2023 Houston Astros Thread

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

Just now, Gut Wagon said:

Our guys were manly on the mound. Exactly what we needed tonight.

we needed a #1 tonight and we got it

 

[UTexasFight 9,450]

Great pitchers duel and all but one run in the game came as the result of home runs by the 9 hole hitters.

go figure 

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

Good for Jake, always liked him

 

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

Great news

 

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

Soon boys, soon ……

 

[runthebone 7,982]

3 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

Soon boys, soon ……

 

That's incredible!

 

 

 

I mean, he took two pitches.

[mbtex 683]

11 hours ago, UTPhil2006 said:

And then add today 

But they said He is the greatest player we will ever see.

[mbtex 683]

10 hours ago, uoftorange said:

I had to go look, because I remembered Abreu actually being exactly what we would want him to be in Spring Training.  And yep, he was really good.  I just don't get it.  It's not like he's missing 99 MPH fastballs, he's getting a steady diet of 93-95 and just can't hit it.  Not even good fastballs a lot of the time

 

Yuli was killing it in Spring Training last year also. 

[UTPhil2006 3,807]

8 hours ago, runthebone said:

That's incredible!

 

 

 

I mean, he took two pitches.

I'm in awe of the shorts

[Chuckie Finster 22,694]

On 5/9/2023 at 8:51 AM, Chuckie Finster said:

A bit of an unrelated point, but it's absolutely wild how terrible almost every ex-Astro is doing this season.

Aledmys Diaz: -1.0 WAR

Trey Mancini: -0.7

Tony Kemp: -0.5

George Springer: -0.5 

Yuli Gurriel: 0.0

Christian Vazquez: 0.1 

Carlos Correa: 0.2 

This got me curious so I looked at all (most?) of the names that were tied to us in the offseason:

Willson Contreras - 5 years/$87.5m - .266/.343/.395 WAR, 0.5 WAR

Brandon Nimmo - 8 years/$162m - .300/.400/.446, 1.4 WAR

Michael Conforto - 2 years/$36m - .168/.300/.297, -0.5 WAR

Andrew Benintendi - 5 years/$75m - .262/.314/.315, 0.0 WAR

Josh Bell - 2 years/$33m - 2 years/$40m - .222/.331/.365, 0.0 WAR

Anthony Rizzo - 2 years/$40m - .296, .385, .467, 1.2 WAR

Christian Vazquez - 3 years/$30m - .225/.303/.263, 0.0 WAR

Tucker Barnhart - 2 years/$6.5m - .182/.245/.205, -0.3 WAR

Yuli Gurriel - 1 year/$1.25m - .256/.295/.402, -0.1 WAR

Daulton Varsho - .240/.320/.411,  1.0 WAR (meanwhile the pieces Toronto gave up to get him, Lourdes Gurriel Jr and Gabriel Moreno, each have 0.9 WAR) 

Justin Verlander - 2 yrs/$87.7m - 5 IP, 0-1, 3.60 ERA, 0.1 WAR (immediately put on injured list, lost his only start of season)

----

Conclusion, that's a whole lot of suck.  The only dudes who unquestionably would have made us better to this point are Rizzo and Nimmo, and I'm not sure there's any way we would have been able to pry either of them from NY given the offers they received.  (And, while Nimmo would have been an upgrade in 2023, that contract has a chance to get real ugly by the end.)  And sure, we would also prefer Bell's numbers to what Abreu has been putting up, but we would still be bitching at the signing had we gone that route.  Also, all those weird rumors about how we didn't want to use Contreras at Catcher seem to be pretty prescient given the recent developments in St. Louis.

While our three big contracts (Montero, Abreu, Brantley) are looking like shit so far, that seems to be a theme for all the players on the market this past year.  Just a complete dud of an offseason.  (And this is not meant to be a defense of the front office, just a statement about the players who were available.)

Edited May 10, 2023 by Chuckie Finster

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

It was a shitty fa class. I had thought bell and Abreu would be good signings 

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

Slowing him down, not going to rush him back. Announcement this afternoon 

[David Dennison 18,860]

They seem to be OK with being a .500 team for the first quarter of the season. I wonder how long that lasts.

Edited May 10, 2023 by David Dennison

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

4 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

They seem to be OK with being a .500 team for the first quarter of the season. I wonder how long that lasts.

he said - stay .500 or better until we’re 100%, then make a run 

[Scraps 13,561]

.

[rvm96 1,643]

 

[Wulaw Horn 19,070]

2 hours ago, Chuckie Finster said:

This got me curious so I looked at all (most?) of the names that were tied to us in the offseason:

Willson Contreras - 5 years/$87.5m - .266/.343/.395 WAR, 0.5 WAR

Brandon Nimmo - 8 years/$162m - .300/.400/.446, 1.4 WAR

Michael Conforto - 2 years/$36m - .168/.300/.297, -0.5 WAR

Andrew Benintendi - 5 years/$75m - .262/.314/.315, 0.0 WAR

Josh Bell - 2 years/$33m - 2 years/$40m - .222/.331/.365, 0.0 WAR

Anthony Rizzo - 2 years/$40m - .296, .385, .467, 1.2 WAR

Christian Vazquez - 3 years/$30m - .225/.303/.263, 0.0 WAR

Tucker Barnhart - 2 years/$6.5m - .182/.245/.205, -0.3 WAR

Yuli Gurriel - 1 year/$1.25m - .256/.295/.402, -0.1 WAR

Daulton Varsho - .240/.320/.411,  1.0 WAR (meanwhile the pieces Toronto gave up to get him, Lourdes Gurriel Jr and Gabriel Moreno, each have 0.9 WAR) 

