2015 Offseason Priority List

Other than Jansen, their bullpen was fairly mediocre. They'll probably go back and forth between Jansen and Chapman closing, the other guy being the setup guy.

 

Right...I hadn't realized that MLB moved up Opening Day to December 15. Luhnow blew the offseason and didn't get a closer.

Kut Kuhnow.

 

I highly doubt it.

The point I would think is to have a lefty and righty that routinely throw over 101 MPH in the pen.

They lost out on Greinke and are finding other ways to strengthen their club.

If you want to beat the Dodgers you better get to them before the 8th.

 

Luhnow is showing patience and I commend that. He has to strike soon though before the relief cupboard is bare.

Also, we still should have a ton of financial resources to sign a LH bat. I wonder if we are the mystery team in on Zobrist, he would be a perfect fit at 3B.

 

The problem here is that early in the offseason is when all the best players get signed and moved. As you move forward and pieces get taken off the table, your options become more limited and you become more dependent on the whims of other teams and GMs - less is under your control.

Waiting could pan out - but overpaying a little gets you certainty. Waiting risks that you can't actually make the moves needed to take your team up a step - or that you have to overpay for lower-quality players out of desperation.

 

Astros are in a very good position. Besides for a loogy, the Astros could call it a day now, go to war with the team they have, and be the favorites to take the AL West. Astros would have to depend on guys like Appel and Feliz coming in and being back end relief guys/spot starters for a year, but that wouldn't end the Astros short term goals. For offseason needs, relief pitching is likely the best need to have if your team has a need.

That said, there are still plenty of relief guys on the trade market.

 

I think the Astros and most fans would disagree. They went into the offseason aiming to improve in a variety of areas - they wanted to diversify their offense, add a SP, and strengthen the back end of their bullpen. As of now, they've potentially lost a potentially very good SP in Kazmir, their best bullpen guy (Sipp) from a bullpen that had some major problems down the stretch, and an enigmatic 30+ HR guy that carried the team in September. They've added no one.

If they actually entered the season with this team, they'd get an F for the offseason and would be a worse team than last year.

 

Fans would be pissed. I am not saying this is preferred. I said could. Offseason would be an F.

However, Astros are likely a better team this year than last. Correa, Fiers, McCullers, Gomez, and VV have a chance to be with the team all season. Reed, Appel, Feliz, and Moran likely add more value than the loss of Kazmir and Carter. I did say loogy was needed...so I do think Astros need Sipp or someone like him. No one too important is likely to be affected by aging and a lot of the guys are still on the good side of their likely peak years.

Astros are trying to improve, but likely see themselves as the likeliest top team in the AL West right now. Astros are not going to overpay early when the A's, Rangers, and Mariners haven't significantly improved. The Astros are not desperate and waiting is better than an overpay. It is more about making themselves more likely to be the AL West champ, more likely to do better in playoffs if they make it there, more likely to have home field advantage.

 

Yep. Going into the offseason, most thought that we could use upgrades at 3B, 1B, catcher, LF and bullpen. I'm ok with re-signing Rasmus, but I think that put more pressure on upgrading 3B, 1B and/or catcher. Now it's looking like we're staying the course on 3B and catcher, and counting on internal resources to handle 1B (Singleton, Reed, Valbuena, etc.). Bullpen is definitely weaker, but I think most of us expect that to be addressed.

So even if Luhnow re-signs Sipp and some other free agent reliever, I'd still classify this offseason as a letdown.

 

I want the Astros to upgrade the bullpen and add one SP. As far as C and 3B goes, it would need to be a trade as internal options look better than free agents. 1B, besides for Chris Davis, internal options look better than free agents. On LF, Rasmus is probably the best of the guys not signing for 100 million. Before Rasmus accepting QO and Luhnow saying budget was around 100 million, I did think LF/DH guy was an option.

Of the SPs that have signed...all either were out of Astros price range or could not beat out internal options.

Of the relievers, O'Day, Madson, and Chapman are the only ones of significance off the board. Astros still likely get two guys here in my opinion.

 

HMMM....

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sources saying no deal done yet for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/reds?src=hash">#reds</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/dodgers?src=hash">#dodgers</a> on Chapman. I'm hearing multiple teams could be involved.</p>&mdash; Mark Sheldon (@m_sheldon) <a href="https://twitter.com/m_sheldon/status/673956692258897920">December 7, 2015</a></blockquote>
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now mariners discussing getting lind.

**** COME ON LUHNOW!

 

Spoiler

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Not sure what to make of this. But Reds telling teams they haven't yet agreed to trade Aroldis Chapman to LA. I don't think Dodgers agree</p>&mdash; Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) <a href="https://twitter.com/jaysonst/status/673963104313679872">December 7, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Reds giving a last call to the rest of the league.

 

I have a sneaking suspicion that quite a few posters are unaware that teams actually play games; that teams are measured exclusively by their offseason and April-October is just meaningless noise, if they even hear anything at all.

It's been, like, 4,273,1839894098-0 years and an offseason champion is rarely, if ever, an actual champion when all is said and done.

 

wait wait wait...so if we don't get Chapman and Lind, we're not automatically given last place? I'm so confused.

 

Agreed... as is, Astros have a very good shot at being better than last season.

I'm against overpaying for a bullpen rental... I feel there are opportunities to improve upon Will Harris and Tony Sipp, two guys who they acquired off the scrap heap for nothing... either via internal options or via trade.

If they really need that lights out closer (and I feel Gregerson was fine in that role if they can't), I'd prefer acquiring one with more than 1 year of control.

 

This.

Every year 4-5 dominant closers emerge. You do not over pay for a pitcher that gives you 60 innings a year.

 

I'm not sure why they'd think they are the best in the AL West right now. As of now, they've lost a couple of pieces (Sipp, Kazmir, Carter, Lowrie) from last year's team, hopefully offset by younger players improving, but it's a bit of a wash. Texas gets a full year of Hamels and gets Darvish back. And Texas was already better than the Astros last year.

Windows are tricky things - you never know how long they will be open. Based on their moves at the deadline, I think they see that type of thing - I don't think they will be nearly as OK with waiting a year as you, but who knows.

And Kimbrel. I think at the start, there were 4 elite guys that appeared realistically available to the Astros - Kimbel, Miller, Chapman, and O'Day. 3 are now gone.

Harris and Sipp had ERAs of 1.90 and 1.99 last year. Not saying they can duplicate that, but that was a huge part of our success. The odds of duplicating that, let alone improving on that, with internal options or trades or even free agents are minimal to none. You should probably expect a downgrade in whoever replaces those guys (even if it's Harris and Sipp coming back), so you have to then get that much better elsewhere.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Not sure what to make of this. But Reds telling teams they haven't yet agreed to trade Aroldis Chapman to LA. I don't think Dodgers agree</p>&mdash; Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) <a href="https://twitter.com/jaysonst/status/673963104313679872">December 7, 2015</a></blockquote>
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