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2019 Houston Astros Thread


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49 minutes ago, Pods said:

Tyler White's parents got into it with some fans last night that were complaining about Tyler's weight. The dad apparently was saying he's hitting well and started spouting off stats. Don't know how you defend his hitting when his average is less than he weighs, but his dad gave it a go. 

For those wondering, his dad is fat, but mom isn't. 

It wasn't me

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Yep.  Put Kemper out there and call it good.

 

CSB...just bought travel for Aug 9-11 weekend in Baltimore.    The O's may suck,  but I get to see the Astros in Camden Yards with my 20 Y.O. son stationed nearby in the Navy.

 

Can't wait!!!   Hopefully all of our Astros aren't on the f'ing DL by then...

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Yep.  Put Kemper out there and call it good.
 
CSB...just bought travel for Aug 9-11 weekend in Baltimore.    The O's may suck,  but I get to see the Astros in Camden Yards with my 20 Y.O. son stationed nearby in the Navy.
 
Can't wait!!!   Hopefully all of our Astros aren't on the f'ing DL by then...
Come say hi to us. We will be there. Friday and Saturday.
Thank you to your son for his service our country

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

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10 minutes ago, Jshep34 said:

Come say hi to us. We will be there. Friday and Saturday.
Thank you to your son for his service our country

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk
 

I owe you a beer or eight...  you hooked us up with tix last year.

I do not forget these things.  LOLz.  

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anyone see the stat showing all the top teams vs .500+ and .500- teams?  
minny/nyy were 8-8 and boston was 9-13.
we're 23-15, which means we've already played 38 games vs teams over .500 vs minny/nyy playing 16.  boston 22.
yay cubs series starts tomorrow.  we need to get healthy and start playing some shitty teams.

Similar schedule setup last year
We played a boatload of good teams in April and May.

I kinda wish we’d play them in August when this team goes in hiding for 3 weeks.
Would make the losses more palatable when it’s against the top of the league instead of the worst.

But on the bright side 55% of our remaining games (after the Cubs series) are against the AL West.
I think we’d win 90 with half of the current Express lineup playing in Houston (which, to be fair, may actually be put to the test
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6 hours ago, UTexasFight said:


Similar schedule setup last year
We played a boatload of good teams in April and May.

I kinda wish we’d play them in August when this team goes in hiding for 3 weeks.
Would make the losses more palatable when it’s against the top of the league instead of the worst.

But on the bright side 55% of our remaining games (after the Cubs series) are against the AL West.
I think we’d win 90 with half of the current Express lineup playing in Houston (which, to be fair, may actually be put to the test

Houston's biggest test right now is running to first...

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Kaplan breaking down super 2/ service time and why we won’t see Alvarez or Tucker for at least another week or two.

I think most on here realize it, but with Alvarez it’s not about losing an extra year of control, it’s about how much more you’ll pay him (for 4 years of the arb process instead of 3).

With Tucker, it is about losing and extra year of control which I didn’t realize (calling him before June 2 and never sending him back down means he’d be a FA after 2024 instead of 2025).

 

 

 

 

But Saturday’s roster move validated the belief that Alvarez was never going to debut before June, regardless of how many home runs he hit in Triple A. Without saying it, the Astros acknowledged as much by calling up Fisher ahead of him.

 

There is no performance-based argument for Fisher to be called up ahead of Alvarez, only ones related to service time and cost-saving. By delaying the start of Alvarez’s service time clock and ensuring he won’t qualify for the Super Two designation during the 2021-22 offseason, the Astros stand to save a few million dollars down the road.

 

Under the current collective bargaining agreement, which is set to expire Dec. 1, 2021, players qualify for Super Two status when they rank among the top 22 percent in service time among the group of players who have between two and three years of service. A major-league year is composed of 187 days, but 172 days equates to a full year of service.

 

Most players become eligible to enter the salary arbitration process after they reach three years of service time. The Super Two designation allows players to reach it a year early, giving them four go-arounds through the salary arbitration process as opposed to the usual three. It doesn’t change the number of years the team has the player, only how much it pays him in those years.

 

The Super Two cutoff in a given year isn’t determined until after the fact, but it’s generally in early June, around the time of the annual amateur draft. You might recall, for example, that Correa made his major-league debut on the same night the Astros drafted Bregman. It’s not a coincidence that June is a popular time for teams to call up touted prospects.

 

Springer, Marisnick and Lance McCullers Jr. are recent Astros who qualified for Super Two. Correa, conversely, played 3 1/2 seasons before he reached arbitration for the first time last winter. The Astros paid him a salary of $1 million in 2018 rather than the minimum of $545,000, but he would’ve made millions more if he had gone through arbitration while coming off his 2017 All-Star campaign.

 

If Alvarez debuts this season and never returns to the minors, the Astros will have him under team control through the 2025 season. That would be the case whether he debuted May 25 or June 25. The holdup is a matter of whether he will be arbitration eligible for a first time the offseason before the 2022 season or the offseason before the 2023 season. No one can know for certain that Super Two will even exist by then, but front offices will continue to operate under the current rules until circumstances dictate otherwise.

 

That Alvarez isn’t yet on the Astros’ 40-man roster is irrelevant. They have an open 40-man roster spot and could select his contract from Triple A if they wished. Even if their roster was full, they could transfer McCullers to the 60-day IL to clear a spot. The opening is there, both on the 40-man and in the lineup. Springer has accounted for 10 starts and 43 plate appearances at the DH position in the team’s first 52 games. Those reps should now open up for at least the next few weeks.

 

Alvarez isn’t the only player with a claim to have been promoted over Fisher. After struggling early in the Triple-A season, Tucker has slugged at even a higher clip than Alvarez recently. Overall, Tucker came into Saturday batting .266/.345/.614 in 179 plate appearances. In May, he’s batting .364/.462/.831 with nine of his 14 homers.

 

But there’s a twist here, as well. The Astros actually stand to benefit more down the road by keeping Tucker in Triple A than they do with Alvarez. By waiting until June 2 or later to promote Tucker, they ensure he will be under team control through the 2025 season. If he came up before June 2 and never returned to the minors, he would have the six years of service time necessary to become a free agent after the 2024 season because of the 51 days he accrued last year.

 

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