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2021-2022 Astros Offseason Thread

Planet Houston

By Planet Houston
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Snake Diggity

Snake Diggity 4713

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2 hours ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

He does hit a lot of doubles, though. Maybe Bregs? If he returns to form? Or Tucker, as a sort of Springer-like lead-off guy, coming in there and leading off with Tucker Fuckers?

I think Tucker is the best option for leadoff, with Altuve being next.  Bregman, Alvarez, Brantley, and Gurriel are too slow even though they have the onbase profile.  Pena and McCormick/Meyers/Siri/Goodrum do not have the proven on-bas skills to leadoff.  And Maldy is mostly terrible at hitting.  It’s possible that one of the young players can make a good leadoff guy but that shouldn’t be an option until 200+ pa into the season.

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Planet Houston
Planet Houston

Fuck the haters. We will be back again next year. Discuss. 

Jshep34
Jshep34

Lilshep collecting more hardware. All american games. Compete against kids from all over country. He went 5 for 6. 2 walks. Stole 8 bases. Played error free defense. Possibly selected for national t

henrygandorf
henrygandorf

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Wulaw Horn

Wulaw Horn 19579

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Projections from Steamer:

 

https://www.fangraphs.com/projections.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&type=steamer&team=21&lg=all&players=0&sort=21,d

 

They have Bregman as our 3rd best hitter and Altuve as our 4th best hitter with a fairly significant difference (139 v 127 wRC+). That would be a pretty big bounce back for Bregman. 
Yuli and Brantley are predicted 119 and 121 respectively so, as I said, no real difference so Brantley should hit 6th per handedness as a tie break. 
looks like Bregman at 5th would make most sense as your fifth hitter should be better than your third hitter (4th best guy on team. Technically that should be (if the projections hit) Bregman at lead off and Altuve at 5, but, I don’t think the difference is great enough between Altuve and Bregman to put the much slower Bregman at lead off. Also- he’s going to have to prove it to me that he’s actually a better hitter than Altuve. 

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Murfdogg21

Murfdogg21 4563

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Pardon my stupidness, but who gives a shit about traditional lead-off traits? The set up typically only applies in the first inning or a few random times when the 9 hole was your last out. I’d think you’d value OBP way higher than running speed….and the best hitter should bat 5th? Half the games he’s going to have one fewer AB than 1-4 that have lower OBP/OPS? Over the course of the season 80 fewer ABs for your best hitter?

If this post is dumb and upsets you, just think of titties and home runs to the Crawford Box. 

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Wulaw Horn

Wulaw Horn 19579

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9 hours ago, Murfdogg21 said:

Pardon my stupidness, but who gives a shit about traditional lead-off traits? The set up typically only applies in the first inning or a few random times when the 9 hole was your last out. I’d think you’d value OBP way higher than running speed….and the best hitter should bat 5th? Half the games he’s going to have one fewer AB than 1-4 that have lower OBP/OPS? Over the course of the season 80 fewer ABs for your best hitter?

If this post is dumb and upsets you, just think of titties and home runs to the Crawford Box. 

5th hitter is supposed to be 4th best hitter. Order of quality (simplified) 2nd, 4th, 1st, 5th, 3rd, 6-9. 

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Wulaw Horn

Wulaw Horn 19579

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1 hour ago, WBT said:

Batting order talk not going away. 

  Reveal hidden contents

IDMAS...a handful of runs a year.

 

And basically the difference between a perfect lineup order and worst lineup order is like 2 wins. Basically difference between best manager in the game and Bo Porter is 3 wins a game (some of that comes from lineup construction) 
MLB is a general managers league. We’ve known this (or should have) since 2000 or so. 

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Wulaw Horn

Wulaw Horn 19579

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9 hours ago, TonyTexas said:

It always makes me laugh when Wulaw throws an “I told you so” into his posts. It’s like he’s proud that he threw a rock from a boat and was able to hit water. 

I can’t remember what I ate for dinner yesterday. Getting old sucks. I get fired up when I remember an article, almost word for word, that I read 7 years ago. 

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Wulaw Horn

Wulaw Horn 19579

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41 minutes ago, Scraps said:

I really don't know why we are even wasting time running Brinson out there.  Just let people who make a shit play like Leon 

Speaking of which- have we seen Lee at catcher yet this spring?  Is this Papriki guy at all considered any kind of prospect? 

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Scraps

Scraps 13797

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My guess is that Brinson is getting a look at potentially making the club as a 4th/5th OF, at least until Meyers is back. 
Trade bait 
A: Brinson sucks ass and doesn't need to be on the club under any circumstance
B: You can't trade him for anything
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Wulaw Horn

Wulaw Horn 19579

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@Scipioand I will be giving away seats throughout the year- not altogether certain exactly how many- but we will be giving them out in sets of 2.  

First game available- lets make it a contest...

