[Official] Astros Off Season

He needs to stop taking 3rd strike looking. Swing the damn bat.

 

Please let not bring back his last at-bat of 2018. Depressing moment.

 

If White can post an OPS in the mid-high 800's that's found money that shouldn't be expected.

I'm with you,I think an OPS in the low 800's is a realistic expectation for him. If he can consistently do that for the next 5 seasons I will happily take that right now. It's the exact kind of cheap productive labor we need.

 

bregman posted a video on instagram of him taking grounders and marwin responded and bregman asked him if hes going to see him soon. Something tells me were going to resign marwin

 

At a certain point if Marwin is willing to sign cheap enough it makes sense to sign him and just option Diaz. But I would still be very surprised if that happened.

 

I hate comments like these. The batter has very little time to judge balls and strikes. Guys that walk a lot and don't strike out excessively know the zone well. Guess a fastball is a curve, and the batter looks stupid taking a pitch down the middle. The only remedy for less called strikes is swinging at pitches the batter thinks is a ball. This would not be optimal.

 

Rumor is Cleveland was in fact shopping Kluber, but wanted a package similar to what the White Sox got for Sale. To me that would be something like Kyle Tucker, JB Bukauskas, Cristian Javier, and Alex McKenna. Of course that’s a steep price, but I’m on the fence about whether I would do that.

 

https://www.mlb.com/news/astros-opening-day-roster-prediction/c-303764066

MacT predicted the opening day roster:

C: Chirinos, Stassi
IF: Gurriel, Altuve, Correa, Bregman, Diaz, White
OF: Reddick, Springer, Brantley, Marisnick
SP: Verlander, Cole, McHugh, Miley, James
BP: Peacock, F Valdez, Deetz, Devenski, Harris, Rondon, Pressly, Osuna

Only surprise to me was Deetz, but I still think they may sign a cheap RP to take one spot.

No place for Kemp; will be interesting to see if he’s traded or if they think they can slip him through waivers. I would think SF or Cleveland would be willing to give up a 2nd or 3rd tier prospect for him so they can stick him in LF and he can be insurance for their questionable 2B situation. He also might make sense for the Pirates or Brewers.

 

Valdez might be better served as a SP at AAA, which would mean that Luhnow will acquire a RP.

Deetz takes Joe Smith's spot, from the jump.

Trading Kemp might be a win-win for both Kemp and the Astros.

 

I agree that Valdez is more likely to AAA than the pen. Not sure who gets last spot in pen. Kaplan thinks Armenteros has a good shot at it.

On Kemp, each day he's an Astro, the more likely he's an Astro opening day. While I am unsure whether Kemp makes the team or not out of camp, I'm a little surprised at how certain people are that he's the odd man out especially this close to Spring Training. I definitely don't think Astros can get him through waivers. Not sure trading Kemp would be a win for the Astros as the teams that want him don't want to trade prospects (i.e., Astros will likely take a loss in talent).

 

Deetz is a favorite of Luhnow and a couple of his pitches are very high shelf. He obviously needs to do well in the Spring but it was over a year ago that Luhnow was discussing him being called up.

 

I would've done that and not looked back.

A 3-headed monster of JV, Kluber, and Cole in the playoffs is just too tempting for me to pass up.

 

[MLBTR/Olney]Free-agent left-hander Dallas Keuchel asked for a six- to seven-year contract worth $25MM to $30MM per annum at the beginning of the offseason

 

To which GM's had a good laugh and said "no seriously, what number are you looking for."

 

WRT trading Kemp, I see Kemp as an average starting 2B in the MLB and as a respectable leadoff hitter. There is value in both of those things. Maybe not a top 100 prospect, but Luhnow can deep mine other prospects.

If the Astros can not trade Kemp, I suspect that keep him and roll with a 12 man pitching squad. Even then, Kemp may not see that much PT given who is ahead of him.

 

The chances of Diaz being optioned are basically zero

If you sign Marwin because his price dropped so low you either trade Diaz, or one of the OF/1B/DH group is traded or optioned. I know there aren’t a lot of options there, but I could see Jake moved before Diaz was optioned

 

This organization has been extremely reluctant to go with 12 pitchers. They didn’t do it last year with

Verlander
Cole
Keuchel
Morton
McCullers

So why would they even consider it with

McHugh
Miley
James

Even if those guys all do well, which they hopefully will, the sheer number of innings you get from them is very unlikely to match what you got from Keuchel, Morton, McCullers

I just don’t see 12 pitchers as an option this FO would consider with this staff. Not to start the year at least

 

FWIW
Richard Justice was on ESPN this morning and said the Astro front office believes "Kemp is going to a productive player for a long time". They are sold on Kemp. They want "depth and flexibility".

 

Even if we go with 13 (which I actually think we will) it's hard to see us taking Kemp over Marisnick/Straw.

I really think an NL team without a locked in everyday 2B presents his best opportunity. That way they could use what little flexibility he has between 2B and LF. He would also be an excellent situational PH, something not oft used in the AL.

With us looking to get Tucker AB's, Brantley being restricted to LF when he's in the outifield, and Altuve playing everyday, he's in a tough spot to have much of a role here if we do take him instead of a CF. Diaz is already gonna have a tough time finding PA's without an injury.