Jim Crane will not allow a full rebuild, so maybe Brown can convince him to at least cut cost and lengthen the timeline on the MLB roster. With no impressive young stars right now, virtually every player of value on this team will be gone after the 28 season. The team controlled players with value we do have lose a little of it every game they get closer to FA. FWIW I'm in the extend Yordan crowd, maybe extend Lambert because he may be affordable given his career situation, everybody else can go as part of a retool. Correa returns at 3rd, Pena or Paredes bring back a passable SS with some control, use the money freed up to sign a 2nd tier bat at 1B or LF.
Yep. 2028 is the end. So they need to compete unt then. But they shouldnt mortgage 2029+. Offer short team friendly extensions to Pena, Paredes, and Lambert; assume they’ll reject. Otherwise trade them along with all the rentals (Okert, De Los Santos, Abreu, and Wade…Vasquez is probably more valuable to hold onto). If you can dump more than half of Walker or Javier then do that too. Then spend the money to actually COMPLETELY fill out the 2027-2028 roster. Half-assing it like they’ve done the last 2 seasons is a waste of time. It’s ok not to give out huge contracts to established stars but if you’re not going to do that then you’ve got to make up for it by having higher quality depth; that will be partially accomplished naturally due to a rapidly improving farm system. Sadly at this point I don’t trust Jim Crane to approve this strategy, at least not to the degree that will maximize the odds of it succeeding.
With K. Alvarez/Neyens,Hughes etc... and any number of really good pitching prospects coming up, plus a couple more drafts I just dont get all of the doom and gloom around these parts. Only problem I see is Crane needs to find new and more innovative leadership to help lead his org. In short he needs to find his next Luhnow. Example: do y'all think any forward thinking GM would hire, much less keep Espada around like Dana has?
The doom and gloom is warranted if the Astros invest valuable resources into this year’s team at the expense of the future. I think fans are rightly frustrated because this years and last years teams were needlessly incomplete AND because the farm system prior to this season wasn’t giving much reason for optimism about the future. This year the farm system has taken a big step up with the lower levels boasting a lot of top notch talent but the big league team is the definition of mediocre.
I'm with you when it comes to moving resources, move Pecko, Ulolla/Blughbaugh/Matthews/Dezenzo/Diaz etc... to help yjis yrs club. Dont reach into AA or the lower levels to make moves at the deadline. I still see the future as being bright, but Crane needs to spend the money to keep Hunter/Alvarez around to lead the next generation of Stros players. Y would offer Hunter Alvarez/Lambert extensions now. I see Pena/Parades as goners.
Sell. There's not going to be a 2027 season. If there is a 2028 season, fan interest will be low coming off the lockout. The minor leagues will continue during the lockout so get some prospects that should be ready by 2029.
Well , we shouldn't be buyers . The market should dictate if we sell or not . Pena and Brown could be huge for us next year . We are going to try to win on some level next year because we still have alvarez, altuve , and Correa. Open to trading everyone except for yordan . I wonder if there is any market for hader . He's done well this year and his contract gets shorter every day. We don't have the pockets to spend big money at closer . As.good as hader has been , I think that's a big crane overstep. If we can get a lot of pena or brown id do it . Ppl bring up the soto trade as a comp for yordan , but I think if brown even brings offers to crane he might get fired lmao
Watching the 3 games this weekend was just depressing--we couldn't get a couple of more runs yesterday with a ton of base runners and Brown was suddenly pitching like Wild Thang. I think a soft rebuild is probably best course, but Pena can't stay healthy enough to get full value and now Walker is hurt. I hate wasting an all-time great season by Yordan, but we just don't have enough juice no matter how hard we squeeze--so frustrating.
Can you me examples of teams trying this approaching? My gut suspects that it has a less than 50% chance of success.
Im not going to do that legwork but I will agree that it has a less than 50% chance of ending with a WS. But that doesn’t make it a bad idea.
This team is dead, no leadership, no fire, too many ok with losing guys. Time to dump the old and trade Brown and Alvarez and rebuild. DD
My dude, the dodgers have less than 50% chance of winning the WS in any given year. If it gives us a 15-20 percent chance of winning a WS, that’s more than enough.
Its not about fire or ok with losing. Our roster sucks. We have 1.5 good starting pitchers, a decent pen, and 4.5 MLB hitters (when healthy). We can have all the fire we want. We lack talent and production. Pick a good team and compare our roster to it. The gap is sizeable.
https://www.fangraphs.com/standings/playoff-odds/fg/div With a record of 47-54, Fangraphs have the Astros at a 5.4% chance to win the division, 13.6% to make the playoffs and a measly 0.6% chance to win the WS. Only 3 teams in the AL have worse odds. Luckily 2 of those teams are in our division and with a 10 game win streak things “could” completely flip around, but I don’t want to sound too much like Espada.
Not to derail the thread but I have a question about a potential lockout. someone had noted that minor league baseball still plays on if there is a work stoppage. What if you are Jake Meyers. On the 40-man roster but currently at sugar Land. If he is still at sugar Land during the work stoppage does he still get to play since he is on major league 40-man contract??? I'm sorry did not want to make a thread just for this.
