Wasn’t simply the sticky stuff… but safe to say he’s regressed back to the best of the PIttsburgh Gerrit Cole, and is unlikely to be as dominant as he was in his 2 years in Houston. Sometimes that’s how careers go (see Keuchel). You have your 1-2 career years and you put up cumulative stats for the rest of your career. Or you’re one of the truly special ones like JV, Scherzer, etc.
Cole is still far better than he was in Pittsburgh, that and he’s pitched extremely well against us so this city really can’t talk much ****. Yankee pitching always showed up against us, wether Masahiro Tanaka or Luis Severino or most other pitchers, they always delivered. Their offense, on the other hand, is the sole reason they never got past us, especially in 2017.
Far better? Not sure about that. He had some good years there. Not dominant/cy-young years like he did here, but good. Much like he’s having with the Yankees now. Just at a price of $40 million per. (Actually, his 2015 season was a dominant cy-young type year there…)
I still keep an eye on Teoscar Hernandez. That is one deal where Luhnow definitely did not win a trade. I get that the Astros needed some additional pitching, in Francisco Lindor, and they thought Derek Fisher was going to be a part of the future (hence I think Fisher allowed Luhnow to move Hernandez). But it stung losing TeOscar, after a lot of us had him penciled in a a five tool guy; but I remembered when Fisher passed him up on the prospect rankings. I see that Fisher is out of the league now, and only posted a career WAR of 0.2 On the other hand Teoscar has posted a WAR 10.2 and has established himself as a bonafide MLB veteran, with a lot left in the tank. I look at the Toronto outfield, and it’s got 2 former Astros, who’ve been all stars. Springer from what I understood seemed to want out of Houston, and I don’t know why, but he wanted Toronto’s money and not the Astros. But Teoscar was gifted away for a rental of a player that wasn’t all that good for the Astros. This reminds me of the Bobby Abreu fiasco, where the Astros left him unprotected, and he went on to have a extremely impressive career 60+ WAR. Meanwhile, Richard Hidalgo fizzled out within a few years though he still ended with a decent career WAR 19.2
I'm not sure anyone would have complained if Hernandez went in the Verlander deal and Cameron went in the Liriano deal, even if it ended up in the same result for us.
In hindsight, I think the Liriano trade didn’t work out for the Astros. Teoscar was one of those guys in the rebuild process a lot of us were elated to have in the system; but he seemed to be passed up by other prospects. Eventually, Teoscar has proven to be the best of the bunch, but that’s all hindsight. Perhaps you are right, if Teoscar was with the Astros at the time of the Verlander trade, Detroit might have demanded he be included as well. But I do ponder how the Astros would look with Teoscar manning the outfield for this group of Astros? But that’s all what we under the bridge.
They let Teoscar go because they had a number of prospects that they liked better than him. He also had some discipline issues. They could certainly use him this year with the injury to Brantley, but this year is really the first year that they "miss" him. He is a poor defender because he doesn't focus well, but his bat is solid. He is going to be about a 3-3.5 WAR player this year at 11 million in salary. If the Astros knew he would be as good as he has been, they would have got more for him in trade but his market wasn't outstanding. Also he is a low OB% guy with a high slugging percentage, and that isn't the combo that the Astros typically want. Also Liriano was nails in the ALCS and WS in 2017 for the Astros.
Teo was a very toolsy guy with massive holes in his game. Oh well, 4 years later we miss him? Ever think that maybe he doesn't turn into the player he is now if he didn't get the chance to play regularly for somebody else? It wasn't gonna happen here.
JD Martinez release was ridiculous to me I had a bad feeling about it, JD hit over .300 in the minors. JD struggled hitting and getting injured. JD changed his batting stance during Winter Ball. Got released by the Astros. JD put up All Star number in Detroit, As a Red Sox got Revenge on the Astros.
We held onto him into spring training, barely gave him an ABs in the spring, and he even had one option remaining so he could have stayed in AAA.
Among catchers with >100 pa, Garrett Stubbs has the highest wRC+ in the league at 150. He hasn’t played much since he’s backing up Realmuto, but he’s had a dang good year.
A Interviewer asked JD what went wrong in Houston, he said I was trying to bat like Albert Pujols (Batting Stance) Crouching Horse Stance. JD Batting Stance looked like Brian Jordan of the Braves years ago. JD just had a normal upright stance during Winter Ball in Domican, At Detroit became a constant .300 30 Hr 100 RBI Machine
The Duo of Jose Altuve and JD Martinez would've been Amazing as they started off together years ago. It's sad it didn't work out in Houston. Would've Won More Championships maybe. CF George Springer 2B Jose Altuve DH Yordan Alvarez LF JD Martinez 3B Alex Bregman SS Carlos Correa 1B Yuli Gurriel RF Josh Reddick C Brian McCann/Robinson Chirinos/Martin Maldonado Evan Gattis
https://www.mlb.com/news/most-underappreciated-players-in-2022 Orioles: Cionel Pérez, LHP He'd bounced around from Houston to Cincinnati before landing in Baltimore this year, appearing in 45 big league games over four seasons, to little notice or success. But despite some shaky peripherals -- his FIP is a full run and a half above his ERA -- he has been nails for the Orioles, a key part of their underrated bullpen. D-backs: Josh Rojas, 3B So quietly it's almost silent, Rojas -- who suddenly has some company in the middle infield -- has the highest OBP on this team.
Between Laureano, Martinez, Hernandez, Grossman, and now Perez, Houston might have gotten burned more on guys they sent out due to roster crunches more than guys they traded away in blockbuster deals.
I’m cool with more guys getting away so long as we’re still calling up the studs and have a elite competitive roster. When you do as good of a job as Houston does at identifying and developing talent, there won’t be room for everyone on the big league roster. Only one I think we really messed up on was JD and Hader, and that’s over the course of like the last 10 years.
I think it’s fine to lose a decent player in a trade for another good player. Rojas in the Greinke deal, Musgrove for Cole, that’s the cost of being a contender. It’s losing star players for nothing that stings. Josh Hader, Teoscar Hernandez, Ramon Laureano, and Patrick Sandoval have all had 3+ fwar seasons and Houston didn’t get much in return.
