Snake Diggity

Kids birthday party today at our backyard pool in SW Austin; wife scheduled it for 2-5pm. Thinking about making hot toddies and putting a bunch of blankets out around the fire pit because why not go all the way. Told my wife no need to make goody bags for the kids to take home since we will already be giving them heat stroke and melanoma. “But I got a cooling mister to attach to the canopy!”

Kids birthday party today at our backyard pool in SW Austin. My wife scheduled the party for…2-5pm. Will re-post in the “wives and the stupid shit they do” thread. Thinking about making hot toddies and putting a bunch of blankets out around the fire pit because why not go all the way.

The heat might eventually drive me out. But I’m stuck here another 10 years minimum due to family reasons. If I ever move, climate will be the primary reason. Texas has a lot going for it: plenty of jobs, coastline, and food. The stupid rednecks seem louder than they used to be, the education system seems shitty, and the “good” tax situation is a lie, but I wouldn’t necessarily move for any of those reasons.

Pena/Meyers/Gilbert/Arrighetti/Garcia for Cease/Robert McCormick for Bellinger/Stroman Melton/Leon/Bielak for Barlow/Hernandez Playoff Roster: CF Robert LF Bellinger 2B Altuve DH Alvarez 3B Bregman RF Tucker 1B Abreu C Diaz SS Dubon Bench: Maldy, Julks, Kessinger, Singleton/Salazar Rotation: Framber, Cease, Stroman, Brown BP: Pressly, Javier, Barlow, Abreu, Neris, Maton, Hernandez, France, Urquidy Probably one of the greatest rosters of all time. Only significatn offseason tasks would be finding a replacement for Bellinger (or deciding one of Julks/Barber/Corona/Loperfido/Dirden is ready) and signing 1 decent RP.

Robert pluses: 1 of the 10 best players on earth when healthy, signed for 4 more years after this Robert minuses: oft-injured, strikeout prone, will be expensive in trade Cease pluses: has been a legit ace, signed for 2 more years after this Cease minuses: hasn't been as lucky as he was last year, will be expensive in trade The more I think about it the more I would be willing to give up Pena as a headliner (along with Meyers, Gilbert, and a couple of other valuable pieces) for those 2. It'd be a franchise-altering trade for both teams which makes it incredibly unlikely but it would be the most exciting trade the Astros have made in my lifetime, bigger than the Unit, Cole, Carlos Gomez, Beltran, or Verlander trades.

Normally this would be scoffed at but that guy has had good info in the past and I’ve seen at least one other legit source confirm the Astros have engaged CWS on both Robert and Cease. There are also a few other factors that make me think a trade like that could actually be possible: 1. Dana Brown knows that Click’s failure to make a major impact at last year’s deadline was one of the primary factors that cost him his job. He also inherited all of the Astros assets so likely doesn’t have any sentimentality working against trading the players the White Sox would ask for. 2. The White Sox are (stupidly) likely to insist on major league ready players in a deal like that rather than prospects who may be 2-3 years away from contributing. This is one arena Houston can compete in, since they have valuable young big leaguers they can reasonably part with that wouldn’t decimate their chances of winning in the short or long term. 3. Making a pre-emptive blockbuster trade would put a shitload of pressure on the Rangers to answer, possibly in a way that shortens their competitive window. My guess on what a trade for Cease and Robert would look like: 1 of Pena, Diaz, or Hunter Brown 1 of Garcia, France, Urquidy, or Arrighetti 1 of Meyers, McCormick, or Julks 1 of Gilbert, Melton, Barber, Lee, or Clifford 1 other prospect Houston could also take Tim Anderson back to give Chicago more salary relief and unblock Pena, as well as give Houston another SS option with Dubon and Kessinger. I would say there’s about a 2% chance of Houston completing a trade for Cease and Robert, but it’s not zero.

Jaworsky, Ochoa, and Huezo is a big haul of HS talent considering where Houston was picking. I also like Will Bush, the 19 yo JUCO C they picked. Those guys combined with the dudes in the complex leagues has me really excited about Houston’s farm over the next couple years. They lack top end pitching prospects but they have a shitload of exciting position player prospects all up and down the system and great depth pretty much everywhere.

My primary use of Twitter was to follow breaking news during MLB trade season. I hadn’t used Twitter regularly since around this time last year; I think I have opened the app 3-4 times since then and not at all in the last few months. I opened it today to maybe start catching up on trade news, scrolled thru and within 10 minutes was force-fed 4 tweets on stolen elections and the evils of wokism. Fuck that. Deleted the app.

I fuckin rage out from the 1st 95+ degree day of the year until the 1st cold front. This heat is a direct affront to me.

