I don't really see much discrepancy in how the public views the Astros prospects, and how they're being promoted/valued by the front office. Even a guy being labeled as a "bust" by some in Appel is still being advanced up the system by the Astros, and is still a top 50 ranked prospect by publications. But, I agree that it does come down to organizational preferences... the A's likely favor lower level/high upside prospects moreso than the Reds/Tigers/Phillies who all have GM's with a penchant to re-load the MLB team as soon as possible.
I don't disagree, I think i'm the only one on this forum that has been posting about wanting us to go get another Ace before the deadline
I agree on Lucroy And i'm sure Luhnow would prefer a 1B over other positions/pitching if the deals were equal. Jeff just strikes me as a "value" guy who would rather get the deal with more value overall to the team, whether that addresses need or not
I for one, am hoping that we bring up AJ Reed by next year. He looks to be at minimum an average 1B in the Majors.
Hence our front office may value Appel more than the general publications, or other organizations. I'm not privy to their internal stuff, so no way to know. Sure seems like they rely on their own advanced stat stuff more than other organizations Sorry for posting all of this in here by the way, should be in the trade thread and not clogging up the series thread
Marwin Gonzalez at 1B! Luhnow just stated that Reed won't get any time at 1B this year. Said that Tyler White is a likely option to be called up and also mentioned Matt Duffy.
For your pitching staff to implode, you only need about 2 guys to suck. We see it all the time. For an offense to go cold, you need 4 or 5 guys to go cold while no one gets hot. Basic math says that you're going to have much more variation on the pitching side than hitting because there are fewer pitchers contributing to a larger share of the total amount of performance. As an example, if Kershaw implodes, the Dodgers pitching basically implodes since he's going to pitch 2 of their 5 games in the first round.
I'm not arguing that an additional SP wouldn't help - I'm just saying the upgrade would be relatively small. What you're going to have to give up for a Price, it would be better to trade those same players to get offensive upgrades that would have a more significant net effect on the team.
Assuming those offensive upgrades are available, I would agree. Sure doesn't seem to be many impact bats available though. That is why I think Luhnow is willing to add impact to the team wherever it's available
Yeah and we don't cuz we're nice guys. Ya know the ol saying "nice guys finish second in their division".
Sure... but the odds of great starting pitchers having back to back bad starts is not that great. Basic math actually suggests less variation on great starting pitching... as it typically translates across multiple teams/lineups moreso than hitters are able to routinely do well against great pitching. Also, the odds of hitters having back to back sucky games is greater than that of great pitchers (especially if those hitters are facing great pitchers). Great pitching has always been more consistent than great hitting... and when you break it down to a small sample size, the more consistent aspect is more likely to stay true.
