But they also had plenty of money to spend and a strong system to both trade from when needed and to produce big league stars/regulars We have neither of those right now If we look like one of the top teams at the break and decide to trade from a thin farm to put us further ahead of everyone, I could buy into that But if we are a middling team looking to further deplete our system so we can try and sneak into the playoffs, it's just a recipe for years of mediocrity unless you are willing to go into the offseason and tear it down, trading Yordan, Pena, etc....I don't think Crane will tear it down again so that situation just scares me as a fan
The prospects the Astros traded at the 2017 deadline weren’t anything beyond the kinds of prospects Houston still has. Their 2017 roster wasn’t that heavily supplemented by new prospects; I don’t think David Paulino, Frances Martes, and Michael Feliz are way out of line with the prospect quality of guys like Pecko, Ullola, and Blubaugh. The bottom of their farm is on par with the heyday, and the pitching in the upper levels is as well. It’s the position player rosters in AA and AAA that aren’t cutting it, and yes that’s making it hard for them to make bigger trades this offseason, but that’s only a year to year problem with how quickly prospects move. I don’t think Houston’s approach is much different now than it was then, they just haven’t performed as well or gotten as lucky. If Ryan Weiss ends up being 2017 Charlie Morton or Mike Burrows ends up being 2017 Lance McCullers, all is well. I understand the worry about slipping into perennial mediocrity, but I dont think that’s where we are at. I also don’t think Crane will allow that. He is in his 70s and will likely sell the team before letting them deteriorate, and at that point the roster will be torn down. Just a hunch but I think Crane is going to try to win as long as Altuve is playing, then tear it down and sell the team.
Exactly Why i love this place lol might be a dumb question, but in terms of the position prospects not really hitting how much of other teams poaching our staff has affected that? If at all. Scouts, coaches etc
It’s way more a result of losing draft picks and drafting late. It remains to be seen but it wouldn’t surprise me if Dana Brown ended up being better at drafting than Luhnow was when accounting for draft positions.
Every off-season posters are wanting to tear things down. If they hit on Burrows and can find a SP2, they've got as good a chance as any team to win a WS IMHO. Adding an OF run producer would help a lot too.
Senga is about as high variance as you can get. Beyond injury risk, which is significant, he sometimes loses the zone and walks a bunch of people. He also doesn’t go deep into games. More of a 5-6 inning guy than 6-7 for sure. His ghost fork is devastating until he loses command and walks people. But he can legit shove when healthy and on. Im not against it and he makes sense given our addition of burrow. But he is one of the riskiest propositions out there IMO. (I’ve had him for fantasy baseball twice in last few seasons, so I remember the highs and lows).
This and if we could trade him for Walker. That would allow them to DH Polanco and have Walker at first. I think it's a risk worth taking as you would open up first for Paredes. I wonder if we're on his no trade clause list.
You are much higher on our farm than me so that's where we differ in our overall views I greatly hope you are right, but i'm pretty skeptical of how many real legitimate players are going to come out of our current farm And to be fair, I think most of MLB is too if two of the absolute best that we have only gets you a former prospect who finally made it back from TJ to post an era of 4 I don't think our situation right now is anywhere close to what it was in 2017, but I certainly hope you are right I'll definitely take Championships in 2026 and 2031
This is from 2024 but still a good read: The average starting pitcher innings length was relatively consistent from 1950 to 1979 sitting at 6.5 innings. That started to trend downwards from 1980 to 1999 falling to 6.1 innings per start - from 2000 to 2019 it dropped to a twenty year average of 5.8 innings per start and from 2020 to 2023 it fell to 5 innings per start - that’s held true to form so far this season as the average is 5.1 innings per start. https://www.philliesbaseballfan.com...starting-pitching-by-the-decades-1950-to-2024
One interesting way of looking at the trade is that the Pirates were able to trade Burrows for a controllable everyday 2B plus a couple bench guys. I wonder what we all would have thought if Houston would’ve traded Melton and Brito for Lowe directly. Maybe it’s not that Houston’s farm sucks (“they traded their top 2 prospects for a #5 pitcher!”), maybe it’s that the league thinks more highly of Burrows, Melton, and Brito than the stats and prospect lists would tell.
And yet he has a 3.00 ERA in 285 innings The injuries are what scares me, if healthy I am pretty confident he will be a solid #2 Now I agree on him not going deep into games, but very very few do anymore, and that's where we are going to miss Framber badly
Is it real baseball down there or do they do stuff like let him dh and pinch run if he gets on and still DH later in the game like spring training type stuff.
Huh, never thought about that. Been to a few Mexican League games (sadly never got to see Kenny Powders pitch) but not a Winter League one.