Tonight my 4 year old took almost 90 minutes to eat 3 Oz of hamburger meat and 7 year old 100% refused to brush her teeth. I just cancelled they 529 f these lil mf.

Can Powell still play catcher? Maybe he can move around and be in the lineup almost everyday playing C, 3B, 1B, and 2B (and effectively SS since O’Dowd can play SS when Powell plays 2B)? Belyeu can be the primary backup across all 3 OF spots plus DH. That gives you 11 guys playing almost every day: C Galvan 1B Thomas 2B O’Dowd SS Flores 3B Borba RF Brown CF Cummings LF Gasparino DH Storm UT Powell OF Belyeu Divvying up the departed players’ AB: Cummings replaces Kennedy (with Belyeu picking up some) Gasparino replaces Campbell (with Belyeu picking up some) Borba replaces Daly and Carlson Storm and Galvan effectively replace Guillemette (assuming Powell plays a lot of catcher)

No. The big overslot spends are the 11th and 12th rounders. The pick in the 19th round was insurance in case one of Ochoa or Huezo back out of their agreement. Ochoa is already signed and I would guess his bonus is between $700k and $1.1M.

Pretty much everything about Ohtani is unprecedented. Impossible to be confident about what he will bring back if traded.

We didn’t have air conditioning in my home in Victoria until I was 10 (also didn’t have A/C at school until then). It was hot as fuck some days. But never like this. Back then, even on the hottest days, after playing outside all day you could always get cool enough by drinking ice water in front of a box fan. It was never like this. We have oaks that shade every side of our home and most of our roof throughout the day, and my AC has been running 14 hrs/day for the last 2 months. We set at 76 during the day and 72 at night.

Singleton has no trade value. Angels are set at SS with Neto. If Ohtani is traded some team is going to have done something dramatic and I hope it’s not the Astros (I don’t think it will be). I think a competitive Astros offer would be something like Yainer Diaz, Luis Garcia, Spencer Arrighetti, and Pedro Leon. That would be a costly and likely bad deal for the Astros but it sure would be exciting.

Saw a rumor that Houston is interested in James Paxton. He might be a good target for them, a rental with an injury history but one who has shown to be very effective when on/healthy; that’s the kind of pitcher they might have to roll the dice on if they don’t want to throw away their only good prospect (Gilbert).

I will be shocked if baseball games aren’t broadcast on 1300 The Zone.

I think the demand really is there, but the talent isn’t. I just find it impossible to believe that there aren’t enough listeners interested in UT sports to support a local sports radio station. I just think the talent has been god awful and the stations have been horribly mismanaged. I used to enjoy 1300’s lineup back in the day, when Bucky still had a good combo of humor and college football coaching insight, and they mixed in some nationally syndicated shows so that they didn’t overstretch the local talent. Would a station with the weekday time slots filled with the following programming not work? A 3 hour morning show with a guy like Erin Hogan paired with a younger/better version of Bucky A 1 hour show with Craig Way solo, updating the last week in UT/HS sports, telling stories, and hosting interviews A 1 hour mid afternoon show hosted by multiple former UT athletes, interviewing current and former UT players and coaches A 3 hour afternoon show hosted by professional comedians who are knowledgeable about local sports The rest could be filled with nationally syndicated shows or shit even non-sports shit like standup clips or music.

Part of the context for the Unit trade was that Houston’s farm was utterly stacked at the time. Hidalgo, Elarton, Berkman, Miller, and Ward were all on the BA Top 100 in 1998. So even though the Astros gave up a big haul for a rental pitcher, they had the farm to be able to do it without getting themselves into trouble long term.

I just realized last weekend that there’s no Astros broadcast in Austin. Wtf.

Dude are you serious? Your argument against the idea that executive/ownership compensation is out of control is that because worker standards have increased by any measure, there’s no issue? Damn.

Witt, LBJ, and Hurley on the weekends with Morris, Harrison, Whitehead, and others during the week is a stout starting pitching staff. Thomas, Borba, Gasparino, Powell, Cummings, Belyeu, Flores, O’Dowd, Galvan, Sanders, and Sweeney is a deep lineup. Adding in Porter Brown would be awesome too. Seems like there’s more big league potential on this roster than I’ve seen in the last 4-5 years at least.

Rounds 18-20 are usually when teams will take a guy in the off chance he changes his mind about his asking price, or as insurance a overslot guy they previously chose not signing. Witt should be safe to expect back to Texas.

Man we all got those, you’re probably doing a lot better than most. Like Too Short said, think positive everything else will flow. Gettin it.

Swap Belyeu in for Brown, doesn’t really change much, although I am a big fan of Brown. If he’s moving on I really hope he gives pro ball a shot.