I thought it might be fun to examine the changes that have been made to our active roster in the past 2 weeks: 7/20 DFA'd Tyler White (later traded to Dodgers for Andrew Scrubb) 7/26 DFA'd Tony Kemp (later traded to Cubs for Martin Maldonado) 7/31 Traded Max Stassi to the Angels for Raider Uceta and Rainer Rivas 7/31 Traded Derek Fisher to the Blue Jays for Aaron Sanchez, Cal Stevenson and Joe Biagini 7/31 Traded Corbin Martin, Seth Beer, JB Bukauskas and Joshua Rojas to the Diamondbacks for Zach Greinke In essence, we have replaced our 3 weakest position players (White, Kemp and Stassi) with Alvarez, Maldonado and Straw. On the pitching side of things, we added an elite SP1 and supplemented the back of our rotation and/or pen with the additions of Sanchez and Biagini. While we gave up Martin, Beer, Bukauskas and Rojas, we also did manage to add some replacement depth to our farm by means of 4 new players. Pretty shrewd business. Pretty darn awesome.
Springer Altuve Brantley Bregman Alvarez Correa Gurriel Reddick Chirinos Diaz Marisnick Straw Maldonado Verlander Cole Greinke Miley Sanchez Harris Osuna Pressly Biagini Peacock James Devenski
DFA Rondon? I think we do that once Peacock comes back, although we may find a way to get to September first.
They might. Teams can rotate the players through the 10 day IL through August. It might even make sense to given a 10 day rest to the big three.
When a team has 10 guys who can be considered to be part of "the big three"... you know you have something special. (Springer, Altuve, Correa, Brantley, Bregman, Alvarez, Yuli, JV, Cole, Greinke)
7/20 DFA'd Tyler White (later traded to Dodgers for Andrew Scrubb) No opinion on Scrubb. Astros didn't have room for White. White does seem like a Dodger plus fans already hate him. 7/26 DFA'd Tony Kemp (later traded to Cubs for Martin Maldonado) Happy that Chirinos can take days off as needed instead of based on who's pitching. 7/31 Traded Max Stassi to the Angels for Raider Uceta and Rainer Rivas Happy that Chirinos can take days off as needed instead of based on who's pitching. 7/31 Traded Derek Fisher to the Blue Jays for Aaron Sanchez, Cal Stevenson and Joe Biagini I expected Astros would try to find a diamond(s) in the rough to work their magic on. Sanchez appears to be it. Don't know much on Biagini or Stevenson. 7/31 Traded Corbin Martin, Seth Beer, JB Bukauskas and Joshua Rojas to the Diamondbacks for Zach Greinke Seems to be a straight forward consolidation trade (Crane may deserve more credit than Luhnow as $53 million is probably the biggest thing from Astros side of the deal). Astros gave up a lot of expected value spread out over a lot of years and players, but got a lot of expected value over 2.5 years. Arizona should be happy. Astros should be happy. Doubt Astros will be able to tease much more out of Greinke like I hope they can for Sanchez. Not sure if I like this trade more for this year or for the next two.
I love every trade with the caveat that I feel the value they gave up for Greinke was very high considering Arizona only ate $24M. Those 4 prospects had $50-70M in surplus value and Greinke only had about $10M in surplus value with his full contract. We may see Houston have to go to cheaper options to fill holes in 2020-2021 because of this trade. But even with all that considered it was the right move to make. The Fisher trade is amazing. Hell, Stevenson might be as valuable as Fisher by himself. Then you throw in Biagini, who has elite reliever upside with middle reliever downside, and Sanchez who has ace stuff, and this was a fantastic deal for Houston. Not sure what Toronto is doing with this one. Getting two lottos for Stassi is fair value and I like it. Maldonado for Kemp was a deal they needed to make; obviously they put a lot of value on the pitchers opinions. I just wish they could have gotten Chicago to throw in a complex league lotto. I thought Scrubb was a good return for White.
Jeff Luhnow has been scouting Aaron Sanchez since he pitched in high school. He is extremely excited he got him from the Blue Jays. He said he believes Strom and crew can really help him shine. You gotta be excited if you are Aaron Sanchez coming over to this environment, chance to save his career, work with the greats of his craft and win a World Series. It would be crazy if the Astros take Sanchez's live arm and turns him into a real threat next season. If so, Luhnow needs a lifetime contract.
Right now his list has the players that are on the IL (Peacock, James and Presley). For now they can send down Baez, Sneed and Urguidy. Then they can start worrying about the others.
This is brilliant, but are Peacock and James gonna be healthy? Smith will be in the postseason bullpen, as will McHugh, assuming they're healthy as well. Devo, poor, Devo, is the guy on the cusp along with Rondon.