Guess JV's opening line box score from opening night Thursday April 7th against the Angels.  In order of importance (so it's an eliminator)

Earned runs allowed/IP/K's/hits/walks/# of pitches thrown.  We will eliminate starting with runs- everyone who nails the earned runs will go onto the next category, IP's, anyone left over who nails that we will go on to K's, then hits, then walks, then #pitches thrown.  Closest two people to his box numbers get two tickets each.  Good seats, 25th row down the 3rd base line, half way between the bag and Crawford boxes.

My guess:

2 ER/5 innings/6 K's, 3 hits/2 walks/88 pitches thrown.

Most times we will probably just do a standard drawing or pick a number or something like that- but I want to get a list going of everyone here who is interested in being in the group to have giveaways fro the year.  My guess is we will be giving away somewhere between 25 and 50 pairs of tickets during the course of the season.  And of course- playoff tickets again since that contest seemed to go well.  So, if you want on the list say so after you give your prediction for opening day tickets and you will be on and we will keep you open for future consideration.

 

 

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Scraps

Scraps 13797

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Y'all keep talking shit about Brinson.  2/3 with a double and an RBI.
Yall obviously aren't familiar with HOF spring player Lewis Brinson.

Pretty sure he led the league in homers one Spring with like 5 then hit 0 in the regular season. (2019)

He has 14 career spring training homers and 25 in real baseball games (341)

His -3.4 career WAR is pretty boss though I will give yall that
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Guadaloopy

Guadaloopy 11128

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2 hours ago, Seasick Sailor said:

Quite encouraging:

 

Full article:

Spoiler

Brent Strom’s influence on the winningest era in Astros history extends beyond the Cy Young Awards, the reclamation projects, all the learned breaking balls and the routinely high strikeout totals.

It also includes all of the pitching coaches he mentored, especially the two who’ve succeeded him after he left the Astros at the expiration of his contract last fall and joined the Diamondbacks.

With Josh Miller and Bill Murphy as their co-pitching coaches, the Astros believe they can continue the run of excellence that began under Strom, their lead pitching coach for the previous eight seasons. And while the absence of Strom’s big personality and seemingly boundless energy are unmistakable, the team’s pitching program and processes have appeared to keep rolling in spring training.

“I feel like the transition has been incredibly smooth,” Astros set-up man Ryne Stanek said. “I feel like there is such a good job done here and such a good emphasis put on making each player’s strengths better. So the philosophy never really changed. Obviously, Strommy’s really good at his job. But the ability to keep the continuity that we already had here I feel like is more of a factor than anything. … It stays very streamlined in approach and thought process. Weirdly, it feels the same even though he’s not here. It feels very similar to what we had last year.”

The continuity stems from both Miller and Murphy being on the major-league staff with Strom last season as part of a pitching guru triumvirate. Miller, the Astros’ bullpen coach in 2019 and 2020, actually held the title of pitching coach last season, same as Strom, while still coaching in the bullpen during games. Murphy was the assistant pitching coach and stationed in the dugout.

During conversations last season about Strom’s future, Astros general manager James Click said Strom was adamant that Miller and Murphy were ready to take over and were deserving of the opportunity. After Strom decided to leave, the Astros removed the assistant qualifier from Murphy’s title and elevated him to co-pitching coach. The plan, according to Click, is for Murphy to be the one who coaches out of the bullpen this season and Miller to be in the dugout with manager Dusty Baker.

“I think one of the things that made Strommy so good and such a great leader and such a great coach is that he empowered everyone around him,” Click said. “He involved everyone around him. And so he leaned, to my eyes, very heavily on Josh and Murph throughout last year especially and certainly before that. So they have gotten the experience that they needed to be able to step into these roles without missing a beat.”

Both Miller, 43, and Murphy, 32, came up as coaches with the Astros in the minor leagues when the then-Jeff Luhnow-led organization put itself at the forefront of leveraging data and technology in an individualized approach to pitcher development. Their working together “is something that comes really, really naturally,” Miller said. Their relationship dates to 2016, when Miller was the Astros’ complex pitching coordinator (essentially the No. 2 minor-league pitching coordinator) and Murphy was just starting out as the pitching coach for the team’s now-defunct rookie-level Greeneville (Tenn.) affiliate. As he does Strom, Murphy considers Miller to be a mentor.

Miller ascended to becoming the Astros’ primary minor-league pitching coordinator in 2018. When he was promoted to be major-league bullpen coach in 2019, Murphy was the young coach the team tabbed to succeed Miller as coordinator. Think of any of the slew of homegrown pitchers on the Astros right now and it’s safe to say Miller, Murphy or both played a role in their development. And then any Astros reliever who has been with the team in the last three seasons has spent a lot of time during games with Miller, who lefty reliever Blake Taylor described as “like the dad of the bullpen.”

“They’ve been behind the scenes and nobody’s really seen it (on the outside), but they’ve been around and they know what they’re doing,” Astros closer Ryan Pressly said of Miller and Murphy. “We still have all of the faith and trust in them. It’s just ‘pick up where we left off last year.'”

