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2018-2019 Astros Offseason Thread

Planet Houston

By Planet Houston
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Planet Houston
Planet Houston

Well, it just wasn't in the cards this year.  A combination of great play by the BoSox, the injury bug, inopportune cold streaks and inability to put batters away with 2 outs resulted in an early exit

Seasick Sailor
Seasick Sailor

Thanks for the memories:

henrygandorf
henrygandorf

am i the only one having trouble understanding wtf this means?

Planet Houston

Planet Houston 4950

Posted
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Posted (edited)
6 minutes ago, ERhine said:


What kind of person has a kid’s party at the Menil?

It was a massive event put on by the Menil as their fall fundraiser. Really great for those with young kids, actually. 

https://www.menil.org/events/2606-who-r-u

One of my good buddy’s 6 year-old daughter went as Bregman. He’s winning at this dad thing.

 

Edited by Planet Houston
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Guadaloopy

Guadaloopy 11129

Posted
Posted

Marwin’s versatility is extremely valuable, but only to a team that is a serious near-term contender.  You can’t build a team around him, and non-contenders can get by with lower quality utility guys.  A contender should pay him, but only for their projected competitive window.  He needs to sign a 2 for 33-35 and then jump ship to another contender after that contract.   

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Hank Chinaski

Hank Chinaski 6348

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, tx 3 putt said:

100% down for bringing back all three, at a fair price 

Morton - yes; Marwin - yes, but I would be hesitant to give him more than 3 years - not sure if that would get it done. I don't see him as an everyday player. 

Keuchel - I assume you're looking at ~ $100M-$125M...that seems like a lot for a guy on the wrong side of 30 when you have Whitley, James, Valdez, Bukauskas waiting in the wings...

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Jshep34

Jshep34 2425

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, UTexasFight said:


And Game 5 ended at 12:38am one year ago today.
I drove back to Austin after that game, at work by 8:30 the next morning and on a flight to LA at 7am the morning after that for games 6 and 7.
Adrenaline is a helluva drug

e31c432a0eb2451e8d98deb5453303a6.jpg

You were on my video right after altuve's hr . Amazing seeing the excitement,  disbelief and happiness throughout the stadium 

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utxmike05

utxmike05 1833

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 10/29/2018 at 9:27 AM, Planet Houston said:

Game 5 was one year ago today.  That was fun.

Facebook also sent me a photo memory reminder of when I was at that game.  Best baseball game I have seen in person.

 

Just glad the Sox rolled the Dodgers.  Shows we were up against an unstoppable force.  Also that LA lost twice on their field.  

Edited by utxmike05
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runthebone

runthebone 8372

Posted
Posted
12 hours ago, UTexasFight said:


And Game 5 ended at 12:38am one year ago today.
I drove back to Austin after that game, at work by 8:30 the next morning and on a flight to LA at 7am the morning after that for games 6 and 7.
Adrenaline is a helluva drug

e31c432a0eb2451e8d98deb5453303a6.jpg

I was a couple of sections to your right.  It was totally worth rescheduling everything and going there last minute.

 

I think I'll watch it again tonight.

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Hank Chinaski

Hank Chinaski 6348

Posted
Posted

Free agency has (technically) started. Here are guys I'd guess we could have some degree of interest in:

C Yasmani Grandal - McCann is gone, Moldanado is a FA and not much of an offensive player. Stassi is probably a backup. Grandal would be a huge offensive upgrade (.241/.349/.466, 24 HR in 2018), is good defensively, and will be 30 all of next season. He'll be in demand, but we should be in the thick of this. 

C Wilson Ramos - He'd be an upgrade, though a lesser upgrade than Grandal. He's older (31) and not as good. Still, if we miss out on Grandal, Ramos makes some sense. He's coming off his best offensive year in 2018 (.306/.358/.487, 15 HR). 

CF AJ Pollock - On the fence here, but it makes some sense. First, he's a better defensive CF than Springer. And he can hit - .281/.338/.467 career, 113 wRC+. On the other hand, he's 31 and has trouble staying on the field. Plus, adding him would block Tucker, at least in some ways - you could find DH ABs for him, but is that what you want to do long-term? And then what do you do with Tyler White? I like the idea of upgrading the OF defense but I'm not sure this is the way to go. 

DH Nelson Cruz - This guy is old (38) but he can still hit: .256/.342/.509, 37 HR in 2018). If you could get him on a 2-year deal, I'd jump at it. This would be a massive upgrade over Gattis and I can't imagine that Cruz, at 38, would cost that much - he's limited to AL teams, and none of CLE (Encarnacion), NYY (abundance of position players) or BOS (Martinez) figure to sign a DH (OAK probably not either, LAA has Ohtani, who else would really go hard after Cruz?). 

