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If you're in charge, do you let Gerrit Cole walk or pay him?

Discussion in 'Houston Astros' started by Marteen, Sep 18, 2019.

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Do you let Gerrit Cole walk or pay him?

Poll closed Sep 30, 2019.
  1. Pay the man.

    91.9%
  2. Let him walk.

    8.1%
  1. bobrek

    bobrek Politics belong in the D & D

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    Not being snarky, but is there a benefit to the Astros on front loading rather than back loading the contract?
     
  2. Snake Diggit

    Snake Diggit Member

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    No. Front loading prior to the opt out is how you get Cole to sign it and likely only have him on the payroll for 2 years. For Cole, it’s really like signing a $90M/2yr deal with a $160M/6yr player option tacked on.
     
  3. Wulaw Horn

    Wulaw Horn Member

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    OK- so if he gets an offer like that- does the Astros luxury tax payroll only count as $30,000,000 for him?

    I'm fine with a 2 year, $90,000,000 deal I guess, essentially is what you are saying. I'd guess that leads to total and complete anarchy after 2021 where you'd have what- Altuve, Bregman, Yordan, Whitley & Tucker as the only guys signed with any star potential, but that would be what- $55,000,000 in salary for 25 or 30 WAR?

    Thinking. Thinking. Thinking. That's actually not bad as a core of a team. 2021 you'd have to piece together some OF help but you'd have the starting pitching and infield to win big.

    Of course, if healthy, that makes 2020 maybe the greatest team ever assembled if Whitley and Tucker are any good (like 3 or 4 WAR types)?
     
  4. LonghornFan

    LonghornFan Contributing Member

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    Yeah, and I'd like that in the 2 hole with an extra at bat if possible as our #2 right now seems to have been in a month long slump. Dont lump me in with that Hinch ****.
     
  5. bobrek

    bobrek Politics belong in the D & D

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    Clearly Hinch prefers Bregman batting clean up where he has been one of the absolute best hitters in the major leagues.

    Bregman has slashed .265/.411/.508/.919 batting second in a similar amount of at bats.
     
  6. Wulaw Horn

    Wulaw Horn Member

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    In my opinion that’s nothing more than trivia, there’s no causation there.
    I don’t care where Bregman hits (within reason) but ideal lineup construction says best hitter on the team hits second, for what it’s worth (second best hitter hitting 4th btw).
     
    snowconeman22 and LonghornFan like this.
  7. LonghornFan

    LonghornFan Contributing Member

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    Marteen likes this.
  8. Redfish81

    Redfish81 Member

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    Trade Brantley, Reddick, and Greinke

    resign Cole
    trade for Trey Mancini (Astros tried to get him at the deadline)
    resign Chirinos and Maldonado
    resign will Harris
    sign a Miley type

    CF Springer
    2B Altuve
    3B Bregman
    DH Alvarez
    LF Mancini
    1B Gurriel
    SS Correa
    RF Tucker
    C Chirinos


    Maldonado
    Marisnick
    Diaz
    Straw

    Verlander
    Cole
    McCullers
    Urquidy
    Free agent/ Whitley

    Osuna
    Pressly
    Harris
    James
    Abreu
    Peacock
    Biagini
    Devenski
     
    donkeypunch likes this.
  9. mikol13

    mikol13 Protector of the Realm
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    Uh...yeah... I mean, the talk was always west coast, but to have Astros players saying this pretty much sucks.
     
    Snake Diggit likes this.
  10. mikol13

    mikol13 Protector of the Realm
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    More and more signs that the team knows he’s gone.

    All the more reason to win it all this year.

     
    Marteen likes this.
  11. DaDakota

    DaDakota If you want to know, just ask!

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    If you want to win, YOU PAY HIM and keep him here.

    DD
     
    everyday eddie likes this.
  12. Major

    Major Member

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    I'm sure people said the same thing about the Nationals and Bryce Harper.
     
    Snake Diggit likes this.
  13. Newlin

    Newlin Member

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    Cole is the one in charge.
     
  14. Buck Turgidson

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    If I'm in charge I let him pitch today.
     
    Marteen and mikol13 like this.
  15. J.R.

    J.R. Member

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    [...]

