Walker where he had a 950 ops. That's not going to be him all the time, but it's pretty clear that he can be the kind of bat that helps carry the team for a time. If we get anything approaching normalacy from Yordan and Diaz this team is so much better. Hell, if we catch the ball Sunday (easy one by Dezenzo) and Monday (hard one- but Jake has to catch that for the 3rd out) we are 20-16 instead of 18-18 and everything looks and feels a shitload different right now.