RHP Charlie Morton - I would look to re-sign Morton, maybe to a 2-year deal if he'd take it. 

RHP Nathan Eovaldi - he could fill Keuchel's rotation spot at a lower cost. His price probably went up some, as he did well once getting to BOS, but he doesn't have that great of a track record. Still, he throws hard and has good stuff. Will be interesting to see how his market plays out. 

RHP Matt Harvey - He was once great with the Mets, then fell off completely. He was actually decent when he went to CIN last year (4.33 FIP in 130 IP). He'll be 30; if you get him at a low cost, he could be an inning-eater/lottery ticket. 

RHP Gio Gonzalez - Not what he once was, but a guy that shouldn't cost much in terms of dollars or years, still decent. 

RP Andrew Miller - Was the best reliever in baseball a couple of years ago, has had some injury concerns. A lefty, which we don't have in the pen. 

For me - I'd be comfortable with a rotation of Verlander/Cole/Morton and then some combo of Valdez/James/Whitley (when ready)/McHugh or Peacock (if needed)...in other words, we have some depth here at the back-end of the rotation; I could understand a wait-and-see approach entering the season rather than signing guys like Harvey or Gonzalez or Cahill. And, there could be a Morton type, whom the Astros staff have identified as a target based on something. But again, there is depth. 

I'd love to sign Grandal and Cruz. Maybe you get Grandal for 4 years/ $80M? There should be less competition for Cruz, so maybe you get him for 2 years/ $35M? 

At those prices, you don't really add that much to your payroll (Keuchel, McCann, Gattis, Marwin coming off the books), and you don't commit yourself to that many years. You also keep all your prospects. 

The way I see it - you have Verlander and Cole for one more year (so you want to hold onto Whitley and Bukauskas, etc). Your offensive core is all in place. Signing Grandal and Cruz would significantly upgrade your offense without costing prospects (future cheap labor) or that much money. And keeping Morton at a small raise stabilizes the rotation. 

Astros catchers in 2018: 86 wRC+

Grandal in 2018: 125 wRC+

Astros DHs in 2018: 115 wRC+

Cruz in 2018: 134 wRC+

There are other FAs that makes sense, but at first glance, this seems like an approach that would be reasonable in terms of cost, years, and current roster construction. 

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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9807

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Posted

Good post

 

How many teams have 0 regular LH starters?

 

I could see a push for Gio and him being a bit of a surprise after the Astros work their analytic/spin/ball doctoring magic. I’m really high on Eovaldi....even before his postseason.

 

Good points about Cruz and limited market. Would prefer another lefty but wouldn’t be disappointed in this

 

For what they would cost, give me Ramos all day at catcher

 

OF I don’t see how you do anything other than roll with Tucker, and if he has a 2017 Fisher-like first half (shudder) make a move at the deadline

 

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Hank Chinaski

Hank Chinaski 6348

Posted
Posted (edited)
9 minutes ago, UTexasFight said:

Good post

How many teams have 0 regular LH starters?

I could see a push for Gio and him being a bit of a surprise after the Astros work their analytic/spin/ball doctoring magic.

Good points about Cruz and limited market.

For what they would cost, give me Ramos all day at catcher

OF I don’t see how you do anything other than roll with Tucker, and if he has a 2017 Fisher-like first half (shudder) make a move at the deadline

Yup - Gio is a lefty, that was an error in my post. And to your point, he makes sense if/when Keuchel leaves. I imagine Valdez will get some starts in 2019 too. 

I'd be good with Ramos - in a vacuum I'd prefer Grandal, but yeah, the decision would have to factor in cost. 

Agree on the OF - I think the most likely scenario is going into the season with Springer-Reddick-Tucker. Best case scenario is that Tucker hits and we have our everyday LF for most of the next decade. I do worry a little about the OF defense with those 3, but probably not too big of a deal. 

