The opening farewell

The timing of this interview could not be worse! Last night I had wished I’d never seen Chuck’s post of the interview, I felt as if Correa had personally robbed me of the joy of watching my favorite team succeed together as a family, maybe for the last time. But now this will be a distraction, because no way does this not become the national media focus. Imagine how his teammates will feel if this is all they hear about for the rest of the postseason. Could really affect their chemistry going forward.

Maybe I’m overreacting. He has every right to set himself up for living his best life, but I wish he would have waited until after the season ended.

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This is why, if the JV stuff is true, I’m willing to overlook Correa’s involvement in it. JV has been notably absent from the Astros since his surgery and while some of that can be explained away by COVID, rehab, etc., it sounds like it runs much deeper than that behind the scenes. If the players were truly soured by the idea of JV throwing out a first pitch, and if the chances of JV coming back are slim anyway, then Correa going to Crane about it is not injurious; it’s being a good teammate and leader.

Correa’s talk about looking good in pinstripes is what is disappointing to me.

He sees Jeter and says, “I can top that.”

I haven’t been crazy about his self promoting this whole year. I don’t care for the “I know my worth” comments. It comes off as arrogant and isn’t really the Astro way. You never caught Bagwell, Biggio, Berkman or Altuve talking like that.

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Two things can be true at the same time. He may well not want to break up the Altuve, Bregman, McCullers and Yuli core. That may really mean something to him. And at the same time, he may have grown up dreaming of replacing Jeter as the Yankee captain and SS. Two opposing thoughts. Two likely true. In the end, he played his was into an 8-year+, $30m + contract. If he is given the identical offer by both, I suspect those two cross purposes come into play. As phenomenal as our Astros have been for the past 5 seasons, the Yankee legacy is the sports most enduring. Cole wanted to pitch under the brightest of lights. Let’s see what Correa chooses. Time tells all.

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I think you are seriously reaching here. If Carlos Correa was trying to backstab the team on the way out, then why did he go to management to recommend they bring in Marwin Gonzalez after the Red Sox released him? Why is he defending the team, yet again, from sign stealing accusations by White Sox’ reliever Ryan Tepera? He’s also really good friends with Lance McCullers, so he would be backstabbing him on the way out, too.

Also, if it is true that Verlander has rehabbed away from the team and resisted overtures to come join them during the season, it makes perfect sense that the team wouldn’t be happy about the idea of him throwing out the first pitch of the ALDS.

Should he go to the Yankees, none of their fans will suffer cognitive dissonance wildly cheering the same athlete upon whom they heaped invective only a year earlier

Is this interview a good thing? No. But, let’s also remember he’s giving it to a Puerto Rican audience, many of whom are Yankees or Mets fans because New York has a lot of Puerto Rican influence.

He also clearly states that he’s not sure that Crane will make a competitive offer, and, no, 5 years 120 or 125 million was never going to work. Crane has to at least double or triple the total contract amount to be in the ballpark.

The ball is in Crane’s court. If he holds to his guns about offering contracts no longer than 6 years, Correa is certainly gone. If he is willing to go 8-10 years at a reasonable AAV, there is a chance.

That is interesting, and revealing.

Thank you, Chuck!

PS: One of my favorite scenes during the home games is seeing Bags backing up Pigpen right behind home plate. Love it!!!

A decade from now, I believe Altuve will be in the front row and maybe Bregman behind him. I wonder who else will be sitting in those boxes.

It’s counter cultural, but there are some things that matter more than money.

Fame, like beauty, is fleeting…

I think it’s highly improbable / borderline impossible that any of Carlos’ current teammates don’t already know the substance of what’s in the interview, that he feels like the initial offer was a slap in the face, and that he wants to play in New York.

I have a hard time understanding why the Astros would make the offer they did when they did. Sure, the amount they offered is an inconceivable amount of money for the average guy, fine, but if a bunch of dumbasses on the internet knew it was a laughable offer in context, then the Astros certainly knew that, too. Why make an offer that you know is going to be rejected? You’re not placating the fans since most of them will realize that it wasn’t a good faith offer. So I can’t figure out what the team was doing there.

I know others feel differently about this and I respect the point of view, and that’s not me being patronizing or even politic, I really do respect it although I could not disagree more, I believe that the only thing Carlos owes the Astros is to play his ass off while he’s under contract with the team. And if Carlos wants to take the highest possible dollar amount, I don’t see anything wrong with that, and if Carlos really wants to play for the Yankees or whoever, well, I’m not crazy about it but if that’s what he wants, that’s what he wants.

If the Astros truly want to keep him, they clearly need to make a competitive offer. Despite the impact he’s having on the team right now, it may very well be that a competitive offer would be a poor decision long term. I haven’t lost sight of Carlos’ fragility in past years. He’s 27, he probably has three, maybe four more years of exceptional productivity in him, if he remains healthy. You know, I can see an argument for not wanting to retain him at the price it will require.

But I doubt very seriously that any of this will become any sort of distraction during the remainder of the season.

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I have a hard time blaming any young man who prefers the idea of being rich and famous in New York over Houston, but it does irk that the Yankees legend hasn’t kept pace with the reality of their success on the field this century. And the idea that the way they’ve been treated by the New York media market and Yankee fans doesn’t seem to matter to him is hard to swallow, too, but it certainly tracks with the contempt the average ball player seems to feel for the average fan.

ETA: All that said, I still won’t be surprised if Crane backs up the Brinks truck and gets it done.

Maybe I am way off. Maybe I am remembering proposals from the GMs here. Never mind my faulty memory. My attitude is the same if the offer was over $100 million. That may be too low for business reasons, but it is not lack of respect.

I always looked at baseball as a team game. Apparently CC sees himself as bigger than the team.

Disagree. I think he knows his value. He has never not realized this game is a business. He knew that before he was drafted.

I’ve said it before but all anyone is responsible for is themselves and their family. We all do what is best for ourselves in our career. We just aren’t playing in the same market.

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The team is made up of individuals but they don’t negotiate as a team, they do it as individuals.

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We’ve clashed on this concept before and I’m not going to get up in arms. I’ll just say this, if I was about to be on the job market and I know that my skillset and experience qualified me for X and my current employer who I’ve worked for for 6 years offered me X÷2, I see that as not being a respectful offer. We look at these things differently and that’s fine. But I see where Correa is coming from if that’s how he feels.

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CC has a huge ego. Many stars do. He likes to be the center of attention, and his star performance gives him many opportunities to be on center stage. He also works the media like a pro.

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Yep, I never would feel a raise was disrespectful. I might go elsewhere.

As I remember he seemed downcast after their negotiations fell through and said that their wasn’t any disrespect, it was just that the Astros don’t believe in long-term contracts.

Maybe his agent has turned that into disrespect since then.

Please, please, please release the LCS roster so we have something else to discuss.

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