Nolan Arenado is also an example of never knowing what the future holds for a player. By age 31 he had led the league in homers three times, won 10 straight gold gloves, 5 Silver Sluggers, 8 All Star games and was coming off a 8 WAR season where he finished 3rd in MVP voting and had a career WAR over 50. At age 32 he suddenly lost his ability to drive the ball, and his batting average started to erode. He has gone from a 5-8 WAR player to a 2-3 WAR player in the matter of like 4-5 months. The same thing happened to Evan Longoria, Ryan Zimmerman, Matt Williams, Troy Glaus, Roger Maris and even Eddie Matthews. So - while it is annoying, it is part of the reason that some teams like the Astros are very cautious to give long term contracts to guys. Even Ken Griffey Jr. only had 8 total WAR past the age of 30. Guys like Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Warren Spahn, Roger Clemens, Adrian Beltre, Nolan Ryan and Ty Cobb are by far the exception.
This might turn out to be true, but Dana is in the hall of fame of “saying a lot while saying absolutely nothing”
I don't want Arenado either. If the Astros had lots of offense and needed a top tier glove at 3rd, and the Cards were eating part of the salary - then fine, Arenado could hit 7-8th in the line up. However the Astros need actual offensive production, so short of Lance Armstrong's doctor giving Arenado "blood transfusions", I don't have any interest in him.
"Hey brother - just checking in. So how is Donovan? You moving him or maybe Matz?" "Good Dana, we have Arenado - you remember him?" "Yeah how is Donovan? - about him."
exactly! His discussion of injuries sounds the same as his trade comments . . . super positive, he's close, around the corner, grinding, grit. Yordan was coming back in May too, at one point. He has a media switch - that's all the broadcast was in my book.
Most of them were on drugs of some sort. Between steroids, HGH and greenies - like 90% of the stars did something. Aaron was on greenies .... so was Matthews and even Griffey used pep pills when he first came up.
I am getting the feeling that we all are going to be extremely disappointed with whatever outcome happens in the next 48 hours.
I actually have a lot of hope. Crane has conditioned me to expect good moves more years than not. Even last year which seems underwhelming worked out great. Jim Crane has a chance to bring back Carlos Correa for $110M/3.5yrs. I just have a hard time seeing him pass on that unless Dana Brown convinces him he has another deal lined up that will make the team even better. I do have a fear they will talk themselves into Suarez or Arenado which is worst case scenario for me.
Have we figured out a way to do it without going into the tax this year? If we are going into the tax, then we should go all in and reset next year.
How does the 27 work stoppage factor into their thinking? LT be damned or not paying it no way, no how?
I'm only worried about this specific season so we can reset the tax and make sure we get better picks when we lose Framber. We will be under the tax next season because Abreu, Montero, and Pressly's contract come off the books.
We could probably get Correa for free since Minnesota just wants to get out of his contract with the new ownership. They will probably eat some salary for it to happen. He has a NTC so he and we have all the leverage.
Very unlikely considering Suarez is the most desired bat on the market and Correa’s NTC means Houston is the only bidder. But certainly possible.
There is no way to avoid the tax if they get Correa imho. So I agree if they do it they should go all in and also add a SP3, 8th inning RP, and a LH OF.
