Dexter Fowler traded to Cubs

Thus far in his career Valbuena has been Dominguez's equal as a defensive 3B, slightly better actually. By Fangraphs numbers, he has actually been much better.

Aside from being slightly more likely to hit a HR, Dominguez has absolutely nothing over Valbuena.

 

From 2010-2013 he hit :

2010: .193 (91 games/ 275)
2011: .209 (17 games/43)
2012: .219 (90 games/265 AB)
2013: .218 (108 games/ 331 AB)

2009 & 2014 were his best years where he bat .250 and .249 respectively.

I'm just saying, lots of regression to the mean discussions here...but yeah, ".216" should've read ".218" whoopsie .

Again, I hope he bats .250 with 20 hrs in full time duty, but he's considered more or less to be a utility IF with some pop. I just remember the fanfare that came with Feliz and that was a flop--not really directly comparing them, just not overjoyed. However, he gives the Astros 2 years control and a placeholder potentially for Moran

 

Oh I thought you meant last season. Didnt know you was talking about career. LOL

 

yeah, I mean .250 is not bad but Dominguez also hit .241 in 2013 and averaged about .260 in 2012 between the Marlins and Astros....he should be a regular .250 hitter as well but hasn't put it together. Will be interesting to see who wins the competition

 

I like Straily. He had a pretty good first couple of years, but wasn't very good last year. His body of work would indicate that last year may have been an anomaly, but I guess we will see. I think he makes it as a possible 5th starter or an occasional spot starter/long reliever. I think he has the potential to be a 3rd starter somewhere down the line.

 

Never mind the fact that Valbuena walks more than twice as much as Dominguez

 

Don't know if I like this. Astros lineup was looking stacked.

 

Glad I no longer have to watch Fowler get paid $7 million to contribute nearly nothing.

 

Well this year its going to be in the 8-10 range.....

 

Agree. Looks like a stingy move from our FO, in that they didn't want to pony up 8-10M for Fowler.

I think Fowler does more for this team than the two pieces we acquired today. If you're trying to win, just keep Fowler. I was loving the depth, granted it lasted all of 2-3 days.

 

Or they thought that Marisnick's elite defense in center was much more necessary with Gattis in LF.

IMO we clearly upgraded at 3rd, and Marisnick at CF is equally valuable to Fowler in CF.

 

And they are saving at least $5 million in the process... lets see how much of that they spend elsewhere for this year.

I know you're ready to put Marisnick in CF and never take him out.... but I just don't know if they'll be comfortable with the Pressley/Grossman/Marrisnick hodge-podge playing one or two of the OF positions every night with all of them having either deficiencies at the plate or simply unproven (with very little expectations for busting out) at the plate.

Best case scenario: Santana actually improves and sticks in the big leagues, or they spend some of the Fowler savings on a vet.

 

Yeah, I saw a stat that Fowler had -20 in runs saved from CF, which was worst among starting CFs. Given that stat, I'm curious as to how Fowler is so entitled to CF as he kind of was in HOU. He seemed reluctant to play the corner spots.

I am excited to watch Marisnick hold down the fort in CF, assuming they keep Springer in RF. Marisnick could be the best defensive CF for the next decade, I really think his potential defensively is that high.

 

More trades need to come. You cant keep guys in AAA when they are being pushed and need room for the promoted AA guys.

Only so many horses you can hitch your wagon to. You can't like 'em all. After a while a front office in baseball has to put their job on the line and develop one prospect over another.

Marisnik and Santana are going to be looked at hard this year. FOWLER type players are good but his cheap years are behind him. And he is a defensive liability. For 10+ million, he better be the whole package.

 

Did I just read that our lineup looked stacked before this trade went down?

 

The top of the order was stacked: Altuve, Fowler, Springer, Carter, Lowrie, Gattis, Castro.

So much that Marsnick was relegated to bench duties. Never mind that he has the ability to be the ML baseball gold glove candidate at CF.

I think that Gattis, Marisnick, Springer are superior to Gattis, Fowler, Springer.

 

Castro and Lowrie were terrible last year. We can hope they regain their previous form, but then it also remains to be seen if Altuve and Carter regress to their previous form as well. There are a lot of question marks here before saying this offense is stacked.

 

Actually he probably doesn't. He'd be good as a corner OF, but he wants to stay at center, where he has been terrible defensively for his entire career. But he forced someone who should an elite defensive CF to the corner despite of that.

Not to mention the Astros were absolutely horrendous at 3rd base last year, and we upgrade from ungodly bad to mediocre, which is a pretty big upgrade all things considering. Valbuena is a perfect stop gap guy while Moran moves up the minors.

And this doesn't even account for another option at 5th starter to begin the year and that Fowler would've became FA at the end of the year. Short term, we improved our overall talent, even at the expense of losing the most talented player. Long term? None of these guys likely fit into our plans. Moran is our long term plan at 3rd base and Marsnick or Springer for CF.

Not an important trade either way, but it does show the Astros at least want to be competent at all positions so they can achieve at least modest short term success.

 

Carter regress to his previous form?

Between 2012/2013 he had a .228/.329/.470 line. Last year he had a .227/.308/.491 line.

 

Carter started 2012 crazy hot and then was much lesser of a player from September 2012 through June 2014. Then he was an MVP type player from July 2014 and on. During that middle people, lots of people were ready to get rid of him and I suspect that will be the case again if that's who he really is. We have to hope that whatever clicked in the 2nd half of 2014 was real and not a fluke of some sort - not necessarily that good, but his season long numbers are a tale of two distinct seasons and we need more of the good than the bad.