I really like Japanese baseball, so I felt great about this signing, but it doesn't feel like a good fit at all. The good news is that he seems unhappy enough that maybe he won't exercise that player option now...
I’m a sucker I guess because I still think he will figure it out at some point this year. He isn’t locating like he should.
I seriously think it would benefit him a lot if we could bring Kikuchi back. If it’s true that he is struggling pretty bad with the cultural aspect, not only is Kikuchi a guy who has been through it, he also has played and for a short period lived here in Houston. Not that it would be easy to get him from a division rival, but he would be the best bet to help the kid get on track
As soon as Imai puts together 2/3 months of SP2/SP3 pitching, he is gone since he has player options on his Astros contract. If the Astros want to own Kikuchi and his contract, they should trade for him. Any benefit to Imai would be a collateral benefit.
I’m more of a casual fan than a lot of y’all here. And with them being so bad I definitely have not been watching. Just tuning into the occasional parts of games and looking at the box scores. so I am not super in tune to what is going on, but it does seem like maybe we should just trying to be selling and getting a very high draft pic. I know that our division is pretty tight but in the end it just doesn’t seem like we will have the talent to close that gap. it is very harsh, but I would trade Alvarez. Amazing player, but unlikely that the injury stuff will just go away and he really is only a dh that moonlight and left field as far as I can tell. Trade him, Pena and Walker to get a jumpstart on a rebuild.
Crane isn’t going through 3-4 years of an empty stadium on purpose, even if it is the best course of action, and I really don’t know if it is or isn’t
Baseball draft picks are not like NBA or NFL draft picks. Any single pick in the first round is a coin flip on becoming a big leaguer, and a lottery ticket on becoming a star/superstar. Further, the probability of an undrafted free agent in MLB having success is much higher than the same in those other leagues (see Altuve, Jose) The dynasty was good choices and wise decisions, but it was also lucky. Correa could've had his injury issues come into play earlier in his career. Bregman's slumps could easily have been at more inconvenient times during the season. The only way to guarantee an ongoing playoff run right now is to be the Yankees or Dodgers, and even that isn't guaranteed (see the New York Mets).
Not exactly… and if it was a sure-fire strategy, you’d see every team in this copycat league that hasn’t won **** in the last 20 years try and do the same thing.
The rules have changed since the Astros tanked. Draft lottery, tighter bonus pools, and every team trying for the same advantage. The Astros’ dynasty was absolutely built on a foundation of the 5 straight years of top 11 draft picks (3 straight years of #1 overall), supplemented with other competitive advantages and a boatload of luck. But you are 100% right that strategy can’t be replicated now.
Maybe. It might be smarts that convinced the league to bail him out of the Aiken debacle. But without that outcome I sincerely doubt Houston ever wins a ring.
I still think they would've won a ring. Aiken wasn't a debacle, It was just a circumstance caused by MLB not making players take physical before the draft. I believe the rules were changed because of the Aiken situation. Luhnow followed the rules.
He followed the rules which should have resulted in being forced to sign Jacob Nix and forfeit two high draft picks. It was technically against the rules to make one draftee's offer contingent upon another draftee signing. MLB could have enforced that rule (especially since Nix filed a grievance). But supported by the MLB Players Association, Nix and the Astros ultimately reached a confidential six-figure financial settlement in December 2014 and the Astros went unpunished. The reality is that given the rules at the time (which didn't make players take physicals before the draft), Houston should never have considered a HS pitcher at 1-1. That was royally stupid given the risk. But Lucky Luhnow got bailed out and was able to use the mulligan to get Alex Bregman.
There wasn't a rule at the time that said if I dont sign player A that I still have to sign player B. But you know more about this stuff than I ever will or want too know. I'm curious why MLB bailed them out. I will bet you lawsuits would've followed and MLB wanted no part of that.
Teams can still tank for top 10 picks. And usually there are consensus picks that most will take a supposed “heralded” prospect that has a low bust factor. The luck part, the having other pieces already in place part, and one of the years (prior to Luhnow) they weren’t intentionally ******** the bed, they were just that bad… just too may risks for teams to have it “all line up perfectly”. (And that’s including Luhnow busting on two of the #1 picks). There is also the apathetic sports market that Houston CAN be at times when their teams are bad (fans don’t get really angry or worked up… they just tune out). That doesn’t work in all markets and not all markets would come back in droves like Houston tends to do (as front-running, fair-weather, and bandwagon with a touch of obsession as they come… see luv ya blue).
MLB knew the rules not requiring predraft physicals were stupid. No owner wants to set the precedent of forcing another owner to pay $6.5M for a deformed UCL. MLB also knew that every single team was violating the rule against contingent offers and didn’t want to take the chance of the Astros making a stink. It was easier for everyone just to let Houston pay Nix to go away.
