Or use him to help you win a World Series? I'm in the let Keuchel walk camp but I think he is more valuable as a pitcher who can help you win the 2018 WS than as a trade rental who will bring back marginal talent.
Exactly... Keuchel isn't going anywhere. If he doesn't get hurt and pitches well the Astros will give him a qualifying offer. If he accepts it you basically got an extra year of arbitration with Keuchel. If he declines the offer ( which he almost certainly will) and gets a contract else where we get draft compensation.
Suggesting trading Keuchel is ridiculous. My current Top 10 Position Player trade targets (in order of preference based on expected value vs cost): 1B/DH Jose Abreu: consistent star bat OF/3B/DH Nick Castellanos: underrated OF/1B/DH Corey Dickerson: underrated C JT Realmuto: solution to long term problem IF Jed Lowrie: versatile, can extend to replace Marwin C Yasmani Grandal: can resign to solve catcher 3B Mike Moustakas: market may be soft 3B Manny Machado: keep him away from other teams 2B/LF Whit Merrifield: underrated OF Jon Jay: would come cheap Pitchers: RHP Kelvin Herrera: proven closer RHP Chris Archer: upside, Keuchel replacement, keep him away from other teams LHP Brad Hand: elite lefty is biggest need LHP Zach Britton: price should be low RHP Roberto Osuna: depends on price LHP Mike Minor: shift him back to pen RHP Alex Colome: depends on price RHP Raisel Iglesias: depends on price RHP Mychal Givens: depends on price RHP Brad Brach: depends on price
Barring injury, I don't think the Astros really need to make a move for any RH setup men. If they can get a solid lefty, that would be a nice add, or if an elite closer on par with Giles can be found, that's worth discussing, but the Colome/Herrera/Brach tier setup guys don't look like an significant upgrade over Devo/Harris/Rondon to me. I don't know that Hand or the artist formerly known as Felipe Rivero are available, so I'm not sure who else I'd target.
I do believe they need to find a dh I would look at Brandon Belt Cory Dickerson guys like that. But the pen i would think need two arms a Left hander and a right hander who can finish games. As a precaution for Giles.
If the World Series were today, Houston’s roster would probably look like this: CF Springer 3B Bregman 2B Altuve SS Correa 1B Gurriel RF Reddick DH Gattis C McCann LF Marwin Bench: Stassi, Kemp, Davis, Marisnick Rotation: Verlander, Cole, Keuchel, Morton Bullpen: McCullers, Peacock, McHugh, Devenski, Giles, Harris, Rondon, Smith It’d be virtually impossible to upgrade the rotation. Assuming McCullers is the closer, it’s hard to justify spending big in prospects to upgrade from the 12th pitcher (Smith in this case, but it could be Sipp) for a player who would be at best an 8th inning guy who would only take innings from Giles or Devenski. There’s really an argument for upgrading any part of the bottom of the lineup. Gurriel, Gattis, McCann, and Marwin, are having down years. The problem is that not only does Houston have a top prospect who could be ready (Tucker), they have a handful of young players (Fisher, Davis, White, Kemp, Stassi) who ‘could’ be just as good as most any player they’d trade for. For now my conclusion is that barring injury, the pitching staff can be left as-is. If a top-notch closer or lefty reliever comes available and the price isn’t prohibitive, then pull the trigger on upgrading from Sipp. My focus as the deadline approaches would be on star quality hitters with a proven track record. Jose Abreu makes the most sense as someone who can be counted on to rake, lengthen the lineup, and help in 2019 as well. The hope for him also would be that he could be had without giving up any of the top 3 prospects. If he’s not available or would cost one of the top 3 guys, there should be plenty of other lesser bats available who would still serve the purpose. Adding a bat also makes sense because there’s a readily available roster spot as Fisher/Kemp/Davis/Marisnick all can be optioned to AAA. Of course, if Gurriel/Gattis/Marwin/McCann all start mashing over the next 6 weeks and everybody stays healthy, the need to add a bat would be greatly diminished.
