Given that the Astros HAS to sign someone every offseason to these type of contracts, because as you say someone has to pitch innings, are they still short term contracts then? :You can replace the name, but that doesn't change the fact that a new mediocre pitcher is signed every year to these contracts. During the offseason I started a thread wondering if the Astros should think about at least bidding seriously on Tanaka. I wouldn't have expected the Astros to go 7 years/$175mil, but I did want the Astros to bid up to a pretty high number, $100+mil. Overall the idea was flat out rejected by most posters as laughable, yet it was at least he was the type of player that did offer both short term and long term benefit. Another player that the Astros could've bid on without compromising their future was someone like Puig, who I remember reading about as a prospect being known as a pure power guy with no plate discipline. He ended up with a 6yr/$42mil deal with the Dodgers. His name stuck in my mind because I believe he was the last major international signing before MLB put their limitations on international spending. Mind you, this was back when the Astros were atrocious AND had no prospects, so I was quite desperate for the Astros to spend money on young players anywhere I can find. While you are correct in saying that the Astros has to at least pay someone, there are indeed ways to sign players that offer both short term and long term benefit. Whereas stop-gap starting pitchers are most definitely short term only.
Keep in mind it costs us draft picks for those "impact players" and "ace" category players. I could see us signing it this year, but going into the off season, would you have rather overpaid for an ace type or had a compensatory round pick? (My understanding is that our top pick is protected and a type A player would have stripped us of our compensatory round pick)
Yea the top pick is protected, and not saying I wanted them to do that kind of deal already, just saying maybe after next year there would be more money available for that type of deal I they didn't give 30 to Feldman, that's all
Cubans haven't been subject to those spending limits, so Puig was certainly not the last (Juan Abreu was the last). Puig was signed in June 2012. We had prospects: Cosart, Folty, DDJ, Springer, Correa, Ruiz, McCullers, Singleton, Villar, Velasquez & others at that point.
I had to do a double take because I was so certain of my memory. So I went and checked. Per MLB's own story. http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/n...vkey=news_la&c_id=la&tcid=tw_article_34081436 Also, the only Juan Abreu I found was this guy. Huh? http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/abreuju01.shtml None of them in AAA and attrition rate for low minors in general was high. But that's neither here nor there. My point was that the Astros could spend liberally on players with no upside and no long term future with the team. Do you disagree with that?
I meant Jose Abreu, not Juan. I don't know why I typed Juan. Puig was subject to the limits apparently because he was under 23.
