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2023 Official Astros World Champs Offseason Thread


tx 3 putt

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14 hours ago, UTexasFight said:

Lulz at the cheap pavilion being packed in an otherwise empty dome.

 

 

and the camera guy couldn’t shift slightly to the right to get Ryan centered between the American and Texas flag   /surly critique 

Some of my fondest childhood memories are from that pavilion with me and my brother in the front row trying to flick peanut shells across the gap and onto the field.

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Dusty called into  Bay Area sports radio to surprise Duane Kuiper, starts at 10:00

https://omny.fm/shows/murph-mac-podcast/1-11-duane-kuiper-reflects-on-brandon-belts-storie

It's mostly two old guys shooting it, but Dusty says he didn't like Bill Buckner in the minor leagues and told his teammates that if there ever were a fight, they were to leave Buckner for him.

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46 minutes ago, runthebone said:

 

Dusty called into  Bay Area sports radio to surprise Duane Kuiper, starts at 10:00

https://omny.fm/shows/murph-mac-podcast/1-11-duane-kuiper-reflects-on-brandon-belts-storie

It's mostly two old guys shooting it, but Dusty says he didn't like Bill Buckner in the minor leagues and told his teammates that if there ever were a fight, they were to leave Buckner for him.


dusty and Bochy are the last two old school managers. Love it !!

 

dusty told a minor league story about going to towns he’d never been to. He’d look for black names in the phone book, to get a ‘feel’ for the city. He gets to buffalo and ‘half the names didn’t even have vowels !’ He never left his room outside of games ha 

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56 minutes ago, runthebone said:

 

Dusty called into  Bay Area sports radio to surprise Duane Kuiper, starts at 10:00

https://omny.fm/shows/murph-mac-podcast/1-11-duane-kuiper-reflects-on-brandon-belts-storie

It's mostly two old guys shooting it, but Dusty says he didn't like Bill Buckner in the minor leagues and told his teammates that if there ever were a fight, they were to leave Buckner for him.


I don’t  like bill Buckner either !

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1 hour ago, Guadaloopy said:

Some of my fondest childhood memories are from that pavilion with me and my brother in the front row trying to flick peanut shells across the gap and onto the field.

 

I watched the playoff series vs the padres from the front row out there. A freaking buzz saw 

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1 hour ago, runthebone said:

 

Dusty called into  Bay Area sports radio to surprise Duane Kuiper, starts at 10:00

https://omny.fm/shows/murph-mac-podcast/1-11-duane-kuiper-reflects-on-brandon-belts-storie

It's mostly two old guys shooting it, but Dusty says he didn't like Bill Buckner in the minor leagues and told his teammates that if there ever were a fight, they were to leave Buckner for him.


damn good listen. Dusty talks a lot baseball - coaching, the bench coach, importance of winter ball, he’s a big fan of Mexican pitchers. All good stuff 

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1 hour ago, tx 3 putt said:


dusty and Bochy are the last two old school managers. Love it !!

 

dusty told a minor league story about going to towns he’d never been to. He’d look for black names in the phone book, to get a ‘feel’ for the city. He gets to buffalo and ‘half the names didn’t even have vowels !’ He never left his room outside of games ha 

Showalter doesn't qualify?

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Nelson Cruz just signed for 1M. He had eye surgery to correct a problem he’d had for a year. He’s historically dominated lefties. For 1M I’d have taken a flyer on him being a platoon partner for Brantley against LHP only, and a pinch hitter.  He’s probably washed at 42 but last year was his first ever bad year and it wasn’t THAT bad. 
julio Franco was effective until like 46 or something Like that. Maybe Cruz has a role he could still fill for a bit. 

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At 46 he had an overall OPS plus of 107 in 300 AB’s. 
As a 48 YO he was well below average overall but still had a 788 OPS against LHP. Fucking nuts man. What an incredible run as an old man. 
Nelson Cruz has had maybe the greatest post 37 year old hitting career of anyone not directly in the steroid era. He could have a bounce back year and if he doesn’t 1M is obviously nothing. 

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14 minutes ago, WBT said:

not a real closer

-surly

6 is probably about right. I argued his blown save percentage is a little high to be considered the elite of the elite but he’s just a slight notch below that. 6 sounds fine. I wouldn’t bat an eye at 8 or 5 but I don’t think he’s in danger of being considered the top relief pitcher in baseball. 
his best asset imo is consistency in an inconsistent role/world. It’s nice to be able to pencil in above average to all star level every year when it’s so volatile. 

Edited by Wulaw Horn
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46 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

 

I really wanted Griffen Canning in that draft. At least he has made it to the majors as an innings eater. Jeter Downs who got DFA'd recently was also a high pick in that draft.

46 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:
 
Edited by rvm96
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I think if I was trading a star I’d want a top 30 guy and then 2 or 3 or 4 young and at least average Major League guys that I knew were going to be ok or better. 
so, if I was trading a Juan Soto I’d want a package  of Hunter Brown, Chas, Jake and Urquidy from the Astros. Most would have scoffed at that package in the industry as “not enough upside” while they lauded the Padres package, but I would know I had a guy that could pitch 4 years for me in my starting rotation, at average quality, for cheap with no doubt at all about that, I’d figure I had at least one average Of for 5 years and that had an upside to maybe 2 average or 1 very good, and a chance at a top flight pitcher. That fills 4 roster spots at average quality for the league for cheap, and makes gives you 3 or 5 years to get it right. 

