Hader hurt because we ended up being the exact player we needed, and without him had to trade for Giles, Osuna, & Pressley. Also sucked that Gomez was terrible and Fiers was a rat, but we did win the world series a couple years later. JD will always anger me because we didn't have to release him. He supposedly had worked to fix his swing in the offseason, and we barely played him in the Spring, and rather than sending him to AAA we just cut him. Clifford has actually surprised me so far. I thought he would struggle, but he's excelled so far. I like his ceiling a little more, but wouldn't shock me if his MLB career is disappointing. Gilbert I view a lot like I did Bregman. Not expecting the superstar version of Bregman, but the Bregman of the last 4 years is the kind of player I see. I like him over Brett Phillips (who strangely enough I see more similar to Clifford as a prospect). The good news is that Maldy is the only position player that is a FA (not including Brantley who hasn't been around anyhow), so we've got some time to find new guys.
I've been thinking about the fact that the Astros did not bring in a LH bat. As long as everyone stays healthy, it's probably for the best. With a playoff rotation of Framber, JV, Javier, and Brown/France then Maldy starts 3 of 4 games. That works out to be even higher, as much as 16 of 19 games, since each series resets the rotation. That means that Diaz will be needed to DH with Yordan in LF most playoff games. I fully expect the Astros to carry 3 catchers when and if they make it.
I've read AstroBall & I know the story - the Astros releasing anybody that wasn't a literal corpse in 2014 doesn't make a ton of sense. But... JDM got nearly 1000 PAs with the Astros. He declined every single season, and was well below-average when they released him. Sure, Porter should've given him a look - but even a productive ST isn't really indicative of anything. JDM is just one of those unfortunate stories where no one is really at fault.
-- roughly around the 10 minute mark: According to Ben Verlander, Dodgers were not desirable because their spring training facility was not in Florida and logistically he wanted to stay close to his home there especially with a family and young kid. He says that is something that is important to his brother. And travelling cross-country for spring training and the season was not something that he wanted to do. Ben speculates that is why Eduardo Rodriguez vetoed the trade to LA despite being a contender.
Nothing regarding the Astros in that video. Lovely. Love that they spent half the time on just one team, the Dodgers. Hard pass on these guys.
I’ve been thinking about this and I realized that JV leaving just never felt right, and I have a feeling that both the Astros and JV felt the same way. Sure, he went for the money, which I can’t blame him for, Houston is not a sexy city and his wife probably prefers NYC to live in, but overall this trade just seems like it’s correcting an anomaly in the force and everything is back to the way it should be.
I don’t get the push for a LH bat. Unless they are to replace Maldy.. anyone good enough will cause too much stress for dusty because he only has so many top 4 spots in the lineup and you can’t possibly fit more than 2 LH batters in that top 4 because they need to be alternated with RH batters or else the baseball world as we know it would turn on its head! Brantley could come back tomorrow and he would have to bat 7th because-dusty.
I'm curious to know if the fans that hated trading Gilbert or Clifford away would have rather traded one of them and Chas instead? Personally, I like the trade, not only does it give the rotation a physical boost, it also gives them a boost mentally and takes pressure off of them.
They need to hang up their fandom if they ever thought about including Chas with one of them. Maybe, I pull the trigger on Chas for Verlander straight up. Other than that, Brown being committed to keeping the ML roster in tact was huge.
That's like trading Chas for 2 prospects. Not with the number years of control and the way he has developed. Only way we trade Chas is for a young all star type player with similar control. Someone like Robert or Cease.
Chas contract runs 4 years and Verlander 3 years. Unless the Astros are getting a team friendly deal from Chas, he's probably gone too. Just a matter of how important getting an elite SP with history in Houston vs losing a bat. I'm happy the Astros kept Chas and opted to trade prospects who were blocked from making important AB's. There's a chance Gilbert makes the Mets opening day roster next year and then fans can play the what-if game. If Verlander get's the Astros one more ring to complete the dynasty, it'll be worth it. EDIT: Getting B2B rings would be icing on the cake and we should cherish that moment if it happens. There's a chance us fans never see anything like it in Houston again - in our lifetimes. Verlander 300 wins is on the horizon if he keeps up this godly pace for a few more seasons.
The bottom line is: Maldy, Abreu, Altuve, Bregman, Pena, Yordan, Chas, and Tucker will play almost everyday regardless. Now vs LHP this isn't a problem because 1) Maldy actually has 102 and Pena 122 wRC+, against them leaving your lineup with only Alex who can't hit LHP for some reason (54). Furthermore, Meyers (135) or Dubon (124) can fill that 9th spot and the lineup is very strong. Vs RHP this is an issue because Pena (74), and Maldy (32) are weak vs RHP and Bregman is the only 1 of the 8 better vs RHP. Adding another weak bat makes 33% of the lineup well below MLB average Complicating things is the fact that only Diaz (144) is a good hitter vs RHP on the bench. Dubon (67), Meyers (85), and Julks (88) should remain on the bench. With Maldy catching so much this isn't an issue- just DH Diaz vs RHP. But the most potent lineup would have been catching Diaz vs RHP and adding another bat specifically for that purpose. And that's exactly why Brown brought up Madris but he failed. I also could see them trying again with Dirden, Singleton, Matijevic or someone else specifically because it is a weakness.
Definitely true that he had his chance. If we had DFA'd him because we needed his roster spot, I would have understood. In my mind I like to think he would have never succeeded in Houston, but I really liked him. With the trade market being absent good bats, there was no need. The only position players that got moved that would have likely helped were either utility guys to shore up the bench or would have been primarily DH for us (Candelario, Bell, Choi, or Cron if LHB specific, Pham if you include a RHB). Given the lack of defensive value in all of those guys, I don't think good value was there. I would have loved to pick up a utility guy for the bench like Dejong more than any of the bats out there. The one exception would have been if the team was committed to Diaz as the everyday catcher and Yordan/Chaz/Tucker OF. Then I'd be like yeah we can really improve the DH spot, but that clearly wasn't going to happen.