Strom was often lauded for his ability to wed the old school and the new school, to combine lessons from his experiences as a major-league pitcher with an open-mindedness to new ideas and the influx of data and technology in baseball. The Luhnow-era Astros aligned their minor-league pitcher development strategies with how Strom and their analysts approached pitching strategy in the majors, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Miller and Murphy try to coach with similar thought processes and objective reasoning.

Miller and Murphy are both fluent in the Astros’ way but differed in their backgrounds. Miller has the perspective of someone who has lived the life of a pitcher grinding through the minor leagues and independent ball for about a decade. Murphy didn’t play beyond college but is so adept at the new-age elements of the job that he is like a data/video analyst and coach in one.

“There’s a good complement there,” Miller said. “But I feel like we both have a good understanding of how to deal with people and a similar method of caring, being compassionate and taking all of that into the equation.”

GettyImages-1385851849-scaled.jpg
Josh Miller has worked for the Astros since 2011, has been a pitching coach in their system since 2013 and has been on their major-league coaching staff since 2019. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

Miller has worked for the Astros since 2011 (the final season of Ed Wade’s GM tenure) when he began his post-playing career as a pro scout. As a player, he topped out in Triple A. A native of Melbourne Beach, Fla., he was a 32nd-round draft pick of the Phillies in 2001 out of North Carolina State. Miller threw a ton of strikes but didn’t throw hard and lacked a major-league quality put-away pitch, which exposed the righty in the upper minors against left-handed batters. He was released by the Phillies in the spring of 2004. The Astros signed him out of the Atlantic League in 2005, and he remained with them in Double A and Triple A through 2008. Two more years of indy ball and even a stint in Taiwan followed before he called it quits.

Miller knew he wanted to stay in baseball. He did not know exactly in which capacity. He sent his resume to any decision-maker for whom he could find an email address in the hopes of landing a job with a team, be it in an office, as a scout, in coaching or whatever else was needed. His time with the Astros as a player gave him an in with them, and they were the first team to interview him. He took the scouting job and did it for two seasons before taking a pay cut to move to the coaching side.

“I liked pro scouting. I thought I was pretty good at it,” Miller said. “But I wanted to be more influential, more part of it. As a scout, you feel like you’re alone on an island.”

Beginning at rookie-level Greeneville in 2013, Miller coached his way through the minors. He grew as a coach as the Astros grew as an organization. His early years coincided with the beginning of the team’s foray into incorporating the likes of TrackMan data and Edgertronic high-speed video cameras into its player development processes, which is now commonplace.

Murphy’s introduction to analytics and technology in baseball came through his own research, which was then expanded when he joined the Astros. A native of Cranford, N.J., Murphy pitched at Rutgers, where he got his degree in psychology in three and a half years and played first base at Wagner College (N.Y.) for his final season of eligibility while working toward an MBA. Around this time, he also helped coach at his high school alma mater and realized coaching was the path he wanted to pursue when he was finished school. He coached in the Cal Ripken League, got a volunteer position at Georgetown and then landed an assistant coaching job at Brown. While at Brown, he stumbled upon a job posting by the Astros via Twitter. A fellow Brown assistant encouraged him to apply, and before he knew it he was hired.

Murphy shot through the Astros’ system after his 2016 season at Greeneville and his 2017 at short-season Tri-City. He moved up to be the pitching coach at Double-A Corpus Christi for 2018 before he was chosen to succeed Miller as the minor-league pitching coordinator in 2019 and then promoted to the majors in 2021. In explaining such a rapid rise, Miller said Murphy has “a super smart, genius-level understanding of things that we value and (is) a tireless worker that is willing to do whatever. He’s just a great person and he cares a ton and he knows his stuff.”

“There’s not a day that goes by that I take this for granted,” Murphy said. “I realize that this could end quicker than it ever started and you never get this opportunity again. When I first got the job with the Houston Astros in 2016, I never thought I’d coach in professional baseball, let alone be in the major leagues in this position.”

The Astros’ decision to have Murphy get his feet wet as the third pitching coach on the major-league staff last season looked prescient when Strom announced after the World Series he would not return, especially given how the lockout shut down offseason communications between players and coaches. Even with the disruptions caused by the labor spat and the shortened preparation time for the regular season, the day-to-day rhythms of Astros spring training have been largely consistent with past springs. Pitchers are on similar programs and have similar things communicated to them as before. The familiarity and pre-existing relationships between the pitchers, Miller and Murphy are why the transition has looked so seamless.

“They’re both incredibly prepared, borderline overprepared because they take a lot of pride in their job and they know obviously with Strommy gone there are some shoes to fill,” Stanek said. “I think if we’re going to lose somebody like Strommy, the best people to replace him are here.”

(Top photo of Bill Murphy, left, and Josh Miller watching pitcher Phil Maton: Jake Kaplan / The Athletic)

 

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