Yimi Garcia, Zach Greinke, Justin Verlander, Brooks Raley, Carlos Correa, and Kendall Graveman all come of the 40 man via free agency. Jacob Wilson, Robel Garcia, and Garrett Stubbs should be gone. Montero is probably likely to be gone, but he wouldn't be a terrible gamble. He's making 2.25 million and should not get much of a raise at all in arbitration. Maybe 2.4-2.5 million. Astros probably won't do it but it wouldn't bother me that much if they kept him IF he comes back from injury and pitches well in September. So that is 9-10 guys coming off the 40 man. I would expect 3-4 additions via free agent signings or trades. Bullpen arms, maybe a starter, and a SS. A big trade target for me would be Ketel Marte. It's hard to know what the Astros will do with the injured pitchers on the 40 man in Solis, Ivey, and Emanuel. Obviously, Whitley will be back. I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of Ivey, Solis or Emanuel are gone. Could see Taylor Jones being moved similar to how JD Davis was.... I hope Odorizzi deals his next several starts and gets his ERA in the 3s. I would love to trade him in the offseason. He's going to make 12-15 million next year with his easy incentives.
I understood the Odorizzi signing when it was made with Framber potentially being out the whole season, but paying >$10M for a likely 5th starter would be a pretty terrible allocation of resources for next season.
Well that explains his crummy numbers and why he looked so weak when I saw him last month. No need to protect him from Rule 5 now. Here’s hoping for a speedy and full recovery.
The first 6 hitters for Asheville have struck out tonight. Ramiro Rodriguez is back in the lineup for the Tourists; he hasn’t played since early June.
75 PA of good production in AAA followed by being one of the better hitters in the Arizona Fall League would catch him up to put him back in the conversation to be Houston’s starting SS for the bulk of 2022.
True, but offseason trades are fun too. Not gonna worry about it yet at all, but this offseason should be very interesting.
and bullpen... I don't want another craptastic bullpen the first half of next season like we had this year. Graveman, Givens, and McHugh will do.
Hopefully we will re-sign Graveman. I trust him more than Presley, who seems to fade toward the end of the year.
Michael Sandle smacked his 5th homer for Fayetteville. Sandle, who was the Astros' 10th round pick a couple of months ago, is definitely off to a blazing start to his pro career. But, with that said, Stephen Wrenn could serve as a cautionary tale. Wrenn, if you recall, was another college OF who tore up Tri-City in his pro debut and then proceeded to put up middling numbers before the Astros let him go.
Correa dominating High A ball, seems like he’s put himself on the radar as a potential nice utility player in the future. Love to see the low strike out rate and versatility on defense, would be great to see him in the Diaz/Marwin role in a couple years.
JP France pitched a gem the other night (Friday?)- 7 IP, 0 ER, 9 K , with only 1 hit and 1 walk. I know he doesn't exactly have the highest ceiling but I can see him developing into a solid #5 starter. Very good at hitting the edges of the zone, unfortunately his style of pitching is somewhat reliant on getting the calls, and he can run into BB problems when he doesn't. Unlikely but I'd love to see him get a spot start or two in Houston next month.
Yep, not much to take from that 1st half season. I was very high on Wrenn and was surprised he didn’t hit for more power in the upper levels. He played for the Mariners AA team this year. The main takeaway from all those draftees being in Fayetteville is that they’ll be in a familiar setting to start next season and should be more likely to have better early results.