I would not assume that Lance is going to the pen in the playoffs. If he is pitching better than Dallas, there is a real good chance Lance and Morton will get starts. With that in mind, the Astros may well look at adding another high end bullpen arm if the price is right.
Yeah, I'm not sure why they'd trade Keuchel - the only teams that would be interested in a rental are the teams we might face in the playoffs. They are only going to give away prospects, so all you're doing is decreasing our odds of winning the WS this year and increasing one of our competitors.
They won't trade Dallas unless they know for a fact they need to. In there mind they dont need to. But this is where I have been saying it. And OF / DH is almost a must and I would be on the phone hard for Cory Dicherson . But there are other options out there that could suit this team but I believe they need that OF. I think I would call the White Sox about Avisail Garcia and Jose Abreu. There gonna be room next year for those guys and the Astros would just need Avisail to bounce back 24 yrs old shouldn't be that hard to bounce back at that age
I agree that they likely need to add a bat. However, we are going for another World Series title. A "bounce back" player is not a risk the Astros should or would take.
I agree but is he better then Jake? And could he play all fields and does he have pop? Avisail would be an awesome addition at a low cost. And he to me was a player I liked last year as a add
I like where your head is at, but I'm taking a hard pass on Avisail Garcia. His 4+ WAR season last year was much more of an aberration than an expectation of things to come. Having a traditionally sound approach at the plate has never been a quality Garcia has shown consistently. Between 2012 and 2016, his 57.0% swing rate, 42.6% chase rate, and 17.0% swinging-strike rate all ranked among the top 10 in the league. When looking at that breakout 2017 campaign, those numbers settled in at 59.0%, 39.8%, and 16.2%, respectively. So it’s not as if he completely revamped his approach en route to achieving the level of success he did. The early returns on what he’s done in 2018 doesn’t show us he’s making any real strides in these departments, either. It’s good that his swing rate on strikes is still up at 79.5% (it was a career-high 83.4% in ’17). However, he’s swinging at 61.5% of pitches overall, 48.0% of them are outside the zone, and he’s missing on those swings at a 17.3% clip. When you’re swinging this often, you’d hope it’d also be accompanied by a spike in contact (at least on pitches in the strike zone). That hasn’t exactly been the case upon comparing what he’s done in recent years. There’s also one important fact we haven’t touched upon yet, which is a complete lack of walks. Among the 175-plus players who currently qualify for the batting title, there’s just one player who has yet to draw a base on balls. That man is Avisail Garcia. For someone with his particular batted-ball profile, that makes his life a little harder than it needs to be. That sounds an awful lot like a yoked up version of Jake Marisnick to me. SOURCE: http://thesportsdaily.com/2018/04/2...x-is-already-feeling-regression-in-a-big-way/
So let's see Cin: Amir Garrett, Jared Hughes and Raisel Iglesias KC: Kelvin Herrera, Danny Duffy and Jorge Solar SD: Brad Hand, Craig Stamman and Kirby Yates BAL: Zach Britton and Manny Machado MIA: Kyle Barclough and J.T. Realmuto TB: C.J.Cron CHW: Jose Abreu DET: Nicolas Castellanos TOR: Kevin Pillar So looking at that list we are saying we cant make everyone in the minors except Tucker and Whitley available and not get at least 3. 2 RP AND A BAT
F NO. Duffy is terrible, his contract is terrible, Astros don’t need another starter, Astros don’t need another starter in the bullpen. Why bail out the Royals? At the expense of Alvarez..lol
Greatest of all time scenario: Abreu for Davis, Fisher, and Paulino Realmuto for Alvarez, Martes, and Stassi Britton for Sipp, C Perez, and H Perez Castellanos for Gattis, Reed, and James CF Springer 3B Bregman 2B Altuve SS Correa DH Abreu C Realmuto LF Castellanos 1B Gurriel RF Reddick Bench: McCann, Marwin, Marisnick/Kemp Rotation: Verlander, Cole, Keuchel, Morton, McCullers Bullpen: Peacock, McHugh, Devenski, Smith, Harris, Rondon, Giles, Britton
