It's still early and I do think the hitting will come around, but we are a roller coaster of a team that cannot win back-to-back games. Framber is inconsistent but will give us 200 innings and some nights he will look like he did last night, the curve sets up the sinker and the curve ball sucked. IMO Brown will end up being our ACE by the end of the year and if don't straighten the ship I do think they trade him at the deadline so we at least get something back..........are we at the point to say that Crane will never do a HUGE Overpay or hell even, a large FAIR deal (what the hell is fair anyway) I do wish Crane would do bigger shorter deals like Nick does, but not sure the player would do that when they can get a ridiculous long contract that some teams will do...................I am no fan of the 8-13 year contract where you leverage so much into one player but there has to be a happy medium
Went a full season and another month of a new season before they hit another grand salami. Somehow someway they cultivate new and interesting statistics to keep us engaged during the slow times…..
IMO Brown is our ace just without the coronation and I’m now curious if this is just a tiny bit in Frambers fragile C cortex. Crane is doing the deals you mentioned but all guys on their last rides around as you’d expect.
We went up in it just to waste some time before the Astros game. A couple of years ago. When the Astros were good.
Thats the one ding on Framber, the space between his ears gets flummoxed.....................I wish he had that tough mentality in him like JV or Roger Clemens had, Roger wanted to stomp on your throat and wasn't afraid to let that come out on game day
I like Hunter Brown a lot - was great the second half of last year and has kept it - but Framber Valdez is the ace. Framber gives you innings, pitches while he is hurt and from season to season is consistent.... he has finished in the top 10 of the Cy Young voting 4 of the last 5 years, and while he was bad yesterday, had been good his other starts this season. He isn't perfect but I personally think he is criminally under-rated.
Yeah - he has had issues off the field and at times has had issues throwing strikes. He has needed a psychiatrist to deal with anxiety and get over being a worrier. He also has at times lost his mind - last year when he decided to destroy his era in one inning by calling his own pitches, and another time he lost his glove and flipped out and got blasted in that start. Still - when you look back over the last 5 years, he has been very good and consistent. If I were a team without massive budget constraints, I would give him $100,000,000.... a team like the Dodgers can roll the dice. The Astros are harder to say honestly, because Abreu/Montero injured the Astros last year and this year. The Astros are probably better on spending their money on bats and let the pitching develop internally.
I hope he finishes the season with the Astros - because it means we are competing for a title. Valdez just isn't ever going to get as much in trade as people expect - there isn't going to be a return like the Astros got for Tucker. The Cubs overpaid because their ownership wanted a star. I live in Chicago now - I had a Cubs fan telling me I have to regret the trade.... I just chuckled and said, not so far. Paredes is close to Bregman and under control for a few years, the pitcher the Astros got will likely be a #3-4 starter and if not, with his stuff can be made a very good reliever and Smith has held his own have a month of minor league baseball in his whole career.
We all just wish the Astros would give him a therapist to tell him to block out everything (no matter who missed a play, or how many are on base) and just pitch as if he's getting paid to concentrate on the next batter.
I'm assuming 100M over 4 years. 25 million a year for Framber doesn't seem like a lot considering how much we gave Hader and how much Yusei got from the Angles. Even 100M over 3 years doesn't seem like much of a risk since he's been really healthy and doesn't seem to be slowing down. He's a WS level TOR pitcher. He's proven that. Honestly I rather a pitcher just blow up once in a while than be consistently mediocre.
Not quite ready yet. [Whitley] is scheduled to pitch again Wednesday, working more than one inning, Astros manager Joe Espada said. “If that goes well, Whitley should be close to joining our club,” Espada said Monday at Busch Stadium. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/astros/article/forrest-whitley-knee-injury-update-20275909.php
