If I'm seeing this right, he had 12 starts for the Astros - only 2 really bad ones. His first start and then a critical one when the team was imploding: Jason Alexander 2025 pitching Stats Per Game - MLB - ESPN But his other 10 were better than we are getting now - some fantastic, some pretty good, and a few mediocre. But mediocre in 2025 (4-5 innings, 2 runs) would be excellent right now.
Tried to tell y’all last season Dana Brown is a complete bum of a GM. This roster sucks and he is the one who put it together. Front office needs a major overhaul. This organization used to be on the cutting edge. Sad to see.
Harris looks like a AAAA player, but he has some talent. I guess I'm okay with giving him a shot. If he could cut back on his strikeouts and get on base a little more he'd look a lot better because he can run.
The real bummer for Houston as they slide into a situation where it does not make sense to continue to try and contend with the group of players they have is that the players who would have projected to bring back the kind of prospect haul to supercharge a rebuild have dramatically diminished their value in the last month. A lot can change but for now it’s hard to even get excited about a rebuild given the state of things. Brown, Pena, Abreu, and Paredes profiled as their 4 most valuable trade chips and Brown and Pena are hurt while Paredes and Abreu have played below replacement level. Each of their values is dramatically lower than it was a month ago. Meyers and Imai would have been next in line and their values have tanked as well. Yordan and Walker have seen their value increase but both players have large contracts and no trade clauses which diminish their trade value. Christian Vazquez has played well but as a rental backup C so he’s not going to carry much trade value. Houston isn’t trading Cam Smith or Jose Altuve. Carlos Correa has a big contract and a no trade clause and he is a mediocre player. Yainer Diaz has tanked his value with poor performance. None of their other position players has any value. The Astros don’t have a single healthy effective starting pitcher. Their bullpen has some pieces but nothing with meaningful trade value given Hader is hurt and Abreu is pitching so poorly. Unless Brown and Pena come back healthy and Paredes turns it around, the only chance of a deadline that improves their outlook is if Yordan wants to win and is willing to waive his no trade. Otherwise the Astros are kind of married to 90% of this roster for another season.
There's also a ton of conflicting data as to whether those sort of trades really do "supercharge" a rebuild. I see them more as salary dumps by owners who don't want to pay for a mediocre product. Even the Astros previous rebuild wasn't supercharged by any of the Berkman/Oswalt type trades. Yes, you can get ransoms for the unicorns like Soto (who actually benefitted 2 franchises), but beyond that, there are no real instances where that formula yields consistent/reproducible results. Not to mention that the same people in charge of supposedly rebuilding the farm system would be in charge of that exercise, and we can debate whether their supposed "strengths" when they were hired (draft/development) have actually come true. Plus the true rebuild will likely be the responsibility of a new regime, regardless.
As a team, the last time the Astros failed to hit double digit fWAR from their pitching staff was 2013 (rounding up in 2014). This group looks like they will be the worst staff this org has fielded since then, when the org was bottoming out in a massive rebuild. Well done, Crane.
QFTT. This is lost on most most Luhnow fan boys. The generational players Luhnow brought in were via the high first round draft picks.
Yes and no... it was the organizational approach for the ENTIRE system that was new here compared to previous regimes that is the true legacy of that regime change. From draft approach/strategies, to coaching philosophies from the bottom up, to promotion algorithms/extension strategies... now all these are pretty common place amongst all organizations and there's no real advantage or "edge" anymore. At the MLB level, using high motion cameras to capture/quanitfy spin rates to determine not only who to target in trades/FA (Morton, Pressly), but also convince certain players to ditch or emphasize certain pitches or sequencing (JV's renaissance, Cole going from disappointing #1 drafted pitcher do being Cy Young dominant). Again, practices that are now fully implemented everywhere mitigating that advantage. Not everything worked either. And ultimately some of those maneuvers/strategies (not just the sign stealing) led to him being unofficially banned. What is the next untapped strategy/algorithm that a visionary will uncover in baseball? Not sure there's much more uncharted territory. My idea was to target surgical eyesight correction/eye exercises, but apparently that's already being done at even the lowest level of amateur ball. Procedures that loosen tendons/capsules that allow for more arm torque? Callous creation/developments on palms/fingers to enhance grip/spin? The game will continue to evolve based on somebody trying to unearth/untap an approach that borders on "gaming the system"/spirit of the game bullshit but eventually gets adopted by all as common practice when it works.
"I don't make excuses, but I'm making excuses..." Paredes has been traded 4 times already, before he turns 30, by organizations/GM's that do their fair share of developing talent... maybe there's more to it?
Someone will figure out how to prevent pitching injuries without sacrificing effectiveness. Whether thru load management or changing throwing motion or something else. But to me that’s the next frontier for competitive advantage. WRT rebuilds, I think your point about most rebuilds being managed by bad GMs captures the bulk of the issue. But I still believe in Dana Brown as a scout so I think there’s a good chance he would get a lot of value out of trading Hunter Brown, Jeremy Pena, and Isaac Paredes if they recoup their value from before the season started.
Seems changing ballparks would affect offense (positive or negative) more than positions. He's still fielding ground balls -- acting like he's learning C and his knees hurt.
Espada does not seem to be doing a very good job at preventing a victim mentality from taking over his team.
There are three problems with a rebuild. 1) Jim Crane is the owner so the chances of a post season bid will need to be more dire than most other teams for him to sign off on it. 2) Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa are organizational icons who will never be traded and there will be pressure to win as long as they are on the team. 3) The injuries do not appear to be long term, so the near future looks positive enough to prevent a complete rebuild. If Brown, Hader, Sousa, King, Alvarez, Altuve, Correa, and Smith are all healthy and playing well by the ASB along with all the average depth players this team has it will be even harder for Crane to approve trading any of them away or committing to sacrificing 2027. And not sacrificing 2027 means just another half commitment. Not to mention I don't know if there are 6-8 teams in the AL good enough to pull away and take away that hope for 2026.
It wasn’t so much trading him. It’s what they got in return. Basically nothing. A career OPS+ of 56. Laughably bad.
