Ultimately, I don't think anybody could argue if somebody says Click doesn't have the sack to pull the trigger on a big deal right now. That could end up working, sometimes the best deal is the one not made, but he is putting a ton of pressure on player development. Until he shows that his process will work on the farm, anybody doubting him is completely justified.
Dusty would rather buck Management than win a game. He is going for Sainthood. Saint Dusty, patron of lovable not quite winners.
I will go with the Toronto GM assuming like the radio guys. But I could be wrong. Money has a way of buying principle.
Nonsense. You speak like you have some inside information about deals he lacks the sack to pull the trigger on, when in reality you’re just some dude speculating on the internet.
There weren’t any trades made that I felt like Houston could’ve/should’ve easily beaten. The returns for Mahle and Montas seemed weak, but I’m not sure either of those guys represented a big enough upgrade to justify Houston beating those deals. The Astros have earned the benefit of the doubt in bullpen targets, so until proven otherwise I’m going to assume Will Smith for Odo was a better deal than any of the bevy of other reliever trades that were made. It sure would have been nice to get Hader. Houston had no shot at Soto and since Bell was included in that deal there weren’t any easily better bats than Mancini that got moved. Same goes for catcher. And since no good CF were moved it is safe to assume the prices were simply not reasonable. It is still fair to question if Click has the stones to make a big trade. But I don’t think this deadline seals that opinion. And in regards to the draft I think it is far too premature to judge Click in that arena given the circumstances of the pandemic and not having 1st or 2nd round picks those first 2 years, on top of their biggest bonus players those 2 years being HS kids that we might not know what they will be for another 3-4 years. All in all I don’t think there’s any good reason to dislike Click or say he’s been a poor GM. The proof is in the pudding and during his tenure the Astros won the ALCS, got to another ALCS, and the roster appears poised to be just as good for at least the next 2.5 seasons.
“Neither man may be an everyday player, but both provide Baker with more flexibility for in-game maneuvering and lineup construction. Vázquez, for example, is a perfect pinch-hitter for light hitting starter Martín Maldonado, meaning Baker won’t have to burn multiple players on his bench late in games.”
I wanted Contreras, Bell and Happ. Really, back to the off-season I wanted Marte or Bryant, but was told we were saving our powder for down the road and we’d fix any problem at the deadline- ok. Mancini was probably my 4th choice and Vasquez, if they play him at catcher, was probably preferable to Contreras bc he’s a big upgrade on Maldy and I just want them to play someone. I’d have like Peralta. I’d have liked Walker. I don’t think he moved. I liked what they did it was just missing the big bat. If that wasn’t going to happen then I’d have gone with Choi to platoon with Yuli and Michael A Taylor to Platoon with Chas. hell, maybe just insist Dusty gives JJ 100 AB’s, all vs RHP, to see if he can be that guy. I’m not mad per se, just feel like we were 1 big move or 2 minor moves away. Liked what we did do.
If Brantley doesn’t come back then Mancini should be the everyday LF. McCormick should start in center against all left handed starters and all the time if Myers doesn’t get it together. If Gurriel continues to hit then Vazquez will be a part time catcher and should get an occasional start at first or DH.
Keep in mind you lose the DH if Vazquez has to go into the game from DH. Extra innings less impactful with ghost runner and so many pitching changes.... but what if Maldonado has to leave a game early?
We have in the past... given Vazquez can slide to first it might allow for Lee as a third catcher. They did that a year or two ago since we didn't need as many bullpen guys with the starters moving to the pen...
If you look at the current pitching staff, there is a whole there to like. The Astros have a well constructed pitching staff and Click deserves some credit.
One thing Dusty supporters says is how players play hard for him but we always play down to our competition
If Meyers and Brantley and McCullers were fully healthy this roster would be STACKED; literally no weaknesses. We won’t know for another month what the situation is but Fangraphs currently projects the Astros as the best team in the AL and 4th best in MLB behind the Dodgers, Mets, and barely behind the Padres.
Agree that it can be frustrating to see them losing to bad teams. However, my glass half-full take is that if they're beating the good teams/playoff contenders and losing to crap teams because they were resting players I'll take that season 100/100 times. It's a very long season and playoff MLB teams lose roughly 33-46% of their games. It's nothing like shorter season sports like NBA or NFL where winning every game/beating the scrubs makes a huge difference. One could argue it's irrelevant to whom the Astros lose those 50-75 games. I'd argue it's way better to be losing the games they clearly aren't putting in 100% effort.
If anything, not making big trades reduces the pressure of player development as they don't have to develop players for the team as well as develop a lot of players to acquire short term assets. Big trades typically happen when a team has a lot of surplus prospects that other teams desire. For the Astros, they would have had to send Hunter Brown or a starting MLB pitcher. I expect Brown will be up this season, but at the very latest next year provided he doesn't get hurt or spontaneously bad (i.e., he's not surplus). Edit: I should add, a big trade may have been possible if another team liked Yainer Diaz as a catcher.
Projections still hate Javier, Garcia, and Urquidy as they are all projected to have a worse ERA than they've ever had.
