I want a suit that has a plan, executes that plan, can draft/trade for/sign the players that can execute his plan and give us a decade of championship level baseball. Most of all I want this suit to always make winning his top priority and if this suit has to do a few unpopular things to ensure winning he will make the tough calls and make them with no apologizes. I'm just very greatful that the suit you dont seem to appreciate gave fans like myself the best decade of winning this city has ever had regardless of the sport. Find me another suit like the guy in that suit.
I realize Luhnow will never be back in MLB again and that Crane needs to find his next Luhnow. I would prefer Crane hire one of Luhnow's underlings that has the same mentality Luhnow has.
So are we rooting for the team or the suit? Seems to me that you put the suit first. And that’s fine, you’re well within your right to do so. Yeah, Elias/Stearns/Putila is just gonna waltz in and everything will magically return to what it was in 2017.
Nope, I'm rooting for what the suit puts on the field and I'm appreciative that the suit put the best product on the field that this city has ever had. I'm rooting for Dana to do the same things. I never said things would magically return to 2017, what I said is I want a GM that has the same mindset that Luhnow had. I'm betting one of his underlings has the same mindset and the same processes and procedures in place. In fact I'll bet these have been upgraded.
90% of the time I agree with this. However, there are cases where the history a player has trumps that to some extent. I am still happy Altuve eill finish his career as an Astro. I knew he would be bad at the end but I was still happy they made the deal. I was happy Biggio was going for 3000 as an Astro eventhough he was awful his final season. I was happy and rooting for Bagwell to get 450HR in his final season when he only had 1 arm. I am at that point with Altuve and Correa. Losing Nolan Ryan is a example of one that pissed me off. Guys like Meyers and Abreu or Walker and Paredes ( Zach Cole was here too) who have not been top 5 best players on the team for 5+ years can just go away or get traded. I'm cool with that. As for Yordan, he is still a major net positive. In addition I think he will be for several more years and wish they would extend him. He is one I will be frustrated if they trade with more than 1 1/2 yrs of control left. I will understand a trade if he can't be extended but not before NEXT deadline.
I get what you're saying but I'm not wired that way. Winning is the only thing that matters to me. I hated losing Ryan because it was obvious he still had a lot in the tank and they lost him because of a pissing match
I’m assuming Alexander is just a fresh arm for 2 games until Pearson joins. Hopefully Pearson will be a revelation.
We’ll see. I think we can all still enjoy the rest of the season as long as expectations are properly set: As of now there’s only about a 10% chance that Houston rips off a long winning streak prior to the deadline that positions them as buyers and puts them in a good spot to make the playoffs. But until that 10% becomes <5% (basically until mid-July when the Astros have to commit to buying or selling at the deadline), we can still have hope for a miracle season. Regardless of how the rest of this season plays out, Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, and Carlos Correa will all be playing for the Astros next season. There are lots of young/unproven players who could be fun to watch develop this season: Smith, Cole, Matthews, Dezenzo, Loperfido, Blubaugh, Arrighetti, Pecko, Santa, Imai Once July arrives, it could be extremely exciting to watch the trade deadline if Houston makes their best players (Brown, Pena, Paredes, Meyers, Lambert, Abreu) available.
Which of these players will be a FA next year? These without a doubt will be traded. I would be hesitant to trade more. By Spring Training 2027, the Astros will get a major boost to their starting pitching when Blanco, Walter, Wesneski and to a lesser extent Javier should be healthy. Even if only 2 of those 4 return to form, the Astros starting pitching should be stacked since Brown, Arrighetti and Burrow will also be returning. There will also be Teng, Lambert, Weiss, Blubaugh and Pecko in the wings. We can hope that 6 of these 12 SPs will be healthy at the start of next season.
Abreu is the only 1 of those 6 players I listed that will be a free agent after this season. Paredes, Pena, Meyers, and Lambert are controlled thru next season (2027), and Brown is controlled thru 2028. I don’t want Houston to give away any controllable players. But I think it would be wise of them to make all of those players available. If a team wants to make an overwhelming offer for one of them I think Houston can trade them away and still compete next year. Part of that is the point you made about getting some reinforcements next spring. Lambert and Brown could be replaced by Blanco/Walter/Wesneski/Javier/Pecko, and that ignores the possibility of signing a free agent SP. Meyers is already expendable with the 5 young OF they are trying to develop. At least one of Pena/Paredes is expendable due to Correa’s presence. If they traded both Pena and Paredes, they’d likely be in the market for an infielder this coming offseason (if they didn’t receive an MLB-ready IF prospect in return for one of their trades). I put forth this hypothetical 2027 roster if they did trade all 6 of those guys: LF Seiya Suzuki (3-4 yr free agent deal) 2B Altuve DH Alvarez 3B Correa 1B Walker RF Smith C Diaz SS Shewmake CF Matthews Bench: Allen, Salazar, Cole, Loperfido SP: Michael King (5 year FA deal), Arrighetti, Burrows, Imai, Teng, Pecko RP: Hader, King, Blubaugh, Sousa, Pearson, Santa, Blanco Keep in mind that roster would be backed by a farm system that would then be in the top 3 in the league with potentially 7-8 Top 100 prospects.
Correa also makes Christian Walker expendable. If the Astros are out of it by the trade deadline and Walker agrees to a trade (perhaps to the West Coast where he hits well for some reason), I could see him being traded. The Pena trade scares me, since the Astros would need to find a full time SS since Correa should only SS as a backup for health reasons.
I don’t really relish the idea of trading Walker because between his salary and partial no-trade clause, I don’t see him having enough value to justify trading. I don’t want Houston trading controllable players just to dump salary. Now if Walker wants to be traded and the Astros are willing to pay down a lot of his contract and another team makes a really good offer, sure. I just don’t see that happening. I think the odds of Pena being traded are very high. It might not happen until the offseason but I will be surprised if he is with the Astros next season.
Does this team, trading away their best players, strike you as contenders next season? Because if not, Walker definitely needs to be moved. He's old and off to a hot start - that's the definition of a player you move if you're not competitive. Father time will definitely catch back up with him sooner rather than later and then we're talking dead money again. Even if it's just cost savings, that $20m next season would go a long way to slotting in a free agent whose timeline might be more in line with the Astros future.
