I was having the same thoughts when I first read his post, but when I was replying to him about who he'd get rid of, the light bulb kicked on.
Right, sorry if my post was confusing. Basically, if I had it to do over, I'd go with this opening day roster: RF Springer 3B Bregman 2B Altuve SS Correa DH Beltran 1B Gurriel LF Reddick/Pearce C McCann/Gattis CF Marisnick* UT Marwin Rotation: Keuchel, McCullers, Quintana**, McHugh, Morton Bullpen: Fiers, Feliz, Logan, Sipp, Devenski, Harris, Gregerson, Giles *Marisnick would start out as the everyday CF, but if he struggles thru April he'd go to the bench and Pearce/Reddick would become the everyday corner OF with Springer shifting to CF. A Reddick/Pearce platoon could very well put up borderline superstar offensive production. **Assuming Chicago would have accepted a package that didn't include both Martes and Tucker; otherwise, replace him with Musgrove.
I don't think there was any chance they were gonna go out and fill every single hole on the roster with a recently productive veteran.
AL West Dave, the Astros were a popular pick last year, too. Why will this year be different? The Astros had the youngest group of position players in the AL last year, and I see that core group of Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, George Springer and Alex Bregman all having big seasons -- but this time supplemented by a better supporting cast that now includes Brian McCann, Josh Reddick and Carlos Beltran. Everyone worries about the rotation, but I think it's an underrated group, although a better season from Dallas Keuchel will obviously be key. -- Schoenfield http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/pag...ictions/2017-mlb-experts-mlb-team-predictions
Highly unlikely even if he does produce and stay healthy, because I don't think he'll throw 200 innings regardless. Really hard to win a Cy Young without being a workhorse unless your numbers are vastly better. I have to think the team will work to keep him workload down as his career high in IP is only 157.3, and he only pitched 89 last year.
I don't expect it to happen either, but if he is able to make 32 starts he will get to 200 innings. As high as his pitch counts have gone, he's basically averaged 5 2/3 per start. You need 6 1/3 to get to 200. He could make that jump very easily. I do suspect we will be conservative with him, particularly early as we try to stretch him out. But if he doesn't have any arm problems the team may pull off the chains and let him fly down the stretch. No arm trouble is still a huge if though.
I'm so excited that we get to put this thread away in just a couple of days. Everyone raise a glass to the 2017 Astros... let's have a great season!
I think he'll skip a couple of starts and try to be at 180, especially considering they probably hope he'll have 4+ postseason starts
Tomorrow should be a National Holiday. Thank goodness we don't open up in New York in the freezing cold this year.
Why can't the gubmint move one of the useless holidays - President's Day, Columbus Day, something - to coincide with Opening Day every year? I'll let you get to work on that.
If valbuena doesn't go down, the last wild card spot would have been up for grabs a couple of games with crazy Umps losing their minds and that was with 2 of our outfielders completely being taken over by body snatchers. 2017, to quote NaS, "It was written" If you asked me which I'd rather have infinite health for the main roster or the addition of quintana, I'd say health every time.
Agree. Unfortunately, the 2 are intertwined--making a move for Quintana is very much health-insurance or just health driven (i.e. you either need the depth of high-quality SP to support because of injury risk, or you need him because Keuchel or LMJ or Morton are injured or performing below par due to actual injury)
If I were to make a poll asking what is the most likely outcome(s) on that note, I would put them as follows (highest probability to lowest): 1) One of them (50%) 2) None of them (25%) 3) Two of them (20%) 4) All of them (5%)
Correa’s agent says he won’t do early mutli-year contract The Houston Astros have done some smaller early signings but have never gotten close to anything with superstar shortstop Carlos Correa. “Carlos is never going to do an (early) multiyear contract,” agent Greg Genske said. He hasn’t technically even done a one-year contract either as the Astros renewed Correa the last two years, including this year, when they gave him the major-league minimum of $535,000. Word is they offered somewhere around $565,000 and were perhaps willing to go a bit higher, but Correa wasn’t going to put his name to something he didn’t believe in, his friends say. He also has big sponsorship deals with Adidas and others that pay him millions. Correa is one of the best young shortstops in the game, hitting 22 home runs with an .857 OPS during the 2015 season in which he was named American League Rookie of the Year. He followed that up with 20 home runs and an .811 OPS, with some considering it a down year despite his batting average staying close to the same (.279 in 2015, .274 in 2016) and his on-base percentage improving from .345 to .361. That ‘down’ year was worth 6.0 WAR, according to baseball-reference. Speaking of Correa, a friend says, “His mentality has always been that he’s going to play it out.” Even so, by giving him such oddly low deals, you wonder whether the Astros could hurt their chances to keep him long-term, assuming they are interested. Oddly, they gave an early deal to Jon Singleton ($10 million, five years) who’s in the minors, and offered one to Matt Dominguez, who’s also in the minors but erred by turning it down
What do we make of this? My initial reaction is that Carlos will be looking for the biggest possible payday in a few years when he becomes a FA. I love watching the guy, but I wouldn't be shocked if he ends up going to a huge market like LA or NY or Boston in a few years. Although, at the least we have him through 2021 so it doesn't seem like something to worry about yet.
