I'm all for it! I think Alvarez has potential, and Stassi could be good, but I support it. Martes and Reed are looking like AAAA players, Fisher may go down that road, too, or if not he still likely won't be that good consistently. Alvarez is still about 1-1.5 years away, and a lot could happen then. Plus Springer and Reddick will be around for a bit, and Ted is on the way with Ferguson also begging for a chance, so OF seems set. With Realmuto and Stubbs, Stassi's need is eliminated. I'd make that trade in a heartbeat. Elite 5-tool catchers like Realmuto are hard to find, and with him and Stubbs we should be set at C.
In January, sure. Not happening during the season. They're not swapping catchers in mid-stream, they have no reason to. I love Bour on this team, yall make that trade happen without Alvarez.
I doubt Astros would have too much issue swapping Stassi for Realmuto. May take Realmuto some time to adjust, but McCann would still be here until he's ready to split the load. That said, Astros weren't willing to include Alvarez in a deal for Verlander. Astros weren't willing to include him in a deal for Cole. Alvarez isn't being traded unless it is for someone better than Verlander or Cole. Astros should be able to trade for Realmuto and Bour without including Alvarez if they really want them.
It's going to be hard to find a trade for Realmuto while keeping Alvarez, Tucker, and Whitley off the table.
Not close to being as hard as it would be for the Marlins to put together a trade for Alvarez, Tucker, or Whitley.
How do you know Alvarez was off the table in Cole/Verlander talks? Realmuto is an elite asset. Whoever trades for him is going to give up a Top 50 prospect. For Houston that means Whitley, Tucker, or Alvarez, especially since Fisher and Martes have both seen their stock drop over the last month.
If Alvarez was on the table and he's still in Astros system, the Tigers and Pirates both screwed up. Lots of anonymous sources also claimed Astros had several prospects off the table. Too much evidence to think otherwise. If Astros were willing to trade Alvarez, there were a lot of teams that made mistakes and took lesser prospects before the July deadline for elite assets. I don't deny that Realmuto has a lot of trade value. Verlander and Cole are recent trades that Luhnow has acquired similar (in Verlander's case with the money to offset some of his salary) or better trade value. Perez was most valuable prospect given up. Alvarez right now is a lot more valuable than Perez, Moran, or Musgrove. Considering Alvarez was generally viewed as a Top 50 hitting prospect before this season, he's got to be close to being a Top 25 hitting prospect right now if not already. Top 25 hitting prospects are rarely traded and when they are it is usually for an ace or a Top of the Rotation Arm. Chapman being a notable recent exception.
Maybe Freudis Nova? He's considered to be a rising prospect, but we don't need him since we have Correa.
I'd be a little surprised to see Nova traded to the Marlins. They had an agreement with him before his PED suspension, and probably want to avoid him being the headliner for their best trade chip. I'm also not sure he's a good enough prospect to headline a deal yet.
If I am Luhnow I wouldn’t be all that anxious to make any moves at this point. Gattis and Fisher are the 2 guys in the lineup that have troubling indicators, and luckily they both play positions that are typically easy to fill (LF and DH). I’d give Fisher another month and if he doesn’t get it together I’d send him down for a player in AAA who has earned a shot (White, Davis, Ferguson, or Kemp would be the pecking order for me as of now). Gattis I would relegate to 12th man duties (3rd catcher, pinch hitter, bench reserve) if he doesn’t get the strikeouts under control. If July rolls around and there are still 2 holes in the lineup then he can make a move but for now I don’t think that will be necessary. On the pitching side the rotation is obviously good, and I actually don’t see the need for a bullpen move. Giles hasn’t been as bad as it seems and he wouldn’t be the closer in the playoffs anyway; that’d be Morton or McCullers. If I felt the need to make a deadline move just to spice up the morale in clubhouse, id actually focus on adding another starting pitcher (like Chris Archer) who could start game 4 and leave a playoff bullpen of McCullers, Morton, Devenski, McHugh, Peacock, Rondon, Harris, and Giles. There aren’t any traditional closets available who would be a meaningful upgrade from Giles, and adding a SP means there’s no reason to spend big to keep Keuchel.
Can he play LF or DH? No? Can he pitch the 9th? Why **** with something you don't have to **** with, is my point. Use your bullets when and where you need them during the season.
We don't need a full time DH. Just rotate it among our starters to give everyone a rest here and there.
I think Luhnow will give Tucker or Alvarez a shot starting early June. However that experiment and injuries go will determine who Astros go for near deadline. I suspect Whitley, Tucker, and Alvarez are all untouchables unless Astros get an offer they can't refuse. Anyone else, Astros can be very aggressive with trying to trade in minors provided they don't deal too many high level arms.
How're we feeling about Brad Hand these days? I imagine with the extension he got that it's pretty much a longshot but remembered he was linked to the Astros last year.
Luhnow is not going to insert Yordan Alvarez into an everyday role on a WS contender without a full season in the upper minors. I could see Tucker replacing Fisher in June if Fisher keeps sucking and Tucker turns it on between now and then. And it won’t be an experiment; Tucker is the type of prospect you don’t call up unless you’re virtually certain he’s ready to stick.
Unless Gattis turns it around (which I'm certainly not anticipating) we will need to add a bat. Given the lofty potential of this team, there's simply no reason to not address it. The good news is that because our hole is DH, we can literally target any hitter available. I still think Marwin can end up being productive, and Tucker could contribute right away. Still, those guys are 2 question marks at best right now. We would be one injury away from our offense being downright bad.
I wish Matt Harvey was open to a bullpen role; Gattis, Sipp, and a throw in prospect for Harvey would make some sense.
I’m wondering if it makes sense for Houston to go to 13 position players. It would let them add Davis or White to DH, which would shift Gattis into a 3rd catcher role and might jump start his bat. With as deep as the rotation has gone, Hinch is having trouble finding innings for all 8 bullpen guys anyway. And if they added Davis, he could serve as the 13th pitcher by taking on a garbage inning whenever a super low leverage situation arose. Making that move would reduce even further the need to trade for a bat. I think both Davis and White have a very good chance to hit better than whoever Houston might trade for at the deadline.
