I just don’t know how you can ascertain that. Seattle is beating a lot of teams. It would also be a personal thing to lose focus in baseball, not a team thing.
Legit question: Toronto or Boston in the World Series vs Cubs. Do we care? Wouldn't mind a Springer/Tucker matchup for their 2nd rings battle (as Bregman already has 2).
At a minimum I want new hitting coaches, new strength and conditioning staff, and new 3B coach.... This season isn't on Espada IMO, he was dealt a terrible hand with all these injuries, but I wouldn't be mad at a new manager either. Unfortunately everybody I wanted when we hired Espada are already managing other teams (Shildt, Counsell)
I don't consider myself as a somebody who is quick to overreact, but given the holes in this roster that would need to be fixed (SP, OF, 1B at least) along with the fact that the farm system is pretty bare, do we think it's time to consider a rebuild? I highly doubt that happens because I don't imagine Crane will be willing allow the team to be blown up and deal with the years of losing seasons (and lower ticket sales), but unless he is willing to spend huge this winter, it's hard to imagine this team going above .500 next season. All in all, as much as it sucks to see the season (and quick likely this entire run) end this way, I'm so grateful for we've been able to experience for the past decade. I'd personally rather the band-aid be ripped off and a rebuild start now vs just watching the team slowly fade away in the next few years without refilling the farm system.
This season has been disappointing with all the injuries but on the bright side, it looks like we got some young talent we can build around. We will come back with one of the best rosters in the majors next season.
Stacked teams post 30 fwar from position players and 20 fwar from pitchers in a season. Houston will finish this season with ~20 fwar from position players and ~19 from pitchers. Will a fully healthy lineup, they should add a net of ~8 fwar on the position player side (healthy Yordan and Paredes, having Correa for a full season, not playing so many below-replacement players in their place). So they’re pretty much right where they need to be on offense, considering they can probably count on adding a win or two from young players improving (Smith, Melton, Matthews, Cole, Dezenzo). They lose ~5 wins from Framber reaching free agency and losing Walter for all of 2026, but should gain 2-3 wins from having Javier fully healthy and having young pitchers produce more (mainly Blubaugh). So all that is to say, this team is a ToR SP away from having a stacked roster as long as they avoid the nightmare deluge of injuries they experienced this season, and they have the prospects to trade for a guy like Alcantara, Gore, Lopez, Ryan, or Cabrera. Also, they should have 5 of the top 100 picks in the next draft, which will provide a huge boost to the farm system. They will (and should) shop Walker (to free up money) and Pena (to see if another team makes an insane offer), but they’re not trading Altuve, Alvarez, or Correa, which means they have to try to contend. Luckily, they only have one glaring hole.
we may not have a TOR guy at the beginning of the season but Crane has never been shy about adding one in the middle of the season.
First Valdez needs to be made a qualifying offer. He has one more good year in him, if he accepts the offer we have a very good starter for a slight overpay for one year. If not we get a high draft pick. I am good with one outcome and even better with the other. Alvarez will be lucky to play 50 games next season. He is at the top of the trade list and Altuve moves to DH. Walker is right there with him. Parades will be a better 1st baseman and save money too. Alvarez and Walker are traded for starting pitching.
This possibility may be giving the Astros FO a bit of a pause. Framber's agent must be telling Framber that no team will want him ... for that high of salary ... for those number of years. Framber's agent may ask Framber to consider building back his value by signing the QO. The Astros are now living through the downside of offering Framber QO money, even for one year.
This season has been disappointing to this point. they can still make the post season and cause some chaos though. I’m very optimistic about 2026 though. The lineup will be stacked and I’m sure we will upgrade the pitching.
The Astros still technically control their own destiny, but nothing post all star break makes me think they’ll turn it around. Seattle was clearly the better team and with the current state of pitching and hitting this team does not look primed to make any noise of the get to the post season. They were playing over their heads for a stretch, but they couldn’t keep up with the continued injuries.
For all those that argue that argued early in the season that those inexplicable losses were 'just one game'... well the 'just one game' may be the end of us. That being said, I miss the 163rd tie breaker games they had before the current CBA.
