Correa, Altuve, Springer, McCullers,and Keuchel named All Stars

I still think about that 2001 season and how much had happened that year. Oswalt makes his debut out of the bullpen and strikes out Sammy Sosa with the bases loaded. Lima traded for Dave Mlicki. Acquire Pedro Astacio, he turns in 4 great starts then gets injured for the year. Carlos Hernandez injured for the year sliding into 2nd base. Barry Bonds hits #70 at Enron Field off Wilfredo Rodriguez. Going down to the final game of the season against the Cardinals to win the division.

 

at first sealclubber's post went over my head.

memory is low on this topic but was barry bonds walked at the prior at bat and the fans at enron booed?

 

After the debacle that was 2000.... 2001 was a pivotal year and helped set up the runs in 04,05.

Statistically, that was one of Berkman's best overall seasons... and it happened to be his first full season. Him and Alou were neck-and-neck for the batting title. The team really took off prior to the ASB, in conjunction with the Oswalt call-up.

Things got even more exciting with Hernandez's stellar debut... and then Redding had all sorts of prospect-hype. Obviously, those two pitchers didn't pan out for head-first reasons (literally, for both of them).

I wouldn't say the farm was necessarily a house of cards... that year alone, it did churn out the full season debuts of Miller and Berkman, the partial seasons of Oswalt, Hernandez, Redding. No farm is going to graduate that many stellar prospects and not suffer a little. Of course, the quality of first round draft picks, and Drayton's "signability" drafts that commenced (along with the closure of the Venezuelan academy) ultimately spelled doom for any sort of future farm success under Hunsicker.

 

Well deserved. I'd like to see the first three batters for the AL team be Astros.

 

Speaking of Richard Hidalgo, was anybody aware of this??

 

The Man

 

The guy who ended Hoffman's consecutive save streak... his HR tied the game.

We ultimately lost the game in extra innings, IIRC.

 

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/07/new...ose-altuve-tall-short-funny-photo-memes-jokes

 

Marwin didn't even make the final vote. What a complete joke...

 

Figured I'd post this here, since I'm not sure there's a more relevant thread. I have a friend who has a close relationship with someone on the Astros board. He goes to the weekly board meetings. Two interesting takeaways:

1) Springer and Altuve want to be 'Stros for life. Both seem willing to take discounts to stay here in HOU.

2) Correa is a different story. Correa purportedly wants to play in a big market like NYY. Feeling within the organization is that he'll bounce at the first chance he gets.

Take it FWIW. Believe it or not. I don't really care. Just thought I'd share.

Hopefully 1) winning and 2) Crane ponying up, will change Correa's mind. These tidbits surprised me on several fronts. First--I'm surprised Jose is willing to take a paycut to stay in HOU. His public comments re: Mookie Betts showed some resentment towards his deal. That, and he inked with Boras. Obviously anyone wants to get paid...it just surprised that he's the one that's willing to take a discount to stay here.

Correa's tidbit surprised me as well. He seems to really gel with our players. He also seems really humble and down to earth, but my friend says he's more of a prima donna. Surprising, but maybe my fanhood has blinded me.

 

you know what they say never trust a guy that wears a fedora and no three piece suit.
the good thing is he can't go anywhere for some time.

 

Got four and a half years to change his mind. Literally the least of my concerns about the future of this team... and I have very few.

 

The Correa bit isn't surprising for a 22 year old. He's under contract for a while and hopefully he'll mature more/learn how to tune out the people whispering in his ear about big markets over the next four years.

 

I know for a fact that Boras has hired people specifically to befriend Correa with the end goal of (obviously) getting him as his client. This dates back to when Carlos was in Corpus. I'm sure this happens more often than we think, it's just interesting to me to witness it first hand.

 

That is insane, but not surprising. I'm sure the allure of New York's large Puerto Rican community is a draw for him, but winning and Crane opening up the wallet should matter, too. All that matters is that we win.

That said, Luhnow doesn't strike me as the type that will get left at the altar by a player a la Beltran going to the Mets. Sabermetrics guys don't lose talent for nothing.

 

The Prima Donna part about Correa doesnt really surprise me. He came in a very humble 18yr old kid and has since gradually changed with money and fame. One thing that really irked me was when we won the wild card against the yankees and Buster Olney interviewed him post game in the locker room during the champagne celebrations and he poured champagne all over him. I just thought to myself thats awesome but very unlike Correa.

Like previously said though, we wont lose him for nothing and on top of that we got 4 more years of service out of him and hopefully he mellows out before that stage in age. Plus, Carlos Beltran can tell him the horrors of plaiyng in NY.

Spoiler

FUKKKK BORAS

 

Not sure how horrible he thought it was, since he signed there twice.

But this is by far his greatest moment as a Met:

 

Well I'm happy to hear Jose and George are happy here. Their contracts are up sooner so it's great to hear that they are all in on Houston. As far as Correa, a lot changes in 4 years so I'm not too concerned. Also, where would he go? Chicago, LA and Boston already have their starting shortstops and New York has considerably tighter purse strings than previous. If ya think the Yankees court Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, I doubt they pomy up the money for Carlos.