Ever since Luhnow's departure, it's been a slow burn. Now, this is picking up speed to the point it's obvious to many. I love the Astros, but posing as a pseudo contender isn't doing us all any favors...it just makes it worse..a self-perpetuating mechanism for mediocrity. At some point, you have to bite the bullet. C'mon, Jim.
I do not believe Crane has another rebuild in him. The trauma we felt as fans after he bought the team and began selling off was a long and arduous time. Imagine how much greater that trauma was for him. He will fill in here and there for a while but when it becomes obvious it will not do any longer the sell off will begin.
The Astros have been rebuilding. There is only one move that would be a significant rebuild step right now ... trade Framber. @Nook in another thread said that the Astros tried to do that this offseason and did not get any serious interest from other teams. Crane appears to be doing just enough to get the Astros into the playoffs, which was all the South Oklahoma R*ng*rs need in 2023.
This team has too much talent and is too close to rebuild. What it needs is 1 or 2 more bats and to get rid of Dubon so Espada stops starting him.
We just need a new manager who knows what he's doing to maximize this team. The one we have now isn't it.
Or get rid of Espada and inform the new manager that Dubon is a bench player with an OCCASIONAL start to rest somebody. We have plenty of good core players that are off to poor starts this year, but are plus players when playing at their norm. We should “re-build” in place with guys like Cam and Dezenzo instead of wasting starts on Dubon and McCormick and even Rogers. I can see giving Rogers about 20 more games to turn the corner before moving Altuve back to second and starting Dezenzo. I think we will compete for the playoffs this year and maybe even a title, but if not we should at least find out about our positional prospects. There is no need to re-build this team, that is just fair weather fans spinning out of control.
Dubon is not the problem. The guy who keeps playing him is the problem. If you get rid of Dubon Espada will just keep making the same mistake with other players. It is time to trade Dubon. His value has peaked and his contract is over at the end of the season. There is somebody out there that needs a guy just like him. It isn't us. More importantly finding a replacement for Espada needs to be prioritized. It would be nice to have somebody in place before the break.
So you are saying that Espada isn't playing Dubon because of who/what he is? He's playing Dubon because he isn't the other guys? And if Dubon gets replaced, Espada will still not play the other current guys? That would be a problem. Either the other guys are also terrible or Joe has no confidence that they are not terrible. I just think he over values Dubon and nobody has played well enough to force him to sit him down.
As for the Astros rebuilding - they have one of the absolute best pitching staffs in baseball, it is deep in the rotation and the bullpen and they have some very high-end starting pitchers a year or so away. They are in an excellent situation in the very short term and over the next 3-4 years. They may have to eat money with McCullers and Javier, but they have lots of guys under control. On the offensive end - they have Altuve, Paredes, Diaz, Pena and Smith under multiple years of control. They will need a couple of outfielders and a second baseman; all the other spots are claimed. It comes down to money being an issue this year - they will have more money available over the next few years.... but really need Smith and another hitter to "pop" to keep it going. The biggest help for the Astros would be to find a way to get out from under the contracts of McCullers and Javier. Next year - the Astros will spend $39,000,000 between Javier and McCullers.... The reality is that the Astros are better positioned over the next 3-4 years than most realize as long as the current Astros continue to produce. Brown is going to find someone, probably an outfielder that is a hidden gem that gives him an 800 OPS and plays every day.
I love the enthusiasm and partially agree. I'm on the "just make the playoffs and then who knows what can happen" side of things. See rangers in 2023, D-backs in 2023, Phillies in 2022. Didn't we start 15-30 last year? Still won 88 games and went to the playoffs. Laid a huge egg once we got there, but that's beside the point. Just get there and hope for the best. FYI, We also started 15-30 in 2005 and ended up winning the NL pennant.
Thanks, @Nook! Were we any close to getting Abreu from the Red Sox in the offseason? Or was this a Framber or bust proposal?
We're not that far off. We would be in good shape if Alvarez, Diaz and Walker haven't been so trash so far this season.
Dubon is the only backup 2B on the roster unless the Astros want to play Altuve there, which they clearly don't. Dubon started 4 games last week at 2B while Rodgers was injured. Outside of that, he hasn't started a game since the first few days of the season. He has 9 total ABs in the outfield.
Any insight or tidbits as far as the clubhouse goes and Espada? Guys like him? Is a he leader or better suited for running a Whataburger?
The continued emergence/development of Javier/Garcia/Urquiddy (along with ace Framber) had a lot to do with that team (and they still had Correa, Bregman, Altuve, Yordan all playing at a high level). I just don’t know if the talent is there top to bottom right now… but unlike 2021, the AL is also a shell of itself talent-wise. They’re going to need to continue to grind out series, get at least one more bat (or have one develop), not sustain any more additional injuries to the pitching staff, and get a little luck. Plus, there’s no way for them to just “rebuild” with one push of a button. The Luhnow process took almost 2 years of trades, promotions, experimenting (and drafting) before you could start to see some inklings. As long as Dana doesn’t try and pull off his version of the Tejada trade (which when we keep saying “one bat away”, I get slightly more and more fearful), this team should be able to reload without bottoming out.
