Long time lurker on Astros message boards. I usually don’t post, but I thought of an interesting exercise, or game to play, so to speak. Ridiculousness of this witch hunt aside, Jim Crane claims to have washed his hands of Lunhow and Hinch to give the organization a clean slate. Which begs the question, when are all of the “complicit” players from 2017 who weren’t suspended going to be traded? I say complicit tongue and cheek because I do believe this is an unnecessary witch hunt. Selectively policing one form of “cheating” when the following goes on and unpunished is ridiculous to me.
Scuffing balls
Pine tar violations
Aaron Judge looking at photo print outs of the catcher in-game in a recent Yankees-Astros playoff series
The self righteous have determined which cheating is REALLY cheating….
Anyways… Assuming Crane would want to rid the roster of all position players from the 2017 playoff roster (because of his ridiculous clean slate proclamation in justifying letting go of Hinch and Lunhow), what trades would you propose for roster construction? This would involve trading Altuve, Correa, Bregman, Gurriel, Springer. I am not condoning doing this, but I think the organization could be competitive this year and position itself for the next decade if they were to consider busting up this core. Trades I can think of that could help both teams:
Chicago White Sox get: Carlos Correa (8mm) , Yuli Gurriel (8.7mm)
Houston Astros get: Tim Anderson (4mm), Nick Madrigal, James McCann (5.4mm), low level prospect or 2
White Sox - (3B) Moncada, (SS) Correa, (2B), L Garcia (1B) Gurriel, (DH) Abreu, (LF) Jimenez, (CF) Robert, (RF) Encarnacion
White Sox want to compete now. Replacing Correa and Gurriel with roster spots currently occupied by Tim Anderson and Mazara is a pretty big upgrade. Not sure about Encarnacion in the outfield, but that would be their problem.
Colorado Rockies get: Alex Bregman (11mm), Josh Reddick (13mm), Roberto Osuna (10mm)
Houston Astros get: Nolan Arenado (35mm), prospects
There is a good amount of risk in this deal that Arenado can perform the same outside of Coors Field. But he is outstanding defensively, and this also washes hands of Osuna. There would need to be a decent prospect haul back to the Astros in this deal, but the thinking by Crane would be to make Arenado the new face of the franchise. Arenado does have a no trade clause I believe, that he would have to agree to waive.
San Diego Padres get: Jose Altuve (29mm), George Springer (21mm)
Houston Astros get: Wil Myers (22.5mm), Eric Hosmer (21mm), Kirby Yates (7mm), and 2 of: (MacKenzie Gore, Luis Urias, Chris Paddack, Francisco Mejia)
In this trade, the Astros would be taking on 2 pretty bad contracts, and giving San Diego arguably 2 of their best 3 players, in exchange for receiving San Diego’s 2 best pitching prospects. I doubt we would be able to get both Gore and Paddack, but they have other interesting pieces, too. I would throw in Uriquidy if it meant getting both of these pitchers, or offer to not take on both Myers and Hosmer if they would not trade both.
Padres - (3B) Machado, (SS) Tatis Jr, (2B) Altuve, (1B) ?, (LF) Pham, (CF) Springer, (RF) Margot, © Mejia . This line up would be ridiculous, no matter who they get to play 1B.
Astros line up. Assuming the Astros could get Gore and Paddack from SD.
C J McCann/Maldonado
1B Hosmer
2B Madrigal
SS T Anderson
3B N Arenado
LF M Brantley
RF K Tucker
CF W Myers/Straw
DH Y Alvarez
Rotation
Verlander, Greinke, McCullers, Paddack, M Gore. Closer K Yates
(1) M Brantley (2) Madrigal (3) N Arenado (4) Y Alvarez (5) Hosmer (6) T Anderson (7) K Tucker (8) W Myers/Straw (9) McCann
Obviously, this is nowhere near as dynamic a lineup as we have now, but it adds very talented pitching to the roster, along with a 2B in Nick Madrigal with a good hit tool for the future (not necessarily with power, though). Also would re-stock our farm with prospects we get that may help a couple years down the line when we may start to feel the loss of the 4 draft picks. And this will never happen, but it is interesting to ponder since ……
Jim Crane oh so badly wants a clean slate.
I am sure I will get flamed and be told to “post less, read more”, but I have been reading more since the days of Kev and Scott’s original TZ. And will likely go back to reading more, because I enjoy the insight this board provides. I really just hope that regardless of the roster for this year, the Astros put together an epic “F^%& YOU” year on the league. I know the boys have to feel bad enough already for what happened to Hinch, hopefully they will channel that energy into putting together a historic year.