Abreu was the first baseman coming into last season. He also was the 2nd best hitter in the playoffs in 2023 and showed flashes of coming out of it towards the end of the season. They weren't replacing him until he absolutely fell apart in 2024. Brown had to use Loperfido, Wagner, and Bloss to get Kikuchi because the Astros were riddled with starting pitching injuries. They had a legit 5 man rotation on the IL with Verlander, McCullers, Javier, Urquidy, and JP France hurt most of or all of the season. You need money or top prospects to acquire good major league talent. Brown was limited on both fronts. I'm not saying Dana has been perfect. However, he has been playing with one hand tied behind his back since he got here. He tried to get Paredes to play 1st at the deadline but couldn't beat the Cubs offer without gutting a very weak farm system to begin with.
Bregman's stats last 3 years in 461 games, 13.6 WAR, .798 OPS, 124 OPS+, .349 rOBA, 125 Rbat+ = 31 years old making likely over $30M Paredes's stats last 3 yeats in 407 games, 9.4 WAR, .776 OPS, 119 OPS+, .343 rOBA, 123 Rbat+ = 26 years old stil under team control projected to make $6.9M in arbitration. We have essentially replaced Bregman over pennies on the dollar, with the chance that Paredes still gets better while Bregman gets worse.
I hate the way Brown talks to us like we're dumbasses. He knows damn well Chas and Meyers starting in the OF everyday is junk, and he knows we know it's junk. But he will blow so much smoke up our asses that everything is fine. He made a good trade today, he has smarts but I wish he treated the fans like we're smart. Instead of "we're good with these".....on the heels of a smart trade make your messaging clear that everything is being explored and we aren't done yet.
Those Chas Chomp guys in the crocodile suits are over the moon hearing Dana talk about McCormick replacing Tucker in right.
What do you expect him to say. No matter how stupid you think they sound, no organization is going to **** all over their own players for the amusement of the fanbase. You would have trouble signging any FA ever again.
I notice you didn't put up Chas stats vs Tucker's stats. I'm curious to know Santander's stats vs Tucker's stats. BTW, speaking of stats, have you seen Parades exit velo stats and how do you think those are going to age?
I've always thought Astros fans made it 1000 times easier for Crane to not pay Tuck. The last 2-3 years it's been "He's leaving! He's going to get a billion dollars!" all over Astros twitter like their was a slim chance of anything else. Very defeatist attitude. Crane was probably happy their was never ever any real pressure on him to actually extend him. We made up his mind for him.
I wouldn’t mind Alex Verdugo as a cheap everyday LF. They’d still need a platoon mate for Meyers (unless you like Taylor Trammell or Dezenzo). But this wouldn’t be a terrible lineup, if they signed Walker for 1B: 2B Altuve 3B Paredes DH Alvarez 1B Walker C Diaz LF Verdugo RF McCormick SS Pena CF Meyers Bench: Dubon, Caratini, Trammell, Dezenzo
I absolutely love this trade and what it says about how I think the Astros are going to go about rebuilding on the fly and where the overall health of the organization will be through the end of Yordan’s contract. Couldn’t be happier to see them do this deal and the return will be somewhere between fair and a fleecing I think. Just finished recording episode 87 of breathing orange fire. Check it out on Spotify when it drops today or tomorrow.
To do list the rest of the offseason: Trade Framber for a quality bat and some decent prospects Trade Presley for salary relief. Sign a 1B or OF the quality of Walker or Santander or something like that. do all that and stay healthy in the rotation and this team is cheaper and better than 24 with a much better farm system. Love it.
The Tucker trade dropped Houston from 5th best projected fWAR in the league to 9th, but that’s only a difference of 2 wins. They go from projected to win the division by 3 games to now just barely projected to edge out the Mariners by 1 game. We’ll see how the rest of the offseason plays out. The Astros entered the offseason with major holes at 1B, 3B, and their farm system, with minor holes at SP, RP, and OF. After this trade, they have major holes at 1B and OF and minor holes at P and their farm system, and they now have enough money to easily fill at least one of their major holes. A shrewd trade of Pressly and/or Framber could get another major hole filled and further improve the farm system.
About what I expected for Tucker. I really like Cam Smith’s potential and I am hoping the coaches can get that pitcher to the next level and turn him into a reliable rotation guy. I like his numbers. Paredes should be decent. Maybe a bit of a Valbuena type with more upside.
