Yeah, I really don't understand keeping some of the guys they are choosing to keep. I get if there were other prospects and you had to make a tough call, but we're choosing to protect 4A journeymen over upside prospects like Daniels and Barber.
A bit late (and there's probably some posts about this that I haven't read), but I'd roll the dice on Cal Quantrill. Bad year last year (and dealt with injuries), but he was solid in 2021 and 2022. Top 10 pick out of college and second-generation big leaguer. Perhaps Cleveland thinks there's a bad prognosis, but then again he had a solid finish to the season. I would take the chance if we could. They have 10 days to trade him so maybe they like one of our AAAA guys or someone we can unload for something of value.
Cleveland gets the very best out of their starters...if they couldn't get anything out of Quantrill....I don't know what to tell you. Maybe as a middle reliever for close to the minimum. Perhaps his velocity would tick upwards. When you can only strike out 5 per 9 you are going to have problems. Bielak strikes out 7 per 9 for comparison.
Climbingtalshill.com had a 3 players to buy low and he was 1 of the players listed. https://climbingtalshill.com/posts/...es-for-the-astros-this-offseason-01hf1nj6t1xm
Every year, its seems when the off-season is done and finished, I come away thinking that we spent too much energy and resources on position players and not enough on pitching. Is there any reason for me to think this year will be different?
I would assume they just don’t think anyone they exposed will be taken, or if they are they won’t be able to stick on a roster for a full year. Acceptable risk for everyone except Barber but they are almost certainly a better judge than I am so hopefully it all works out. They exposed Yainer Diaz and that didn’t bite them.
Released Player - JD Martinez Rule V Unprotected - Johan Santana, Bobby Abreu JD Martinez and Josh Hader if they were Astros, No Doubt More Wins in the Postseason.
Yes, he was eligible for the Rule 5 draft in Dec 2021 but was (very luckily for Houston) not taken because the Rule 5 draft was cancelled that year (but Houston could not know that was for sure going to happen when they made the decision to leave him off the 40 man that November).
I honestly wish the Rule V doesn't exist. It has become so annoying. It feels like stealing our Club Best Players.
Daniels has a lot of upside. All I can conclude is that Brown doesn’t like our farm system at all… but if that’s the case why hasn’t he made more changes?
No idea if he has, but he has family there. I said two or three months ago the Astros were gauging the cost of Matt Chapman in free agency and were interested in him if the cost was reasonable. Several people on here said the Astros interest in Chapman made no sense - but it does now. Arizona will have the finances to sign Bregman long term. Consider the possibility of the Astros signing Chapman and then trading Bregman to fill another need. Seems risky to me because Chapman’s bat hasn’t been great, but it could be feasible for the Astros to extend Altuve and Sign Chapman (depending on his market price) but not extend Bregman and Altuve. Even with only one year left, the Astros could get a solid value for Bregman in trade. My expectation is someone will have money burning in their pocket and overpay Chapman - but if his market is sluggish, I wouldn’t be shocked if Chapman is signed by the Astros and then Bregman is moved for minor leaguers or pitching.
When we were rebuilding we picked up a lot of players in the rule 5 draft. If memory serves, Luhnow's very first pick up was Marwin Gonzalez in a rule 5 draft trade.
Astros get: 3B Tommy Troy IF Gino Groover CF AJ Vukovich RP Joe Mantiply Diamondbacks get: 3B Alex Bregman That is fair value but for me doesn’t make sense for Houston. As a rental Bregman only has about $20M in surplus value.
