The problem with compensation picks for these awards is the baseball writers are picking the winners. Their East Coast/West Coast bias will win out more often now that their favorite teams will be rewarded for who they pick. Let’s say Judge falters a bit and Alvarez overcomes him in every stat except home runs. Ohtani gets hurt. Who are they going to reward? The Yankees or the Astros? What about rookie of the year. Pena could very well be the most deserving by the end of the year, but are the baseball writers going to reward the Astros? I doubt it.
I’m not sure which would be better for the Astros. We do so well with international signings right now the draft might actually hurt the Astros since we would be drafting near the end most years. I don’t think the compensation for rewards is good for the Astros, given the obvious bias that the baseball writers have.
Was Pena on 2 of the preseason Top 100 lists of BA, MLB.com, and ESPN to meet pick eligibility? He was on BA's list. I thought he got shafted by ESPN and MLB.com.
Hunter Brown is in position to win next year. To keep rookie eligibility he can't be on active roster more than 45 days prior to 9/1 - check. Can't pitch more than 50 innings. Here's what I would do. Let's assume the team can't trade Odorizzi which would be ideal. Trade Garcia and/or Urquidy for Castillo. Bring up Brown to make 4 starts between 7/31 ( Odorizzi's turn if he can't pitch- blister) and 8/21 ( activate McCullers). Limit him to max 5 innings per start. Send him back down to AAA with specific plan to work on based on how those 4 starts went and if the team views him as a viable playoff bullpen piece. If no: keep him in rotation at AAA until season ends 9/28. From there bring him up to start 1 or 2 games for Astros ( they will have 6 games in 7 days left) to finish the season giving playoff starters extra rest. If yes: move him exclusively to the bullpen at AAA, pitching 2-3 innings every 3-4 days. Then sometime after 9/15 depending on need bring him up for the same role. From there even if he pitches 3 innings every 3 days he still will have a max of 44 innings. He has MLB experience going into either the playoffs and/or next season with the best chance to help the team win the World Series and win ROY next year.
Fun With Defense, BoSox edition: Don't ever let anyone tell you that 1B can be played by "just anybody"
Totally irrelevant, but noted for posterity. George Elder lives up to his name by dying at the ripe age of One-Hundred-and-One. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/e/elderge01.shtml
Possibly, the AL as a whole is looking kind of week, or at least top heavy. Us and the Yankees could win 105 games, there may not be another team that wins 90. I think Toronto will in the end, but after that there may be a bunch of 80-85 wins teams in a frenzy for those last 3 spots. Chicago has been aggressively meh and has the 10th best record in the AL, yet they're only 3 losses behind Seattle for 4th best and very much in the thick of it.
