I’m going to keep my mouth shut on the Varsho trade because the last time they overpaid for a Jays player at the deadline, Kikuchi turned into Sandy Koufax for two months.
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Is what it is. Gonna have to hope two of Blanco, Javier and/or Wesneski step up.
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When you put it that way we also added Josh Hader, Jeremy Pena and Yordan Alvarez, what a deadline!
Brice Matthews is on the mend, too, don’t forget him.
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Reading this thread it’s almost easy to forget the Astros are in first place.
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Maybe the thinking is IF they find a way into the postseason you have Brown and Lambert and then have a very, very short leash with any one of the eleven guys they might use to start a game three and after that it’s all hands on deck.
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How did you get that out of my comment? If Jim Crane didn’t step in, the Astros would have Trevor Larnach and Spencer Arrighetti instead of Bryan Abreu and Daulton Varsho. Would you prefer that?
Abreu has found his elite reliever form since the start of July. Him turning back into a trusted high-leverage reliever is more impactful than any reliever the Astros could’ve acquired other than Adrian Morejon and Luke Weaver.
FWIW, I would have liked another starting pitcher, too. They are asking a lot of Wesneski, Blanco and Javier right now.
I’m waiting for Brad Peacock to make a triumphant return.
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I heard a rumor that they have the best record since sometime back when.
Best record in baseball since July 28th.
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Just like their ABS prowess, it is one of those facts I have trouble comprehending having watched them play this season.
Once that trade didn’t happen, I moved on. It has no bearing on what happened today. “We don’t need to add a reliever because we didn’t trade one” is dumb. To me it’s not Abreu and Varsho vs Arrighetti and Larnack… because the Abreu and Larnack trade didn’t happen. You can suck Cranes dick if you want to vetoing that trade, but regardless, they didn’t do enough
In my opinion, getting Josh Hader back was the turning point. He solidified the bullpen, which has been a big deal.
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I’m not defending Crane nor the fact the Astros didn’t get a starting pitcher by today’s deadline. I simply pushed back at your assertion the Astros needed another bullpen arm, and many good ones were available. Luke Weaver and Adrian Morejon were the only names that were remotely interesting, and both would have been costly.
I wanted the Astros to acquire a starting pitcher above a left-handed outfielder.
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Just as big was getting Burrows and Imai out of the rotation. Remains to be seen if Blanco and Wesneski can hold those spots down, but not getting fucking shelled 40% of the time is such a load off this team, both for the bullpen and mentally for the team as a whole.
Also under-discussed is Wesneski coming back from TJ at lightning speed. Typical timeline would have seen him back a month from now, maybe.
ETA: didn’t mean to shortchange Blanco’s impressive recovery timeline. I forgot his surgery was as recent as it was.
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I hope those guys are great. Dana seems to be betting his job on them. I don’t think I would take that bet if I were him. I do commend him for not completely fucking over the system in an attempt to save his job, though I would guess he’s gone either way
It occurred to me today that the funniest possible outcome this season is Crane has made up his mind to fire Dana, that the Astros win the WS anyway, and he fires two consecutive WS-winning GMs.
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My Jim “Jerry Jones” Crane comment from circa November 2022 would be looking quite prophetic if that happened
I hate to break it to you but you can go out and trade for any ace, any top bullpen pitcher and an all star left hand hitting center fielder and you still wouldn’t have the roster the Dodgers have bought.
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If the Astros can be in first place (by 2 and a half games) on August 3 with this roster, they can be in first place at the end of the season. Is Correa coming back any more than a pipe dream?