Justin Verlander - 2 yrs/$87.7m - 5 IP, 0-1, 3.60 ERA, 0.1 WAR (immediately put on injured list, lost his only start of season)

----

Conclusion, that's a whole lot of suck.  The only dudes who unquestionably would have made us better to this point are Rizzo and Nimmo, and I'm not sure there's any way we would have been able to pry either of them from NY given the offers they received.  (And, while Nimmo would have been an upgrade in 2023, that contract has a chance to get real ugly by the end.)  And sure, we would also prefer Bell's numbers to what Abreu has been putting up, but we would still be bitching at the signing had we gone that route.  Also, all those weird rumors about how we didn't want to use Contreras at Catcher seem to be pretty prescient given the recent developments in St. Louis.

While our three big contracts (Montero, Abreu, Brantley) are looking like shit so far, that seems to be a theme for all the players on the market this past year.  Just a complete dud of an offseason.  (And this is not meant to be a defense of the front office, just a statement about the players who were available.)

Really good work. 
We spent 44M and left 20 or 25m unspent- so that would have been 70M to spend more or less. I wanted to do the following:

abreu- 20m

contreras- 17m

Nimmo- 20M Or trade for Kris Bryant at 20M 

 

Let Montero, Brantley, Aledmis Diaz, Yuli, Maldy, Maton and Dubon go  

I’m a better GM than Bagwell.  It still would have been an off-season of suck.

Holy shit almost all the answers were wrong  damn.  

 

[Wulaw Horn 19,070]

15 minutes ago, rvm96 said:

 

Chandler looking better than McTaggert  on the face off yesterday. 

[Scraps 13,561]

Man there ain't shit wrong with this dude. He must have failed a drug test lol

[cabowabo 4,484]

Slowing him down, not going to rush him back. Announcement this afternoon 

I wish they'd tell us the truth. He missed a couple of weeks of spring training for a "family matter" or some such. I hope he's not hooked on meth or something.

[kevwun 15,789]

There's no getting around it being bad news that Brantley stopped swinging a bat.  He was playing for a week or 2 before that so something happened.

[Scraps 13,561]

I wish they'd tell us the truth. He missed a couple of weeks of spring training for a "family matter" or some such. I hope he's not hooked on meth or something.

Yes a meth drug test is even better rumor than just steroid drug test so I like that as well

[UTPhil2006 3,807]

He’s sat out 126 games counting last year. Not sure if relevant 

[UTPhil2006 3,807]

 

[UTexasFight 9,450]

1 minute ago, UTPhil2006 said:

 

Great .

so even when he’s “back”, back will mean playing once very week

[UTPhil2006 3,807]

The fuck are we doing to them in the minors 

[runthebone 7,982]

You want to lose 22-2 or 22-4?  You got major leaguers, you fucking get that RD down to -18.

[Scraps 13,561]

Man we got some pussies on this team 

[Murfdogg21 4,412]

1 hour ago, Scraps said:

Yes a meth drug test is even better rumor than just steroid drug test so I like that as well

Does a positive meth test void his contract and give us some flexibility to sign another shitty player?

[cabowabo 4,484]

44 minutes ago, UTPhil2006 said:

 

Lol.  They can't come up with something better than that??

[runthebone 7,982]

They need to keep these guys going like Jake Taylor.

[hornmpa96 2,618]

Take some fucking Advil and suit up

[rvm96 1,643]

Brian has hung out with Chandler too much.

 

[dr99 560]

Somebody must have taken the lineup card away from Dusty because there is two lefties in a row

Edited May 10, 2023 by dr99

[Scraps 13,561]

Yordan seems good at his job 

[uoftorange 1,386]

Maldanado already has a passed ball for the game.  Why can't he catch all of the sudden?

Good thing Javier is absolutely filthy so far today. 3 up, 3 Ks

 

[perfectchaos007 6,642]

Glad to see Abreu out of the lineup. Let the man rest as long as he wants 

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

Surly thread would have had dubon, brantley and chas running the stands this am, while using the PA system to yell at them to quit being pussies 

 

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

9 minutes ago, dr99 said:

Somebody must have taken the lineup card away from Dusty because there is two lefties in a row

Very limited bench today 

[Chuckie Finster 22,694]

 

Yeah, Chandler is definitely trying to become the next Drellich.

[uoftorange 1,386]

I'm pretty much done with Maldy as a catcher.  I was done with him being in the lineup last year.  But he just can't catch, and he gets these innings where the sequencing is fucked

[Honeysucklerose 990]

Ballgame

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

2 minutes ago, uoftorange said:

I'm pretty much done with Maldy as a catcher.  I was done with him being in the lineup last year.  But he just can't catch, and he gets these innings where the sequencing is fucked

hes hitting .250 in may 

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

7 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

 

 

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

6 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

hes hitting .250 in may 

[Scraps 13,561]

24 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

Surly thread would have had dubon, brantley and chas running the stands this am, while using the PA system to yell at them to quit being pussies 

 

Yet snowflakes don't allow it

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

4 minutes ago, Scraps said:

Yet snowflakes don't allow it

 

[WBT 20,572]

Looked safe

[tx 3 putt 76,958]

He’s safe 

[WBT 20,572]

Lulz, not even close