Last six seasons have put a great cap on almost 60 years of following the Astros and Colt .45s; beyond any expectations. Never was a big Dusty Baker fan either as a player or manager but he was just the right choice for this team and he did a great job handling the insane anti-Houston sentiment and the injuries to key players. His managing in Game Six was masterful. Maldonado is MVP - no contest.
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The worst part of this season was only seeing them on tv. Almost every day I’m my FB memories is one where i was at a baseball game. I missed going to the ball park.
I’m so proud of this team. It was going to be a hard year due to the stupidity of MLB and the sacrifice of the Astros.
But i think we and the plasters learned a lot about themselves. Correa became the leader of this team and followed up his words with action. I think Altuve took the undeserved hate the most personally. But the team as a whole manned up and did what we have come to expect each year now.
Crane better bring his checkbook to negotiations. Maybe a larger salary for less years will her springer for three more years. Lock Correa up, he’s the man of the team. Sign Bradley to keep some consistency.
And click needs to find a starting pitcher.
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Hitting a baseball is hard in any situation.
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Unfortunately, I remember Ivie as the guy we gave up Jeffrey Leonard and Dave Bergman for, and who in return decided he didn’t want to play baseball anymore, so they released him. Then later that year he shows up on the Tigers.
Springer and Correa are what make this group of guys a great team. They both are great leaders. You can replace a bat, fielder or pitcher but it is hard to replace a leader . It’s also hard to replace two guys who have been with the Astros their whole careers and have been through so much on this team. If it meant losing someone like Brantley to resign both, I would do it in a second to keep the group together. The only thing that really does worry me about our chances to keep them is the negativity surrounding the Astros now. Hopefully they all want to stay together and give it another run.
Yeah, I did not remember who we traded for him, but I do remember his time as an Astro was disappointing.
I don’t remember what went wrong with Ivie in Houston but he had 52 total ABs.
Steve Sax was able to transition to the outfield. Altuve is not as bad as Sax was, but if it becomes acute, his only option is DH.
Good grief, he made a couple of throwing errors. He ain’t dead yet.
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The ultimate existential question, as you guys have already said - Springer at 31 (5 for $150) or Correa at 25 (10 for $300).
Health is an issue for both guys. 10 years for Carlos with his back issues is a challenge. But I think that is what the market will offer him.
Other contributing factors: Astros farm system has better SS talent currently than OF talent. Springer loss is compounded by Brantley and Reddick. Alvarez is likely a career DH. That too is a limiting factor unless he can become a reliable 1B - far easier said than done. Lastly, I think George wants to play in the northeast either for the Red Sox or the Mets and they both will have truckloads of cash to throw at him. In Boston he replaces Betts. In NY he gives their new ownership group a centerpiece player and enables Conforto to play his natural position.
In the end, I think Carlos wants to be an Astro for life – and despite the crazy money it will take to keep him – with Verlander, Greinke, George, Brantley and Reddick all off of the books, I bet the play is Correa.
Someone will throw crazy money (like 5/$150MM) at Springer. He’s gone. You still have a year to work out a deal with Correa. Which is good, because you’re paying $68MM next year to Verlander and Greinke, for probably around 130-150 innings of work combined.
Springer will be on either the Mets or the Red Sox. Most likely the Mets as their new owner has promised to “lose” hundreds of millions of dollars on the team in the near term while everyone else is citing the pandemic as too uncertain to make any high dollar longer term commitments.
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For any 2017 Astro with Hall of Fame ambitions or a legacy to be concerned about, the best possible career move would be to log a few great years somewhere in NY/Boston/LA. Stay an Astro, it’ll be impossible to shake the cheater tag. Crush a few postseason homers in pinstripes and it’ll be like it never happened. Because of that, I’ve resigned myself to losing Springer, Correa, and Bregman to free agency, with Altuve as the only one with a real possibility of retiring in Houston.
There is also the issue of the current CBA expiring next year. I’m sure a lot of teams will not want to commit a crazy long-term amount until that is settled. I don’t think it’ll be as contentious as many predict, but they will codify a few changes, namely the expanded rosters and the expanded postseason. The NL will also adopt the DH rule, but that’s not a CBA issue.
This is pure frontier gibberish. Especially someone whose overall numbers are HOF worthy otherwise. While the Twitter and social media vitriol is loud right now, it will fade as time goes on.
Not even authentic…wow!
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Ty in Tampa Johnson is right about MarkR Johnson being right…who can argue with that.
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Of course, I’d be happy to be wrong. But how many sportswriters held off on voting Bagwell into the HOF simply because of unsubstantiated whispers? And it’s clear from this season that there are a fair number of sportswriters and broadcasters who think that the 2017 team hasn’t been sufficiently punished yet. I also fully expect A-Rod to get into the HOF on the first ballot despite his well-documented PED use. So I’m just putting 2 and 2 together.
And as for “frontier gibberish,” I had to look up where that was from, and I now realize it’s been too many years since I watched that movie.
People are still pissed at Bonds and Clemens, so this can go on a while (and I expect it to).
Exactly. Altuve probably has the best case, and there’s no way in hell he ever gets in now, even if he ends up with 4,000 hits.
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