Playoff failures? LOL We have been the most successful playoff franchise in baseball since what, probably the Yankees of the 50's What would lead to failure would be giving out a horrendous contract to one of the guys left out there just so we could move up from the 5th highest payroll in baseball into the top 2-3 to please a small segment of the fan base lol
The list of teams who will be in on Bregman isn't very long, which is what will work against him getting over 300 Million. He is way better and will get way more than what most on this board think he will. But the RSN stuff has taken a few teams who have spent big and made them rethink things, and just taking a few teams out of the mix can really affect the number cause these guys need a bit of a bidding war You can take out these teams because of the money Tampa Minnesota Cleveland Detroit KC CWS Seattle Oakland Miami Washington Milwaukee Pittsburgh Colorado Then you can take out these teams cause they in no way are in need of a 3B Baltimore Boston Texas Atlanta Philly NYM Cincy Chicago St. Louis SD So that leaves Toronto, NYY, LAA, LAD, Arizona and SF as our competitors for him Now I know players almost always are willing to just take the biggest offer and go with it. Alex is a bit of a different dude though, i'd be really surprised if he told Boras to make a deal with NYY or LAD. I also listed LAA as a potential candidate, but with the ownership tinkering with selling and already having a huge contract at 3B (even though it's an AWFUL one) I doubt they get into it Toronto, Arizona and SF will likely be the 3 teams legitimately in on Alex So IF we are willing to go, say 7 years and 210 Million, will any of those 3 offer enough over that to make him walk? Arizona has a club option on Suarez and unless he has a huge year, I would guess they will be the ones to offer something larger and make Alex make a decision. If we win it all this year, maybe, hopefully, that will be enough to make Alex say 210 is plenty, let's Fkn go!
I would love to hear who this "Safe" player you want to offer a contract to? Who is the guy who is safe and clearly makes us better?
There are several plus bats that are still available, what I've advocated is seeing if one of them could be signed to a large one year contract, be it Soler, Martinez, or Bellinger. It's clear less than 2 weeks away from spring training they didn't find the offers in FA they wanted, so see if they would sign a large one year deal to chase a ring and see if they can get a better offer next offseason coming off that championship run which would give them more visibility possibly leading to better offers.
I'm not saying they did anything against the CBA or rules of baseball, but whether it was ethical is a complete different and reasonable debate. I think the keeping him in the minors after everyone knowing that he would be in the bigs if he had signed the deal was the issue.
You can definitely scratch Bellinger off of the one year list, he hasn't received what he wants but he has had multi-year offers already The Martinez thing is just crazy to me. There is more to the game than simply hitting. He is a major liability in the field AND LF is the only option if he were to play the field again. That is also the only option for Yordan. Yordan has a history of lower extremity injuries already, so like the earlier post saying JD could DH for 100 games that would be a killer for Yordan. It simply doesn't add up Soler is another guy with similar defensive issues, a history of injuries, and inconsistency. Great last year, but sub 700 OPS year before while missing over half the year. He also is a guy who rips LHP which isn't where our need is. We have plenty of guys who do that. Hell as much as you seem to hate Meyers, he is an 800 OPS guy vs LHP. If we were going to take on a defensive liability and force Yordan onto the field more and risk injuries there, it better be for someone who rips RHP
If that was what the rules were, and what the MLBPA agreed to, how is it unethical? Springer didn't like it, no doubt about that. But giving players more money just because you don't think the rules that were agreed to are fair certainly isn't a smart business plan
Sure there's more to the game than just hitting, but my concern is that while everyone expects every player to be awesome next season, what if the optimistic scenario doesn't play out? What if we end up with Pena, Abreu, and Meyers in the lineup consistently all at or below .700 OPS? Then you run into a LOT of games where the team simply doesn't have enough firepower to score enough runs to win games. You can go on and on about how great the defense would be, but at the end of the day, if you can't score, you can't win. I guess in the end, I don't think Yordan is quite as fragile as you seem to, and I tend to think that SIGNIFICANTLY better hitters make up for defensive lapses in the long run. I don't want the Astros to end up with an Adam Everett, Brad Ausmus, pitcher slot type scenario at the end of their lineup and IMO there's a valid chance that could happen unless the team adds a bat.
I’m probably being way too optimistic, but I have a feeling that a deal will get done with Bregman. I believe he wants to be here, and he has gone on record that he would like to spend his career playing with Altuve. The hang up will be the years. At the end of the day, both sides will have to play ball. Altuve wanted to make it happen. I have no clue what other teams need a 3B come next season, but I consider Bregman as one of the cornerstones.
Oh, I'm sorry, was that over your head? I was saying that I don't want 3 terrible hitters at the end of the lineup similar to what the team had once upon a time. I'll make sure to spell things out for you in as simple terms as possible in the future.
I don’t know that you can scratch rattle off the won’t spend money list- they have a market that has underperformed because their team has been awful but like Houston- they could act like the smallest big money team out there or the biggest small money team out there- I could see them carrying a 225-250 million payroll if the club is good enough and it excites the fanbase. Thats a pretty passionate group up there and they have big corporate money to take down suites and the like if it becomes a thing to do. Thats a minor quibble for an otherwise outstanding post. I would expect Bregman to maybe sign with San Francisco or Arizona- and my money is actually on Arizona. He just bought a house there- he’s from NM. That’s a great yard for hitters and he probably wants to become a HOF guy (our recent breathing orange fire podcast when we talked HoF2 we had him at about 25% chance- his numbers are all good enough right now- he just needs to be this productive until 35 or so and then playable for another 3 or 4 years) and AZ helps that more than SF. he’s not taking a 5 year deal which still seems to be Cranes FA line in the sand (yordans 6 doesn’t count because there were some arbitration years in there) and absent that I can’t see anything happening to get done with us, but I can wait and see and hope like all the rest.
I want Yordan to learn 1B and play at 1B more. His knees buckled at the warning track. Almost Yordan Alvarez was out for the season, he was lucky. Yordan missed a month after that.
He is the straw that stirs the 2024 Astros drink. He is beast mode and that contract year is gonna be historic. Gooooo!
It's pretty naive to think Bregman won't have a 10 yr offer from somebody. 2023: Yamamoto 12 yrs Ohtani 10 yrs So far 2022 Machado 11 yrs Devers 11 yrs Bogaerts 11 yrs Turner 11 yrs 2021 Lindor 10 yrs Seager 10 yrs 2020 Betts 12 yrs Trout 10 yrs 2019 Harper 13 yrs Machado 10 yrs Bregman is in top top 8 all time in post season Runs, HR, and RBI and has a career .790 OPS in the postseason. Has Averaged 5.9 bWAR per 162 games and is coming off the 3rd best season of his career. No chance he isn't offered 10 yrs by someone.
I wouldn't say significantly better. Chapman has more power and is a much better baserunner. Their walk rate's are closer, though Bregman is better. In the last 3 years, Bregman has 11.9 WAR, Chapman has 11.8.
It's hopium in here. The market makes it pretty clear that if he has a solid season he will get close to 300 million and in the 10 year range. He has the rings. He wants the money for his family and his horse operation.
