Snake Diggity

Abreu agreed to be optioned. Wow.

They may still be in limbo about Abreu even tho they know the intention is to get rid of him. So they may IL Chas or option Kessinger for a week or two while they finalize the plan for Abreu.

Trump has proven logic does not apply when predicting election results he is involved in. So who the fuck knows. But I think the betting favorite would be a repeat of 2020. AZ, GA, WI, and NV will all be within 3 points. NC and MI will be closely contested, within say 5 points. If you asked me to make a prediction that goes against odds, it would be that I think Pennsylvania will not be close, Biden will run away with that state.

Generally the best free agent values tend to come on 1 year deals for forgotten pitchers and 3-4 year deals for 2nd/3rd tier position players younger than 35 (guys like Josh Reddick and Michael Brantley). But really the best values are almost always extensions. I would have liked to see Houston be more aggressive about acquiring bad contracts that come with prospects as a way to supplement their approach of trading away a lot of prospects every deadline, especially after they got 4 top draft picks taken away.

The White Sox are a stupidly run organization. Including prospects to swap Benintendi for Abreu would be idiotic but it’s the kind of move the White Sox would do. But even if Chicago just threw in $5M-$10M I would consider it fair and an ok trade for Houston. Abreu isn’t just sucking, he’s unplayable, and my guess is he’s also negatively affecting the culture; even though he’s ’working hard’, having an overpaid veteran who simply can’t play anymore has to be depressing for everyone to watch.

Yeah seems like it only works if the white Sox eat a bunch of money. But Benintendi is only 29 and hit 2 HR on Saturday; he’s probably just broken, unlike Abreu who is fully dead. I would be fine with the trade especially if the Sox ate $15M+. Benintendi can be used sparingly as a 4th OF or lefty bench bat and wouldn’t be as glaring as Abreu. Other thing that could happen is Chicago sending prospects with Benintendi to offset the $ difference.

My guess is it’s either a straight salary dump or a swap of bad contracts with Benintendi coming to Houston.

A reliable insider on another site is saying the Astros are working to trade Abreu to the White Sox.

It was the longest homer in either MLB or MiLb this year. Leon has elite power potential but he’s 1100+ pa into AAA and hasn’t shown it consistently. He’s probably just an exciting bench player but replicating Jose Siri’s career wouldn’t shock me.

Loperfido is Joey Gallo. Not a long term cornerstone but a helluva lot better than Abreu. Hopefully they play him.

If you want Dubon in the lineup, 1B seems to make a lot more sense than displacing Meyers.

I do not at all understand the clamoring to bench Jake Meyers. His k rate is below 20% and he hits the shit out of the ball. His wRC+ of 111 is in the top 10 of all MLB CF this season and his low babip indicates he’s probably been unlucky offensively. He catches balls in CF that almost no one else would. Aside from having a weak throwing arm (which I assume is why Verlander refuses to play with him), he’s badass and should be playing every day.

I think it’s funny how Trump uses “Junior” as an insult, and he named his kid Junior.

The only movie I remember crying at as a child was Ben Hur. When his mom and sister have leprosy and he can’t be with them. Fucked me up Royal. Now that I have kids, everything makes me cry. 2 scenes that get me no matter how many times I watch them (and I watch each at least once a year): Band of Brothers: “…but I served in a company of heroes.” It’s a Wonderful Life: “…my brother George, the richest man in town.”

I really don’t want to CR this, but the Fed’s rate decisions have political implications, one way or the other. Whether or not the Fed is actively trying to assist the incumbent, or just trying not to help the challenger, or just doing their best to have as minimal impact on politics as possible, the closer we get to November, the less likely I think it is that the Fed does anything outside of what they’ve already announced they’ve planned.

I will be very surprised if they raise rates again this year. They don’t want to tank the market before the election. Raising rates is far more likely to do that than letting inflation stay higher than desired.

Good thread. I often lament how Austin has changed over the last several decades, and the last 3 summers have seeded daydreams of moving somewhere cooler. But at least once each season I have an experience that reminds me why I live here: -My birthday is in January, and in the last few years I have started 2 traditions: I go to dinner with my wife at Fonda San Miguel on my actual birthday, and then the Saturday closest to my birthday, I go walk campus, shop the Co-Op, and meet friends for beers at Mockingbird Saloon (formerly Texas Showdown). Fonda is a reminder that Austin has world class restaurants. Walking campus and having beers down there is nostalgic, but even outside of that, the weather in January is often fantastic and the vibe of that huge college campus is something you don’t get in most cities. -The Capitol 10k in March/April is always a reminder of my love of the city. Tens of thousands of people gathered to do something healthy and fun. Live music. Free shit. Beer. And many times the weather is perfect. -Barton Springs Pool, Hamilton Pool, Krause Springs. As mentioned above, jumping into BSP on a 105 degree day is bliss. During the aughts I had a tradition of going down there on the week the first college football magazines came out each summer; some of the best solo days of my life. I can’t wait to take my girls to jump off the diving board now that they’re old enough. -Every time I walk thru the concourse of DKR at the first home game, I get goosebumps. Thats my Austin. And the pregame scene is light years better than it was back when Austin was “cool”. This list could go on. ACL, UT baseball, UT basketball, RR Express, endless restaurant choices, live music (even if there’s less of it), running Town Lake, Mt Bonnell… The traffic is shit. The culture of the city has deteriorated. Everything is too expensive. The politics in Texas is stupid. And the summer heat might end up forcing me to move in the end. But I would still easily rank Austin among the 20 or so best places to live in the country overall, and for me personally, I’m still right where I want to be.

There were Australian soldiers in Iraq, at least from 2005-2007.

I’m fine with discussing it. It’s just odd (and telling) that you run to this thread with your peepee wagging every time something bad happens. I have a hard time seeing unemployment rise to the point of stagflation. What’s it called when there’s moderately high inflation, moderately low economic growth (not recession), and low unemployment?

This is hard core suckitude. Singleton’s inability to barrel and elevate is going to end his career. He’s badass at taking pitches knowing when to swing but he fucking rolls over everything.

Why does bad news for the world economy make you erect?

Hader, Pressly, and Brown having an 0-7 record at this point in the season would not have been something anybody would’ve predicted a month ago; flip that around to something more expected like 4-3 and the Astros are 11-14 and nobody is panicking. Everything else pretty much makes sense. Nobody should’ve expected Arrighetti, Henley, Suero, or Scott to pitch well enough to win games. Hell, 6 months ago nobody would’ve even expected any of those guys to have thrown a pitch for Houston this early in the season. The Astros season got completely derailed by pitching injuries. That might be something to blame on the front office, but I don’t see how any organization absorbs constantly having 5 of their best 7 SP on the IL for the first month of the season. They really needed a lot more out of Hunter Brown and France, 2 guys who were relatively established compared to their other healthy options. And then Brown’s bedshitting got compounded by Hader and Pressly running into horrendous luck.

Astros win loss record by pitcher: Blanco, Javier, JV: 5-0 Arrighetti, Brown, France, Henley: 0-10 Hader, Pressly, Abreu: 1-4 Suero, Scott, Martinez: 1-4

G Pope/Larry G Mark/Weaver G/F Johnson/Pryor/Clark F Kent/Codie/Bott F ???/Shedrick/Onyema They get one more good player they should be ready.

There is so much pent up demand waiting on rates, there is no way the Fed wouldn’t rush in to lower rates the minute it actually looks like the economy starts to turn. And as soon as rates come down, another boom starts. The deficit will come home to roost at some point but it won’t be before the election.