Their lineup is solid but what makes you think that lineup is as good as Houston’s? Altuve > Kinsler Trout > Springer Marwin and Upton are a toss up Pujols/Ohtani and Gattis is a toss up/slight edge to Angels Bregman > Cozart Correa > Simmons Reddick > Calhoun Yuli > Cron McCann and Maldonado are probably a toss up/slight edge to McCann. That’s 5 for Houston, 1 for Angels, 1 slight edge to Houston, 1 slight edge to Angels and 1 toss up. Kinsler is well past his prime. Cozart’s coming off a career year that is a huge outlier compared to the rest of his career (granted the same can be said about Marwin). Pujols is barely slightly above a replacement level player. Simmons is also coming off a statistically outlying career year. Not saying they won’t be good but IMO they don’t compare to our lineup.
I'm not sure he's even a replacement level player. Not sure how other teams have played him, but if everyone plays him the same way as the Astros going forward...he's likely much worse than replacement level player.
I would give Angels the edge for Upton over Marwin but your point stands. Angels defense should be significantly better than Astros if Pujols doesn't get much time at 1B. Astros pitching staff better than Angels regardless of how well Ohtani pitches. On paper Astros should push 100 wins again and be a top team in baseball. Angels could win 90+ if everything breaks right.
FWIW, Upton was basically an .800 OPS guy in the 5 years prior to last season. I agree he should be better that Marwin who we all expect to fall off some, but if I were a betting man, I would bet Upton won't repeat last season either.
Man, life is good when you're the champs. Let them chase us. Realistically, any team with Trout could be a huge threat. It's a matter of time until they make the playoffs. The Pujols/Hamilton contracts stagnated their past 5-ish seasons, but they're well on their way to becoming a dangerous team. Lots of good, young, affordable players. They need better TOR arms to really contend...but if they were to land a real front-line starter (a la Archer, Cole, etc.), they could be one tough out. We'll just be the tougher out
They have a terrible system. Who is this good cheap young talent? Just paid for a new older 3B and traded for an old 2B. Trout is young, but expensive. Calhoun is a decent player. So much is dependent on Ohtani, and he is TJS waiting to happen.
Simmons is the real deal. Best defensive SS in the league and his bat turned a corner last season. At 28, he looks like he'll be around for a while. Ohtani is a question mark, obviously. I do think his pitching will play better than his offense, but we'll see. And Upton isn't B.J. Upton. Justin is still a fine player even if a bit overpayed. He's a slugger who had a great rebound campaign last year. Regardless, a lineup with Trout, Upton, Simmons, Ohtani, and an array of playable hitters (Calhoun, Kinsler, Cozart, Valbuena, Pujols and Cron) should be a relatively strong lineup. I've maintained that they need a TOR arm to really be a playoff threat, but they have a decent start. Richards has had his share of injuries, but he's a strong pitcher. Shoemaker is good. Skaggs and Bedrosian are also young and look to have bright futures. They need an Archer, but they aren't complete garbage. Obviously a lot will depend on Ohtani, but their team could easily get to 88 or so wins if they stay healthy.
the key for the angels and mariners will be pitching and health. I like that Santana left the Indians, encarnacion has to start regressing a little bit. For the yankees adding stanton and being favored to win the world series ,well, they forget that if Correa doesn't dive in, he could have been the MVP. Two Mvps at the same time! Springer too.
The Yankees, Angels, Dodgers have notably improved the clubs they were from last season. The Astros have slightly improved addition wise. The Astros trump card is that Correa, Bergman, Springer are still improving considerably. Even Altuve keeps getting better every year, how much better can he get?
It'll be interesting to see where Springer falls next season. I don't if he'll get better - he's certainly closer to his ceiling, I think, than Correa or Bregman. I'm anxious to see if Bregman can build on a terrific second half. If he can be .900 OPS guy......... I mean, wow. His ascension and Correa's health are the two biggest wants on my Astros Christmas list.
My bad. It seems the Matt Kemp move was to Get under the luxury tax. I thought Kemp was still an elite player. It seems it was a wash move, motivated by financial reasons.
Although you can argue that move was made with the star-studded free agent class of next offseason in mind. So I guess in a way it did improve their team (for the future).
Yeah, the Dodgers did that in order to set themselves up for 2018. The Yankees are supposed to do it as well. Harper is the rumored guy that's supposed to land in LA while Manny is go to the Yankees. Manny wants to SS as well. We'll see.
On Bregman, he went from almost making a lot to good plays defensively to flat out dominating defensively in the playoffs. He plays defense like he did in the playoffs all year, his defensive numbers will match if not exceed the perception of his defense prior to the playoffs. Trying not to get my hopes up, but he has such great potential despite already being a very good player.
<insert Jack Nicholas yes meme> If we could pull off a Realmuto deal...good god our lineup would be stupid
