2014: Team is contending and needs an ace to put them over the hump. Unable to convince Hamels to come to Houston; instead he goes to their division rival to haunt them for years. 2015: Team is competitive but needs offense. Lucroy is a superstar at a need position. Instead they again get beat out by their rival allowing the player to haunt them multiple years. 2016: Firmiy in their competitive window, just needing an ace after making all the right complimentary moves. Miss out on the best pitcher in the AL. I like the moves they've made so far but they need to dig deep and leave no question that they have filled every hole. They're on the cusp of fielding the unquestionably best team in franchise history. And they're middling because they're scared of giving up prospects. The farm is deep. Make the move. Don't look back on the Altuve/Correa years wondering what if.
Yeah, trading Martes wouldn't be a problem for a guy like Quintana (under contract for 4 more years at a bargain). The question becomes what are the other pieces needed to get a deal done.
The difference is that they still have all the way until the trade deadline to evaluate and drive prices down if they think they can stay extremely competitive in the meantime. Based on improvement from an 84 win team, that seems very reasonable if it goes down that way. Regardless, I'm sure you wouldn't advocate trading Bregman + the entire top 10 from the farm to get Sale, or the top 10 from the farm for Quintana. Or are you saying there's no limit, and the team should literally trade every single prospect for an elite SP if they have to and then rebuild?
Is it that deep? Not if you're excluding Bregman, K. Tucker, or Martes. The rest of the top 20 aren't necessarily that much better than anybody else's top 20.
I think those chances are fair to good. I highly doubt Martes or Tucker are going anywhere. The farm system isn't "deep" in quality prospects and all of this type rhetoric but Martes and Tucker are legit.
If the package for Quintana is really only going to cost Martes/Tucker, do you really not do that? Quintana is really underrated - he has been really solid and consistent the past couple of the years, and the advanced stats back it up. Plus he is on a team-friendy 4 year contract. I'd be happy with this acquisition, much more reasonable than what Sale would have costed in my opinion. And I'm a big believer of Martes' potential.
Yeah...i feel like Boston gets that. The Astros need to have a more balls to the wall approach. But im gonna withold judgement because they can still make that move at Trade deadline.
I like how people/fans are forgetting how (so far) Luhnow has managed to upgrade Catcher (McCann), OF (Reddick), DH/OF (Beltran), SP (Morton, good splits)... Imagine if he hadn't tried to do anything. We have a lethal 1-9 (bench), bullpen (Giles, Gregerson, Harris, Feliz, etc), SP (Keuchel, McCullers, McHugh). Yeah, the only thing we need is a top of the line pitcher to pair with these guys but Luhnow has done a good, admirable job. A good enough job that puts us in contention for the pennant.
Looking more and more like Aoki will play LF against RHPs and Gattis won't start (most nights). That is great to hear.
The team I'd be concerned about for Quintana is the Nats. Speculation is they feel like they're going to lose Harper after '18, and want to go "all in" these next two years.
Awesome to see a multi-millionaire driving his 08 Honda accord. Really makes you want to root for the guy.
That's entirely subjective but I think extremely highly of the international arms in the lower levels (led by Franklin Perez), Whitley, Cameron, Celestino, Nova, and Sierra. I predict Whitley, Perez, and Cameron will all be Top 100 prospects by the end of next season. A system with 3+ Top 100 prospects and a couple dozen grade 40/45 guys is fine for a team with a young core in the big leagues.
Sure... but very teams are prepared to trade bona-fied MLB cost-controlled studs for a bunch of low level guys with potential. They want sure or almost sure things. Chicago is a big market. Sale didn't "have" to be traded for cost reasons. The return was going to have to be substantial in terms of players ready to contribute now, or players with an extremely high ceiling. The Astros basically have two of those guys (Bregman and Tucker).
Just realized something pretty crazy... Nori Aoki's 5 MLB seasons have been the definition of consistency. His career low batting average from 2012-2016 is .283, his career high is .288 (.005 difference). His career high OBP is .356, career low .349 (.007 difference). What's crazy is that last year seemingly everything went wrong... horrible start, untimely injuries, bizarre losses, you name it. And with all that, the team still managed to win 84 games. Next year’s roster is already looking WAY better, and I doubt Luhnow is done making moves. The roster in its current form is a championship contender material, no doubt about it. Now question is, will luck go our way next year? Will we need another piece to take us over the hump? Will we stay healthy? I bet a bunch of questions will be answered at the trade deadline, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that's when we decide to acquire another top-tier starting pitcher. I still hope we get Quintana, though.
