It would be a nice problem to have. But assuming Leon it a productive hitter, Straw would be much more valuable getting reacquainted with the infield and becoming a super utility guy. LF is an extremely easy position to fill with offense. Too easy to allow a hitter like Myles Straw to get 650 PA if you have a good alternative in CF.
CF most likely or RF if Leon is a major leaguer. I think odds are good if Leon is a starter, he will likely be a better overall CF than Straw.
I get that a 2 win player is not someone that gets demoted on a whim, but if Leon's bat plays in LF (or RF), he's likely a 4 win+ player in CF that is cheap enough that would allow Astros to sign a 4 win player for LF. Edit: I've been very excited about Leon because if he can make frequent contact at the major league level, he's basically a star that goes along with Tucker, Alvarez, and 5 starting pitchers.
I’m not really fretting positional placement of prospects projecting out 5+ years. Bottom line is that assuming they extend Bregman, Alvarez, and Tucker (or replace them with FA which they should have the money to do), I think the Astros have 8 everyday caliber hitters lined up for the long term: Bregman Alvarez Tucker Lee Leon Straw Toro Matijevic
The minor league system in producing lots of help for the MLB club. There isn’t much National hype for the prospects moving up, but they are showing professionalism and game competence. The Astros have a lot of stars on the ML team, the Minor league teams just need to advance solid players; which they are doing with the added bonus of playing stellar themselves. Astros I think are shocking the National pundits about baseball.
I do not think he will be called up next September because they will not add him to the 40 man roster until after NEXT SEASON is over. Not sure what part of that is difficult for you to understand.
I'm starting to wonder if Straw can hold off Jake Meyers the way Meyers is smashing the ball in AAA and striking out only 18.5% of the time..... Leon isn't a factor until late next season or 2023.
If I were a team like the Tigers I would be all over calling the Astros asking for Meyers in exchange for one of their RP like Cisnero or Fulmer. Right now the stats are saying pretty loudly that Papierski and Meyers have really good odds to be productive major leaguers.
Funny thing is, Luhnow is responsible for that entire projected lineup(Leon is debatable- I believe @Nook said Luhnow was all over Leon) That’s not even a shot at Click. He hasn’t had significant draft capital to work with. Santos has only made one appearance this year but his stuff looked great with excellent velocity. Once Click gets a couple more drafts and a couple international FA periods under his belt, hopefully he can add even more talent to the pipeline and keep the train chugging along for years to come.
Luhnow left the franchise on solid ground. They just lost Springer (quite arguably one of the cornerstone players), and they haven't missed a beat. They have Verlnader on the shelf for most of the season (and he's probably not coming back next season), they lost Cole the previous season before. They stand to lose a few more guys this season. But they continue to chug along! The team was built for the long haul! Thank you Luhnow!!!!!
I would think Verlander...he’s reportedly close with Crane and did make comments about how he got paid 66m for 1 start. Money talks at the end of the day, and Astros have to want them back...and JV did use the sticky stuff, but I think it’s more likely JV returns than Greinke. I think Greinke feels a bit slighted, especially with how 2019 finished.
If I had to pick one I'd say Greinke is more likely to return. However, I'm not holding my breath for either one to return. My reasoning is that Greinke seems very relaxed in a much more laid back Houston environment. Plus, I don't think Greinke is associated with the 2017 scandal like Verlander and the others on that particular team. Verlander might opt to pitch somewhere else, just to disassociate himself from the sign stealing cloud. But both have been excellent aces for this team, and I think it's worked out just fine. If they choose to go somewhere else to finish up their careers, it was an enjoyable ride!
Dreaming here, but I wonder what kind of numbers Lee would have to put up this season in order to put himself in the Bregman/Correa tier of prospect hype. For reference, in Bregman’s first full season as a pro in AA he hit .297/.415/.559 with 6 HR and a 179 wRC+ in 62g/285pa. I think the if Lee ends this season with similar numbers (something close to .300/.400/.500), then he’ll be a Top 50 prospect on the end of season lists, and enter next year in AAA as an untouchable, cornerstone level prospect. (Note: Correa’s numbers as a 20 year old in AA in 2015 were just insane: .385/.458/.726, 7 HR, 226 wRC+ in 29g/133pa.)
Those numbers as a catcher would put him in the Biggio category. Franchise type player since batting close to .300 is so much higher than the average catcher. For example McCann only batted 300 twice in his entire career.
Well, went to the Skeeters game last night and man was that ugly. Pitchers struggled with control, hitters couldn't seem to muster anything but occasional singles and some real frustrating fielding miscues. Jose Siri had some bad ABs. One of them he got to a 3-0 count and then sat and watched 3 straight strikes and sat down. Bat never left his shoulder. Later he was swinging wildly way over the top of some breaking stuff from one of the OK City relievers. Almost like he just wasn't seeing the ball very well last night. But afterward they had a wrestling match for some reason and that was quite exciting.
