Urquidy seems like the odd man out and I love the dude. Least amount of control and upside. We have Brown and potentially Whitley coming up. Valdez and Garcia have top of the order talent. Javier has nasty stuff also. We've committed to McCullers and he's proven he can be a top of the order guy. In the off season, I see Odorizzi gone and Urquidy traded. We really need to figure out a plan for 1B. Even if we Yuli has got his groove back, it would be nice to have a backup that isn't a zero. I say this with the assumption that McClain continues to pay what is need to have Verlander back and Verlander will keep on coming back as long as we are contending. The dude lives for the playoffs and despite all the made up off-season drama, he loves playing with these set guys. He knows they are all competitors.
That's what I'm worried about, everybody and their mother thinking they've got a chance. With 19 teams shopping, there is always at least one that's gonna overpay.
I think the parity might work to Houston’s advantage. More buyers means teams with a surplus of big-league assets are seeing those go up in value. Guys like McCormick, Siri, Urquidy, Odorizzi, Garcia, and Javier have more value than normal, because there are so many more teams looking to add, especially since the teams buying who previously would have been selling will be looking to add players with multiple years of control. At this point a guy like Javier (and possibly even Garcia) has the value of an elite elite prospect (something like mlb top 20 type). I could only see them being traded for a big time star like Soto. Aside from only having 1 elite prospect on the farm, Click is in a very very good spot going into the deadline. He has a surplus of controllable big league ready SP and a surplus of solid fringe-regular young OF to trade, and no super duper glaring holes in his roster.
I think that they will likely pick up the option for Odorizzi, because if I remember right the buyout is high - and then trade him. As far as first base goes for next year, I expect them to attempt to fill the position internally to start the year. They have Jones, Matjevic and there is also Diaz who they are forcing to catch some in AAA but who also has a better than 50% chance of becoming a 1st baseman. That saves money and an internal solution also is under long term team control. Verlander is close to Crane and also has so far been willing to operate on shorter term deals. He is dealing so far, and can likely get a 3 year deal. At 39 years old that may be a hard sell to the Astros, but lets wait and see.
Last season the Astros didn't trade any official prospects, but filled a couple needs by trading a young MLB player with some upside, but a limited role on the team (Toro) and a young starter with years of control who wasn't clearly better than a prospect they had at AAA (Straw). That might be a decent guide to how they'll play it this year. I think the guys they traded last year have more value, but it makes me think McCormick and Urquidy might be the two most likely trade chips.
I’ve been reading without commenting for awhile now, but I have to ask why it seems such a consensus amongst fans in here to want to trade 1 of 2 probable 3+ WAR pitchers with 4-5 years of control (Garcia & Javier) to replace one player who’s currently on pace for 3.5 WAR in his 1st 162 games (Meyers), Yuli, who seems to be improving and is huge in the clubhouse, and a backup catcher who has very little impact except that JV pitches like a man possessed when he catches him (sub-1.5 ERA when caught by Castro this year). Urquidy/Odo…go for it. But good teams don’t trade really good young mlb pitching. Just saying.
That is an interesting way of looking at it, and it may play out that way. As for Javier, I think from the perspective of the Astros and smart team, he has the value of a top top 5 prospect. Top 20 seems like it is elite, but not every system or prospect is equal. Take a look at top 20 prospects over the years. A lot of them fail.
Exactly... I am old enough to also remember that added a name doesn't necessarily improve the team like Kazmir, Gomez, or even Kirk Manwaring.
That is solid thinking. Mine is that Framber has mostly already ascended to the level we expect and hope Javier does. And Framber has shown he can pitch into the 7th and 8th consistently while Javier may be more of a 6-7 inning max kind of starter. Plus he is more expensive being a year ahead in arbitration ( even though they are both FA in 26)
You know who we need to lock down? Every single member of our scouting department especially the guys who head to Latin America for us.
Yuli is clearly not a waste of space. Yuli is exceptionally valuable to a smart organization. If he was still at 1B or 2B his .662 OPS and 89 OPS+ could be absorbed and would be closer to league average and nobody would be screaming to replace him. Truth is that his defense and legendary status with Cuban players make it important that he remains an Astro. He had a rough start, but I don't care about April and May. I care about October and hopefully November. April: .605 OPS and 77 OPS+ May: .621 OPS and 74 OPS+ June: .749 OPS and 106 OPS+ Any OPS+ of 100 or better makes Yuli very valuable because of his glove dependability and experience. Truth is that this team could use a big bat to help with player days off and deepen the firepower on the bench but now that Yuli and Alex have started to resemble themselves and Jake is back and playing everyday that's all that's needed from a hitting stand point. FYI Alex April: .791 OPS and 133 OPS+ May: .708 OPS and 101 OPS+ June: .822 OPS and 130 OPS+ Keep on mind OPS+ is based on other players average performance as well. Offense in general was up in June. That's why .791 in April was 133 (33% above avg) OPS+ in April but .822 was only 130 ( 30% above avg) in June.
And that's the thinking that gets Major league teams in trouble. Fan favorites getting to old and signing dumb deals. He plays defense very well. His bat needs way more. Don't care that he hit acouple times lately.
Honestly, not trying to be a jerk, but what are you talking about? The Astros have let the likes of Kuechel, Morton, Springer and Correa all walk. Yuli, as mentioned above, signed a 1 year, $8M contract. There is not a single one year, less than $10M contract that is debilitating to a team. The Astros haven't signed Yuli beyond this year, and if he gets re-signed, it would be on a year-by-year basis. If there is a team that is willing to let a fan favorite walk, it is the Astros. Also, Yuli has hit better this month than Hosmer has in each of the last two months, so that's not an improvement. Not to mention Hosmer would make $5M more than Yuli does this year for the next 3 years while providing somewhat equatable offense, so that wouldn't be a positive. You keep on bringing up tying to improve the team but not by hurting the team. I'm not so sure that can be done. The Padres aren't trading Snell, Hosmer and 3 of their top 5 prospects and another prospect for Odorizzi, Dubon, Castro and some other prospect. That just doesn't make any sense at all. I know that the Astros inquired about him, but Snell isn't an improvement to this team. Hosmer isn't an improvement to this team. With Lee, Campusano isn't a true need, and the Astros have a SS and a fairly loaded OF, so not sure if Hassell and Merrill would even be on the Astros radar right now.
Actually, that leads me to a question I have for the board that I've been wanting to ask the last couple of days. I know that AAV can change when a player is traded. So if we were to trade for him in the off-season, he would have an AAV for the next 3 years of $13M, from how I understand it. Also, if we trade for him this year, we only pay the reamining part of his salary. So, how does that actually work on in determining AAV moving forward? I'm assuming it's his cost for his for the entire year of when he was traded, plus the remaining cost divided by the number of years and the prorated salary does not factor in? This would actually put Hosmer's AAV at $15M. (Still wouldn't want him at that cost)
LOL Are you FN kidding me. Keauchal wanted more money and didn't want to come back Morton wanted to be closer to home didn't want to be in Houston. Springer was after Money Period didnt want to stay here tryed to bring other people that way aswell Correa are you serious. MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY JS all these fools left for money. As we go forward Brantley and YULI are getting up there in age. Brantley can hit but his Def will slowly go down. Yuli can play Def but his bat isnt what i Your second part about Hosmer lets start by saying 37 yrs old and counting. the talk is we gain Prospects to get an equal part of the deal. We also gain a replacement and not have to worry about AGE and oops down fall player stuff
