I would like to see Pena in the number 2 slot. He seemed to do well there with Alvarez behind him for protection.
The Astros are looking for a short term deal (1/2 years) for second tier talent, likely on the wrong side of 30? You gotta expect that this crop of FAs want more in years than the Astros are willing to offer, so I suspect that these FAs will only sign with the Astros after they have explored all of their possibilities.
Man, imagine if all the dead money the Astros are carrying (~$60M) was productive. If Abreu, McCullers, Javier, and Montero were all healthy and expected to produce to their career norms, Houston would just be looking for a 3B (with extra pitching to offer via trade) and likely be projected as the 2nd best team in the league.
Raises hand. I'd rather snag Christian Walker (or other similar level player) and keep Caratini and Pressly than spreading it around over guys that could easily have a bad year worse than the guys on the bench. Though, I thought Kikuchi should have been the Astros top target. I'm not optimistic that the Astros can trade Caratini and Pressly for much, and then turn around and replace them with guys that help elsewhere better. Though, I'm probably not going to be happy or unhappy with the opening day.
How about this 1. Altuve 2. Alvarez 3. Tucker 4. Diaz 5. Santana 6. Arenado 7. Nootbar 8. Conforto 9. Pena Brown Blanco JV Arrighetti Blubaugh Hader Garcia Abreu Scott Ort King Whitley
Some context for Arrighetti’s potential trade value: Severino 2023: 7.96 k/9, 2.97 bb/9, 4.12 xFIP Arrighetti 2023: 10.61 k/9, 4.03 bb/9, 4.01 xFIP Arrighetti has 5 years of control remaining.
And that’s without factoring in the 5 years of control and pre-arb status. He could potentially be a big trade chip if necessary
The As are such a joke. And Severino effectively DOUBLES their payroll next season. They've moved from about $27m to $50m with one (bad) signing. Second highest paid player is Rooker at $3.5m.
Not so sure, they’ve got some decent young players and they’re probably a 3B and a ToR SP away from being over .500 this season.
1. Altuve 2. Alvarez 3. Diaz 4. Tucker 5. Bregman 6. Walker 1B 7. Santander LF 8. Pena 9. Dubon 10. Caratini 11. Meyers 12. McCormick 13. One of Singleton, Dezenzo, Whitcomb, Kessinger 1. Valdez 2. Brown 3. Arrighetti 4. Blanco 5. JV 6. Hader 7. Pressly 8. Abreu 9. Scott 10. Ort 11. Neris 12. King 13. L. Garcia Javier and maybe McCullers as a reliever at some point.
They will sell high on Rooker and anyone else who looks good this season outside of Mason Miller. The goal is to be competitive in Vegas, they are just riding out the string in Sac for a couple seasons first. I imagine there's some pressure from MLB to not be such an outlier in terms of payroll. They want to stay at the bottom but not at 50% of the next lowest team.
I think we sign Alex I simply think he holds more value for us than he does for other teams. He is clearly a leader in the clubhouse. The only player Altuve has publically spoke out about the importance of keeping He also clearly would prefer to be here Sure, if someone comes in well north of 200 million he will take it and be gone. I’m just not that sure he holds that kind of value for anyone else And, of all the homegrown studs we have let go, there has never been such a hole as far as an in place replacement Crane signs the guys he is high on. Maybe Alex isn’t one of “his guys”, but Altuve clearly is, and we all know Crane does listen to those he believes in
I love Bagwell as well. Doran, Bagwell, Biggio are the good guys. Bagwell shouldn't be hated on because he influenced Crane. Crane is a grown ass man, if he takes bad advice that's on him.
Brian McTaggart’s latest article https://www.mlb.com/news/alex-bregman-chances-of-returning-to-astros