    Across MLB this summer, increasingly, the favorite parlor game was: Name Gerrit Cole's Price. The buzz even permeated the Astros' own clubhouse.

    "All the time," outfielder Josh Reddick says. "All the time. I think everybody's looking at that across baseball. [Bryce] Harper money? [Manny] Machado money? It's going to be interesting.

    "Hopefully he's out of our division."

    Reddick isn't alone among the Astros who catch themselves sometimes speaking of Cole in past tense.

    "I love playing with Gerrit," outfielder George Springer says. "We'll see what happens, but it's been an honor to play with him.

    "The way he competes on and off the field, the way he goes about it, is extremely professional. I love the guy."

    Cole is poised for a record-setting deal for a starting pitcher, in all likelihood blowing past the seven-year, $217 million deal David Price signed with Boston in December 2015. Cole (29) is even younger now than Price was then, when he signed the deal entering his age-30 season. Also, Cole is on a historic run.

    "I think he should make more," Reddick says. "That's not a knock on David, he's been a great pitcher for a long time. But you get paid on what you've done recently, and [Cole's] been leaps and bounds better than anyone else."

    Though Cole consistently declines to look beyond his next start, it's a poorly held secret among his current teammates that, as Reddick openly admits, "We know he wants to be a West Coast guy."

    Indeed, he grew up in Orange County, attended UCLA and maintains strong West Coast roots. He and San Francisco Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford are brothers-in-law.

    The Giants know the importance of starting pitching, having ridden Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Madison Bumgarner to three World Series titles earlier this decade. They also know the importance of box-office stars to attendance, having watched Barry Bonds fuel sellouts before that. Still, they may not have the inside track to get him.

    That would belong to his hometown Los Angeles Angels, who have a desperate need for starting pitching, an ongoing frustration that they can't deliver Mike Trout into the playoffs and an emotional owner with a history of spending big when stymied (Vladimir Guerrero, Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton, C.J. Wilson).

    There will, of course, be other suitors. San Diego would love to lure a bona fide ace to give Fernando Tatis Jr., Machado, Eric Hosmer and the game's top-ranked farm system a boost toward contention. And the Los Angeles Dodgers? They have not spent big to acquire any top free agents since Andrew Friedman took over as president of baseball operations, but as their World Series drought leaks toward a fourth decade, it has to be tempting to consider a rotation that could include Cole, Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw and more.

    But there also is one conspicuous franchise on the other side of the Continental Divide that easily has the resources to spring for a record-setting contract and has been keenly interested in Cole since he was a teenager.

    And that's what adds one more delicious layer of intrigue to his Game 3 start in Yankee Stadium.

    The Yankees picked Cole—a huge fan of the franchise as a kid who attended Game 7 of the 2001 World Series with his father—toward the end of the first round (28th overall) after his senior year of high school in the 2008 draft.

    "They were at one game [in high school] and I took a no-hitter into the last inning," Cole recalls. "And Shane Boras, Scott's son, broke the no-hitter with an opposite-field hit. They were really impressed with that game. It was one of the better games I threw in high school. I remember they expressed some interest in me."

    But with an offer from UCLA, Cole and his father crunched numbers from every angle, determined the financial value of a UCLA education, gauged what the late-first-round money was and decided to bet on his future. No thanks, they told Yankees scouting director Damon Oppenheimer and general manager Brian Cashman, informing them that Gerrit would honor his commitment to the Bruins.

    "In typical Yankee fashion, you can't really handle it much classier than they did," says Cole, who retains Scott Boras as his agent. "Damon kept in touch with both me and my father, and so did Cash as college went on."

    [...]
     
    Marteen likes this.
  16. donkeypunch

    donkeypunch Contributing Member

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    Were there reports of this? I would love this move. I was waiting for him to be traded at the deadline for fantasy purposes and he never did, but such a good underrated player that plays multiple positions.
     
    everyday eddie likes this.
  17. Snake Diggit

    Snake Diggit Member

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    Realistically there’s <5% chance Houston is able to resign Cole.
     
    thesonofsam likes this.
  18. Redfish81

    Redfish81 Member

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  19. Elienator

    Elienator Member

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    So you’re saying there’s a chance?
     
  20. sealclubber1016

    Supporting Member

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