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14 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

Further proof that the "package of prospects for a star" trade is almost always worth it.  That price felt crazy steep at the time and now looks laughable.  

The following players were traded away by their original teams as prospects:

Yordan Alvarez

Dansby Swanson

Trea Turner 

Willy Adames

Sandy Alcantara

Dylan Cease

Joe Musgrove

Thats 4 of the top 30 position players in 2022 fwar and 3 of the top 30 pitchers that were traded away as prospects.  The Astros discussed Kyle Tucker in Chris Sale trades a few years back but luckily didn’t pull the trigger.  Those trades go both ways. Wrt to the Greinke trade specifically, the Diamondbacks have already gotten more out of Rojas than the Astros got out of Greinke in terms of surplus production value and they have him for 4 more years, not to mention Beer and Martin are still in their system.  

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6 minutes ago, Snake Diggity said:

The following players were traded away by their original teams as prospects:

Yordan Alvarez

Dansby Swanson

Trea Turner 

Willy Adames

Sandy Alcantara

Dylan Cease

Joe Musgrove

Thats 4 of the top 30 position players in 2022 fwar and 3 of the top 30 pitchers that were traded away as prospects.  The Astros discussed Kyle Tucker in Chris Sale trades a few years back but luckily didn’t pull the trigger.  Those trades go both ways. Wrt to the Greinke trade specifically, the Diamondbacks have already gotten more out of Rojas than the Astros got out of Greinke in terms of surplus production value and they have him for 4 more years, not to mention Beer and Martin are still in their system.  

Musgrove was the only one in a “package of prospects for a superstar” though, right?  

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7 minutes ago, Snake Diggity said:

The following players were traded away by their original teams as prospects:

Yordan Alvarez

Dansby Swanson

Trea Turner 

Willy Adames

Sandy Alcantara

Dylan Cease

Joe Musgrove

Thats 4 of the top 30 position players in 2022 fwar and 3 of the top 30 pitchers that were traded away as prospects.  The Astros discussed Kyle Tucker in Chris Sale trades a few years back but luckily didn’t pull the trigger.  Those trades go both ways. Wrt to the Greinke trade specifically, the Diamondbacks have already gotten more out of Rojas than the Astros got out of Greinke in terms of surplus production value and they have him for 4 more years, not to mention Beer and Martin are still in their system.  

So your argument against trading prospects is that one day, one of the numerous prospects involved in the trade MIGHT be included in 10% of the leagues best players?  I like my odds.  A simple reading of your post could conclude that your stance is "never trade prospects," if you are finding any similarity at all between the Yordan Alvarez and Trea Turner trades (despite neither being the type of deal mentioned in my post).

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13 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

So your argument against trading prospects is that one day, one of the numerous prospects involved in the trade MIGHT be included in 10% of the leagues best players?  I like my odds.  A simple reading of your post could conclude that your stance is "never trade prospects," if you are finding any similarity at all between the Yordan Alvarez and Trea Turner trades (despite neither being the type of deal mentioned in my post).

Nah.  I’m fine trading prospects for the right value.  I was only going against the idea that trading away prospects is “almost always” worth it.  It certainly can be worth it.  But as often as not teams get burned.  Like most other things in baseball it comes down to front office acumen and luck.

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Fangraphs at one point created percentile outcomes on their top prospects lists, basically probability tables for performance outcomes for individual prospects. I’m sure teams have similar methods of estimating future value, and baked into that is the possibility that some guys will never produce any value. The assumption is that their predictive/odds methodologies are sound, and that such a thing can even be reasonably predicted. (I think it can.) So it’s basically an odds assessment.

But yeah, deadline trades like the Bartolo Colon for Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips and Cliff Lee scared the piss out of a bunch of GMs for a long time. (As an aside, it’s a damn shame Sizemore couldn’t stay healthy - he was a tremendous player with HOF ability.)

Edited by Hank Chinaski
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4 minutes ago, Hank Chinaski said:

Fangraphs at one point created percentile outcomes on their top prospects lists, basically probability tables for performance outcomes for individual prospects. I’m sure teams have similar methods of estimating future value, and baked into that is the possibility that some guys will never produce any value. The assumption is that however they calculate their predictive models is sound, and that such a thing can be reasonably predicted. (I think it can.) So it’s basically an odds assessment.

But yeah, deadline trades like the Bartolo Colon for Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips and Cliff Lee scared the piss out of a bunch of GMs for a long time. (As an aside, it’s a damn shame Sizemore couldn’t stay healthy - he was a tremendous player with HOF ability.)

More recently the Chris Archer trade really fucked the Pirates.

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8 minutes ago, Snake Diggity said:

Nah.  I’m fine trading prospects for the right value.  I was only going against the idea that trading away prospects is “almost always” worth it.  It certainly can be worth it.  But as often as not teams get burned.  Like most other things in baseball it comes down to front office acumen and luck.

I think the key is being honest about who you are trading for.  Don't empty the chamber for Jose Quintana just because he happens to be the best available pitcher currently on the market.  But if you have a chance to acquire a legit star (anecdotally: Randy Johnson, Justin Verlander, Greinke, the rumored Bryce Harper deal) then I think that's the scenario where the packages are "almost always" worth it, at least in my eyes.

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