If you're in charge, do you let Gerrit Cole walk or pay him?

Agree. It's just not as easy to be successful with our reclamation projects as some think it is. For every Charlie Morton, there's a Doug Fister. For every Ryan Pressly, there's a Joe Biagini. For every Will Harris, there's a Ken Giles. I could go on, but I'm sure you get the point. Cole's dominance is historical, his stuff has always been not above average, but SPECIAL. I mean, there's a reason he went #1 overall. You can teach a pitcher a new pitch, or to alter his mechanics, etc, but you can't teach talent like Cole. Pay the man.

 

After this postseason he probably making 40mil/yr. I don't think the astros will be able to afford him.

 

They can afford him as long as they are willing to go way way way over the luxury tax the next 2 seasons. Simple as that. Up to Crane and Luhnow to determine if that is a good idea or not.

 

You gotta keep him

 

PAY THE MAN!!!!!

 

If we win the world series we need pay this man to see more in the future. We can build around the rotation of Cole and Verlander. Very nasty.

 

Luhnow is brilliant. Crane is shrewd. Both want to win badly. Cole is performing at a HISTORIC level on a huge stage. If he goes to NY in Game 3 and spins another gem, it will be incredibly difficult for those two guys not to sell out for Cole. But the first and most important question is this — what does Cole want?

If he wants to go home to CA, there is nothing we can do but thank him for his excellence. If he is torn between going home and staying on this juggernaut, then we have an opening. (Personally, I have felt like his gestures to the fans and glowing comments were made from the perspective of a forever grateful visitor whose time here is limited).

Snake - what’s the return if we deal Grienke for prospects? We can duct tape one or two of those prospects to Reddick, free up money there? What’s the scenario that reduces LT impact?

And folks, I don’t think we strain to keep Cole by dumping someone like Springer. If we keep Cole, management is all in for a dynasty, and that means keeping springer.

 

Arizona paid down Greinke enough to warrant the return they received, and nothing major has changed other than he has 1/2 a season less control. So I imagine they could get something equivalent to Beer/Bukauskas for Greinke. That’s far more than they’d need to add to Reddick to dump all of his money. 1-2 superfluous 2nd tier pitching prospects like Brandon Bielak, Rogelio Armenteros, Brandon Bailey, and Chad Donato should be enough.

I don’t like the idea of trading Greinke as it creates another hole and still doesn’t get them under the tax. If they want to keep Cole there is ZERO way they are staying under the tax, and if they’re going to go over they may as well go all in and put together the best roster they can because the penalty doesn’t get much more significant between $1M over and $40M over.

 

https://fivethirtyeight.com/feature...om-so-so-to-unhittable/?addata=espn:frontpage

 

Would love to see a breakdown of this. Everyone tries to avoid the luxury tax, but what are the penalties for being over? Is it already somewhere on the GARM?

 

http://m.mlb.com/glossary/transactions/competitive-balance-tax

 

To your point on this, my counterpoint is there's anything Cole has demonstrated in his time here, it's that he's the ULTIMATE competitor. Winning is the most addictive drug, and he seems to have fed off the rush. I know his family is in California and he grew up in Angel Country, but that's a VERY different atmosphere and organization to what we have here in Houston. With the Astros, I think he realizes that for as long as he's here, the Astros will always have a chance to compete for championships. The Angels are a more laid-back franchise with laid-back fans. Yes they have Trout and Ohtani, but they don't have the winning culture that we have here in Houston. I'm hoping that Cole thinks about all this when making his decision.

 

The Astros are a business, they will have to do what keeps the organization healthy and thriving.

Anybody would be a fool not to want Cole on the team. But the real question is two fold, first does he want to be here (at least for the window of opportunity), and if so, can the Astros genius figure out how to get rid of and trade enough contracts to keep the ship afloat. Because quite frankly, there aren’t many if any bad contracts on the team! All the guys play the tails off for the team.... But I’d rather have Cole, even if it means trading some Astros favorites...

possibly trade Brantley, Reddick, McCullers, etc. and let go some of your free agents in the class of 2019.

but how much would you be willing to gut your team to keep Cole?

Cole, Verlander, Greinke, Springer, Altuve, Bregman, Correa, Alvarez, Gurriel, will keep any team in contention for not only the playoffs, but a World Series ring...

 

Deal Greinke for prospects (like you guys have been saying)
Try to bring CFM back
LMJ comes back as the #4
Plug anyone else in at #5- we have a lot of options
Move on from Reddick and put Tucker in right
The only other thing would be what do we do at first.

There's a way to bring the man back and have as good or a better team than we had this year... I'm all for giving him 6 years and keeping him through his prime.

 

LAD are lurking and they would be idiots not to break the bank for Cole

 

CFM is under contract w rays for another year.

 

Cole doesn't want to go back to the NL. Running the bases and bunting? Pshh... stupid NL.

 

Is that known around the league or u just having fun? I’d totally understand it not that he has played big boy baseball for two years

 

Stupid 790! They said he was on a one year deal this morning! Fail!

 

No, its not "known"... it would be very un-wise to say that as it would eliminate potential bidding wars from teams like the Padres and Dodgers.

But he's given interviews saying that he does not miss sac bunting, hitting, or running the bases... the anti-greinke.