There was a time it could be argued that Whitley had about $60M in surplus value. That's probably down to about $10M now. Ugh.
Man, 3 years ago got suspended. Two years ago had arm fatigue, last year had arm discomfort and now this year, might need tjs(all these injuries connected?). He jinxed himself when he said he felt great and said he would like to pitch 140 to 160 innings. Baseball Gods must hate him lol. If he's looking for a 2nd opinion, go ask the doctor that said Osuna didn't need tjs.
If they think Chisek can be useful, wouldn't it be better to keep him? If they release him, sure they have breathing room before the luxury tax line but what if they decided to go after a relief pitcher during the season? You're trading away assets and adding salary and getting close to the luxury tax once again.
Hope it ain't tiny! Man, pitching prospects... Appel, Aiken, and Whitley have combined to throw as many pitches in the majors for the 'stros as I have At least Aiken turned into Bregman.... thankfully, they were able to supplement the rotation in other ways.
I doubt they’d pull any major moves at the deadline too stay under the luxury tax this season but next winter is the right time too put a deal together with Whitley as a top piece involved. I think he still has lots of trade value. Astros will have plenty of $$ available, Odorizzi’s deal + years of Valdez, Urquidy & Javier under team control. Likelihood Astros bring back Atleast one of JV, Grienke or McCullers. And have guys like Abreu, Santos, L. Garcia, Ivey, etc at their leisure.
Riley Ferrell will not be getting a juice box after the game. Or maybe give him one but not the straw.
Souza's striking out 50% of the time. Hard to make a team as a bat when you do that. Thinking Toro or a 9th reliever get the last spot.
Whitley is a bust. Write him off. Just too many never ending problems and question marks with the guy.
What good has happened this spring training so far in the early early going? Straw is back to striking out less and he's cut down the fly outs. While I don't expect his spring stats to translate to regular season stats, I think it is a good indicator he won't be the K machine, low BABIP hitter he was in 2020 if he can keep it up. Other than that? Kinda meh on the excitement versus the negatives even though it is still very early. Pressly looked great in 1 inning. Emanuel's fastball was in the 90s.
Yea, I kinda doubt Straw's 1.300 OPS holds up I guess I would settle for .780 or so. Anyone else have a Straw Poll opinion for his 2021 OPS?
If Straw has a full season OPS of 0.780, he might get MVP down ballot votes. To get to 0.780, he would need an OBP of at least 0.420 with his lack of power. With the lineup behind him at that OBP, that's like 150-160 runs. I don't follow the runs scored stat at a player level, but I think Bagwell is the last one to do that.
Im going with a .255/.335/.345 for a 93 wRC+ for Straw in 2021. That with good defense and full time ABs would probably be worth about 1.9 fWAR. That’s optimistic, but I trust Click, and his inaction in addressing CF makes me think they believe in Straw. I think Click thinks Straw can be a player of similar value to what Kevin Kiermeier has been in Tampa. Kiermeier has a 720 career ops but has several star level seasons because of his defensive value. If Straw can be 90% of that, he will be more than fine as the everyday CF and #9 hitter.
His OBP is all that matters. He could put up a sub .700 OPS and still be a legitimate everyday player, Frankly he shouldn't even be attempting to hit for any power. If he can get on base 36% of the time out of the 9 spot, he's gonna score a lot of runs.
That would be ideal. My fear is that players who have absolutely no power tend to not have much success in this day and age. Look at Billy Hamilton - he was a .400 OBP guy at the age of 21 as a prospect (150 steals!) and then had a brief flash in MLB when he was first called up. From there it was all downhill. You can't steal first base. 36% OBP makes the speedy CF type a legitimate weapon - 30% puts him out of the league. We'll see where Straw falls.