Edited by Hank Chinaski
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Snake Diggity

Snake Diggity 4714

Posted
Posted

Sign Wilson Ramos $40M/3years

Sign Charlie Morton $34M/2years

Trade OF Yordan Alvarez,  RP Dean Deetz, OF Derek Fisher, and SP Framber Valdez for Marcus Stroman

Opening Day Roster:

CF Springer

3B Bregman

2B Altuve

SS Correa

C Ramos

1B Gurriel

LF Tucker

DH White

RF Reddick

bench: Stassi, Kemp, Marisnick

rotation: Verlander, Cole, Stroman, Morton, James

bullpen: McHugh, Peacock, Devenski, Harris, Smith, Rondon, Pressly, Osuna

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Hank Chinaski

Hank Chinaski 6348

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1 hour ago, Tommy Nobis said:

Don’t want any of the catchers listed above. Go trade for Realmuto. He wants out of Miami and is under team control for 2 more years. Arbitration eligible in 19 and 20

What are you willing to give up for him? Tucker and Whitley seem to be pretty important to the present at this point, I can't see parting with them...though if I squint I could see a scenario that has us including Tucker in a deal for Realmuto and signing a guy like Pollock or something. But 2 years of Realmuto for 7 years of Tucker? That's a steep price. Maybe you can structure a deal around Alvarez, throw in guys like Fisher who could play for Miami now during their rebuild, and maybe a couple of talented lower-level guys...

Obviously I'd love to have Realmuto, but I'd prefer to keep the prospects and sign Grandal, I think (depends on how much YG costs, what prospects involved in a Realmuto trade, etc.). There isn't much of an offensive difference between them (126 wRC+ for Realmuto, 125 wRC+ for Grandal) and both rate similarly well defensively (though these metrics aren't super-reliable). More money would be allocated to Grandal. 

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Mitch Hedberg

Mitch Hedberg 2117

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Somebody who knows more about 40 man roster and Rule 5 draft and such can probably shed some light on this, but it seems to me we may NEED to trade some guys on the 40 man to protect some of our better prospects.  We have guys that are blocked or out of options that need to be gone. I think we will see a trade offer made for Realmuto that makes sense for both teams. Now if it's good enough is another question.

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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9807

Posted
Posted
Somebody who knows more about 40 man roster and Rule 5 draft and such can probably shed some light on this, but it seems to me we may NEED to trade some guys on the 40 man to protect some of our better prospects.  We have guys that are blocked or out of options that need to be gone. I think we will see a trade offer made for Realmuto that makes sense for both teams. Now if it's good enough is another question.

Yeah this bears watching
We’re going to lose some names we’d prefer not to absent some trades.
Deadline to solidify the 40 man before the Rule 5 draft will happen around the week of thanksgiving so not a lot of time
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Hank Chinaski

Hank Chinaski 6348

Posted
Posted

Fangraphs' prospect guy in chat today...

12:34

Randy: If were Miami would you accept either/both or neither of these trade packages for Realmuto:  (a) K. Tucker, Cionel Perez and Max Stassi / (b) Bukauskus, C. Perez, Freudis Nova and Max Stassi

 
12:35

Kiley McDaniel: Can’t imagine HOU would offer Tucker but I think A would get you very close

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Snake Diggity

Snake Diggity 4714

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Mitch Hedberg said:

Somebody who knows more about 40 man roster and Rule 5 draft and such can probably shed some light on this, but it seems to me we may NEED to trade some guys on the 40 man to protect some of our better prospects.  We have guys that are blocked or out of options that need to be gone. I think we will see a trade offer made for Realmuto that makes sense for both teams. Now if it's good enough is another question.

This year isn’t as bad as the last few in terms of Rule 5 risk.  Here’s who’s eligible:

Must protect or trade: C Garrett Stubbs, RHP Trent Thornton, RHP Rogelio Armenteros

Probably should protect: SS Jonathan Arauz, RHP Riley Ferrell, RHP Bryan Abreu 

Also eligible: OF Drew Ferguson, RHP Brock Dykxhoorn, RHP Akeem Bostick, RHP Justin Ferrell, RHP Brendan McCurry, RHP Cy Sneed, others

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Hank Chinaski

Hank Chinaski 6348

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Posted
12 hours ago, Snake Diggity said:

This year isn’t as bad as the last few in terms of Rule 5 risk.  Here’s who’s eligible:

Must protect or trade: C Garrett Stubbs, RHP Trent Thornton, RHP Rogelio Armenteros

Probably should protect: SS Jonathan Arauz, RHP Riley Ferrell, RHP Bryan Abreu 

Also eligible: OF Drew Ferguson, RHP Brock Dykxhoorn, RHP Akeem Bostick, RHP Justin Ferrell, RHP Brendan McCurry, RHP Cy Sneed, others

Here is a good site for tracking roster stuff, R5 stuff, etc...

https://www.rosterresource.com/mlb-houston-astros/

 

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Dutchrudder

Dutchrudder 11240

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, UTexasFight said:

It’s officially November 1.
Happy World Series Anniversary, boys
 

lol, that video is great. Once the bat cracks that ball...

Oh no! no. No. No! NO!!!!

No!!  No!

OH YEAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!

It's like an orange Koolaide man ruining a bunch of Dodgers fan's night. Just greatness. 

 

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