I wonder how a new collective bargaining agreement may affect things... Fehr and Selig are very different than the current principals.
The only extra benefit to home games in the playoffs for the home team is the concessions. Ticket sales are split between the home and road teams equally. However, the first 3 games in the division series and the first 4 games in the championship series and world series the players get 60 percent of the ticket sales for the player pool. So owners really want the 5 game and 7 game series.... they get paid 100% of the ticket sales for the "if necessary games" but still split it with the away team.
Here is how I see it. Even when the Astros are out of contention and our window closes, will Correa's salary really hold us back even if his production goes down in his early 30's? For now, we are in contention until 2025 with Tucker, Altuve, Bregman, Alvarez under contract until then. Let's say the team falls apart in 2026, do we think really think his contract will hold us back until the end of the rebuild? I think we could still trade him for prospects if we need to tear the team apart in 2026/2027. We do have have a lot decent prospects in the minors and we do develop them well, but none including Lee are Correa, Tucker, Bregman type prospects. With Correa signed, we are still in the mix for another 3 years. How many teams would mortgage their future for 3 additional years of contention? I think pretty much all teams that have the revenue would.
Good to know. Concessions, merchandise sales aren’t insignificant. I’ve cursed myself waiting in those god-damn lines during playoff games that would normally take 3 minutes in the regular season. And these are still games generating ticket revenue (with increased prices per ticket) that they’re benefiting from. Your track record as the Astros accountant continues to pay dividends!
Jose Altuve Johan Santana Bobby Abreu Richard Hidalgo Teoscar Hernandez Luis Garcia Christian Javier Framber Valdez
Abreu and Altuve were 16. Garcia signed with them at 21. Framber was 22. Hernandez was 18. Santana was 15.
Also, with respect to Springer being the reason the Jays didn't make the playoffs, did it occur to you that they probably would not have been in contention had he not been on the team? Did it occur to you that the Jays played half their "home" games in Dunedin, Florida and Buffalo NY?
That's just part of who George Springer is. He has fun playing the game. He was always goofing around having fun on the Astros too.
This is quite probably the strangest thing I have ever seen someone complain about. He is actually complaining about a player celebrating a grand slam in a game that enabled them to stay in the playoff race. ETA And the grand slam was YESTERDAY. A game they HAD to win.
i agree. But if your squad is good enough to rule to get to the postseason, you just need to have correa ready for postseason.
I'm a little baffled at some of the negative attitudes towards Springer now that he was left the Stros. The guy was a fan favorite while here, did amazing things and was a huge part in bringing a championship home. He left on reasonably good terms and I didn't blame him for wanting to go to a different team, considering. I just don't get why anyone would hold any animosity towards him at this point.
Even if he can do that for a while, what are you expecting from 35 year old Carlos Correa? The risk is worth it if we're talking a 6 or 7 year deal....but he wants a 10 year deal because he knows he won't be worth that kind of deal 5 or 6 years from now.
It seems the Astros have options if Correa leaves; there are guys in the minors who could offer elite defense, but maybe not the offense. Or they could simply move Bregman to SS, and as it’s presumed that finding a 3rd baseman is easier than finding an elite offensive SS, they could use some of their personnel resources in bringing additional top of the order pitching. The only big concern is that Correa has had injury problems. He’s an elite defensive player and a bonafide offensive SS star. He’s also a great teammate. So, as long as it’s nothing like 10 years 400 million…. but 10 year 275-325 million might be the price tag? Just my guess. By signing Correa, the Astros are doubling down on the team they built; and on the next 3-4 years (tops 5 years). Because if the wheels fall off, it’s gonna be a hard recovery with that looming contract. But the Astros better continue to develop their own pitching, if not it’s not it’s not gonna work in this scenario. But Altuve, Correa, and McCullers are the connection to the continuity of the 2012 great blow it up philosophy that has generated this golden age of Astros baseball.
Unfortunately for us as fans, I don’t think that is how Crane is looking at it. I think he’s thinking I have someone (Peña) I can pay 500K next year (or even a few million per year if you look at a slightly longer time frame) and would that extra 25 - 30 million be spent better elsewhere (in terms of keeping the team competitive) or not spent at all (in thinking about his bottom line). Another way to phrase it, the Astros have paid Carlos $26.75 million over the last 7 years or about $3.8 million a year. I think Crane wants to be the guy who underpays dramatically for performance while players are under team control and not the guy who underpays a little for a few years and then overpays for it at the end. In baseball you have to spend on at least a few people and Crane has shown the ability to spend. However when he has spent it has been on shorter contracts or pitching. Longer contracts have been smaller or also included portions of time when the player was still under team control.
I think Crane pays what he needs to pay for what he wants. As great as Springer was, he was mostly replaceable. He was an above average defensive player and above average bat and good outfielders are easier to find and develop shown by the 3 outfielders we have fighting for that position after we traded another one away. Correa is elite shortstop shown by his WAR and has the potential to be an MVP candidate. He's pretty much better than Jeter in every conceivable way. I'm hoping Crane takes that into account and keeps him around. I still think NY is in play for Correa because Gleyber is a disaster defensively. He averages an error almost every 5-10 games.
I think all of us are forgetting the worst case scenario: Spoiler: :^) Carlos gets signed by the Dodgers and we sign Seager.
I am on record for wanting to re-sign Correa. With that said, the right way to think about this decision is to include the opportunity cost of spending the money in the analysis. Would you rather have: A) Jeremy Pena playing SS + keeping our existing core of youth (Framber, Urquidy, Tucker, Alvarez) or B) Carlos Correa playing SS + realistically only keeping 1-2 of (Framber, Urquidy, Tucker, Alvarez) In 2023, Bregman's salary jumps up by $17M and our young core become arbitration eligible. We've got some short-term cash to spend in 2022 with Verlander and Greinke coming off the books, but we are tight starting in 2023 even without Correa... given the arbitration eligible status of our younger core. Correa is a cultural leader on the team, has the playoff chops, and provides great offense at a premium defensive position. Shockingly he is still only 26 years old. Realistically speaking, it's going to take $35M/year over at least 8 years to get a deal done. SS is a young man's position, which concerns me somewhat, but Correa's defense is still very good. If we re-sign Correa, then I'd consider trading 2 of the Framber/Urquidy/Tucker/Alvarez core for young prospects in order to restock the farm. Painful, but likely necessary if we want to keep Correa.
