Walker is in some ways a perfect fit for the Astros. Defensively he is probably the best 1st bagger in the league with the glove - and those types of things are often overlooked but matter in winning games and the playoffs. Offensively - Walker has close to elite power, he has averaged 30 homers over the last 3 years, his OPS+ has been over +120 each season and his OBP is high enough to hit 5-7 in the line up. He hits both lefties and righties and doesn't have extreme home/away splits. He also is known as a professional and hard worker. It comes down to cost and where the Astros want to expend their assets --- Walker or Contreras or someone else (Bregman?). I personally would be happy with Walker added to the line up ......... having Altuve, Diaz, Tucker, Alvarez and Walker is a pretty damn good start to a deadly line up, especially if the Astros are able to add another above average LF to that group or if McCormick bounces back.
How do yall feel about Ha-Seong Kim at 3rd base? Versatile gold-glover that can play all over the infield and is a good baserunner. May be affordable after his shoulder injury. He led all Padres positions player in WAR (5.8) in 2023. Pair him with a signing of a power bat like Roberts, Santander, or Walker.
Love the player, but he's coming off a nasty throwing shoulder injury. I would be shocked if he's a major contributor to anybody until the second half, if at all. Given we're certainly more interested in the near term than long term, I doubt we're a match.
It was also a 2024 problem which I pointed out many times early on this year Hopefully it’s addressed
How did that work out in the playoffs? One could make a solid argument that if Yordan only DHed in 2024 he would have been healthy for the post season.
According to my Clear Creek high school math, we have until November 7th to negotiate exclusively with Bregman. Thats 13 days. Man.
Never going to happen with Altuve and Diaz on the team. Yordan will probably play closer to 30 games in the OF next season (IF TEAM WAS FULLY HEALTHY).
I guess the argument can be made. We will never know what ifs. . . But his injury happened running the bases. Last time I checked, DHs do that too.
I remember when the Astros first moved to the AL and the discussion was that we use the DH as a way to give folks a breather while still keeping their bat in the lineup. That flexibility was nice. I think the fact that Altuve and Yordan are our two long term locked in contracts and they are both better suited to DH is going to be a problem at some point in the future. We're OK in 2025 but Altuve would be a major liability at 2B in 2028.
Well and it was a huge adjustment for the Astros. In the NL, they throw underhand and soft toss the ball to the plate. In the AL, they make it a lot harder and throw overhand. Tough to hit that style.
Sucks that it was the dodgers doing it but I sure do love seeing Yankee hearts break. Boone really ****ed that one up.
I will be happy if Astros: Fill 3b with a regular starter who projects to be a positive run producer who can fit in the #4-6 spots in the lineup. (Bregman is still my #1) Acquire at least 2 additional OF (1 must play CF) who project to be run producers vs AT LEAST RHP and can hit in the #4-8 spots in the order. Acquire a SP who is at least league average with no injury risk above that of all SP. Those 3 things are bare minimum. Adding a 1b who can produce vs LHP and platoon w/ Singleton would also be nice, but if they give this spot to Dezenzo or Whitcomb to open the season, I would be OK with that. Similarly, I am fine with any combination of Chas, Meyers, Leon, and/or Whitcomb as the weak half of LF/CF platoons, as long as they are not expected to start regularly vs RHP. Leon and especially Whitcomb could become everyday starters in time, but the Astros need to start the season with better options. I think the bullpen is actually too crowded, even w/o Pressly. I expect Murfee to fill a spot in the 7th inning or later. Whitley, Ort, Scott, Martinez, and Dubin are all out of options so won't be shuttled back and forth from Sugar Land. It does severely limit the ability to keep arms fresh, so I would expect at least a couple of those to be gone very early in the season, if not before. I feel this team is 3 bats away from being able to win in the playoffs and 3 bats and a SP away from making it through a 162 game season into those playoffs.
He hurt himself sliding on the bases, because he is fundamentally ****ing horrible at it and apparently refuses to learn better technique.
This still pisses me off... https://www.latimes.com/sports/dodg...gers-jt-watkins-red-sox-sign-stealing-scandal PHOENIX — As spring training opened, there were rumblings in some corners of the industry about a relatively unpublicized addition the Dodgers made over the winter. How could they have hired the engine of a sign-stealing operation that might have contributed to them losing the 2018 World Series? How could they have hired former Boston Red Sox video replay coordinator J.T. Watkins? The most important voice on the Dodgers didn’t raise any such questions Sunday when asked about Watkins. Clayton Kershaw said he didn’t have any problem with them bringing on the 33-year-old former minor league catcher who will assist Dodgers players with a hitting game plan.
If Yainar was a first baseman last year he would be 4th in OPS among 1B in the AL. That's despite the grind at catcher. The ones higher were Vladimir, Santander, and Naylor. None of them will be Astros. If you want to pay Santander 100 million for 60 points more OPS that's your opinion. Mine is Yainar would likely match his production if not catching every day. This was all under the assumption he could become serviceable defensively in the offseason so your comment about him being "unplayable" makes zero sense unless you just skipped over what I had said. You like to complain a lot but offer no alternative. More singleton and pray a minor leaguer does something? As you said, they don't have Santander money.
https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/alex-bregman-free-agency-astros-offseason-plans Reading into MacT’s latest mailbag, here’s what I think: -The Astros are going to make Bregman a strong 6 year offer in the next few days. If he doesn’t accept, they will move on and make Christian Walker their top offseason free agent target. -The Astros are intent on adding a LHH. Looking at available players (and considering Singleton is still there at 1B), that is very likely to be an OF. Options: Conforto, Profar, Verdugo, Bellinger, Gamel, Heyward, O’Hearn, Peralta, Santander, Winker, Pederson, B Lowe -The Astros are content going into the season with their current group of SP. They will monitor the health/progress of Garcia, McCullers, Javier, France, and Urquidy and if it looks like they can’t be counted on, they may make a move to sign a FA SP late in the offseason. But they also seem to be optimistic about their SP prospects in AAA (Gusto, Blubaugh, Ullola, Gordon, etc.) -The Astros intend to shake up their bullpen. This could be a mechanism to clear payroll (trading Hader or Pressly), or it could be a result of having several arms that are out of options (Whitley, Dubin, Ort, Scott, Sousa, Martinez). It could be a combination of the two. Based on that, here’s how I expect the opening day roster to look: 2B Altuve RF Tucker DH Alvarez 3B/1B Bregman OR Walker C Diaz LF TBD LHH OF (e.g. Conforto) 1B/3B Singleton OR TBD LHH 3B (e.g. Moncada) SS Pena CF Meyers Bench: Dubon, Caratini, McCormick, Dezenzo Rotation: Framber Brown Garcia OR TBD FA SP Blanco Arrighetti Bullpen: Hader OR Pressly Abreu TBD RP (e.g. Neris) Ort Scott OR Martinez Whitley OR Dubin OR Sousa TBD RP (e.g. King) McCullers OR TBD FA SP OR Gusto
Am I missing something or did Mctaggart not even imply that they are trying to shake up the bullpen, other than by replacing the players who are out of options? The closest he came was saying that they might need another leverage arm to ease the workload of Abreu, Pressly and Hader. He even directly answered a question about Pressly and said that he would be here next year and that it would likely be his last year with the Astros.
I would sign both and sign a guy like Torres to play LF, you should be able to do this for 60 mil. Then go with Dubon/Melton in CF after letting Meyers/Chas walk in arb if they cant trade for a CF or RP.
