I find it amusing when we fans decide Meyers and Montero aren’t performing so let’s trade Meyers and Montero for the 4 key pieces we need to solidify our status as WS favorite.
(Not directed at anyone in particular on this thread)
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Throw in Maldy and you got yourself a deal.
Our trash for your treasure is a common trade proposal
About Giolito deal:
Heavy price for Angels but really they have to either tear it down or go all in.
Giolito isn’t a star - really more of a 3, but can win a lot of games with an offense behind him. The Lopez throw in gives them a quality pen arm with upside.
Only way this likely works long term for the Angels if they resign Giolitto.
Good outcome for the Astros - they were not going to pay this much and he isn’t going to the Dodgers or Rangers or Braves or Orioles… maybe the Angels get hot, but if the Astros can’t beat the Angels, they aren’t winning anything anyways.
Silver lining for Angels is they kept their highly coveted top prospect in this deal.
On Astros
It’s not very likely the Astros get a starter need the quality of JV or Snell. Astros have spoken to Cardinals about Jack Flaherty. That is the type of starter they are likely to get. Has some upside, but more of a 3-4 type starter if he plays well with our defense.
The emphasis is definitely on the bullpen and they have asked about all the possible options - Robertson, Graveman, Barlow, Hernandez, Cisneros.
At this point I think they would be happy with one of those relievers and then another like Bloom.
On the Rangers series
Astros won the series - took 2 of 3 and that it all I could ask for. Within 2 games of the Rangers and added Altuve and Alvarez and the deadline is almost here- pretty close to a perfect outcome all things considered.
Astros need to let Valdez get healthy - add another starting pitcher, and ideally a couple bullpen pieces and they are good to compete.
Rangers talking about making some larger moves - from my perspective we win either way. If they want to blow their young prospects, that is their call- just will hurt them in a year or two.
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On " the sky is falling" after loss last night
Really? The Astros are 16-8 in their last 24 games and they were without their two best offensive players in all but one of those games.
The Astros have been without 3 starters from last year- all year. Altuve and Alvarez have missed massive parts of the season.
Yet the Astros are 2 games from the Rangers and 4-5 from the best record in the AL.
Framber Valdez is human - and he is pitching with nagging injuries and with almost no off season.
Just enjoy that the Astros have stepped up - and fought.
Appreciate that the Astros have two rookies in their rotation doing well - and a catcher that will be the best catcher in team history if he stays healthy.
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On “The Astros pitching philosophy gets pitchers hurt”
Good Question- last me ask the two World Series Championships, 4 AL Championships and 6 Divisional titles over the last 6 years……
NOPE
7,500 innings…. Now it’s a miracle if Lance amcCullers doesn’t tear a tricep cutting his grass fed $500 steak.
That is the TZ way: we will trade you our crap for your All Stars.
On pitchers 40 years ago.
Phil would down a pint of Gin at the assisted living home before giving you an 8 inning 200 pitch outing and leave the game up 4-3.
God I miss those guys - now the league literally can break down every angle and keep and mark the balls to have scientists test them…. I loved the Gaylord Perry’s, Niekro’s, Charlie Hough… Rick Rueschel and Tommy John’s that threw the highway speed limit and had everything from Jeri curl relaxer to Teflon on the ball as it chugged to the plate.
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Where is ToddTheBod when you need him?
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You really should just tell him to start posting here, it would save you a lot of time.
eta: I’ll put the idea in his head. He would fit in quite well.
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On Astros minor league pitching
The Astros make the public prognosticators have a very hard job.
None of the Astros starters in AA/AAA/recently graduated have obvious talent to be a #1-2 starter, other than possibly Hunter Brown. However, the Astros player development staff is the best in baseball and contrary to the popular opinion of people like Keith Law and Longenhagen, not all improvement and growth is linear and it doesn’t always magically cut off at 23-24 years old. It isn’t uncommon for the Astros pitchers to look pedestrian in the lower and even upper minors, yet to find success in AAA later and then carry it over to the big leagues.
The Astros develop pitchers looking at the big picture of being big leaguers. Players that embrace and trust that strategy (Valdez, Javier, France) tend to wildly exceed expectations in their mid 20’s. Players that fight it (Martes, Whitley) almost always fail.
Also, when you have 4-5 guys over a 2-year span that can be middle rotation starters, eventually a few will exceed expectations.
What I will say is that after not being excited about their international pitching talent for a couple of seasons, the Astros are very encouraged with the international pitchers they have from the last two drafts and believe that at least a #2 type starter is in that group. The problem is that they are 3-5 years away from winning important games in the big leagues.
Aaron Brown is the type of player that the Astros work with. They have worked on changing his delivery to add velocity and high the ball out of his hand, and they have worked on scrapping and adding pitchs. Right now, the changes are resulting in a high number of walks, and mediocre numbers - but if he keeps working on it, refining it, he may find that in the majors he has a lower ERA than he did at any points in the minor leagues… Astros did something similar with France and even Bielak.
On Ryan Clifford
Tremendous power.
It is going to come down to contact rate.
Ok thats all I got time for. Be back in a few hours.
Enjoy.
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I think one of the more underrated aspects of getting another starter, or two is to have more flexibility for the orgaqnization to work with Framber and Javier to get them back on track. We need to get them right to have a chance, no matter what happens at the deadline.
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We don’t have an elastic roster. If you bring in two more guys, you have to make room for them. If Framber and Javier don’t have any options left (I don’t know whether they do or not), you can’t just ship them down to Florida for a tuneup. And if they’re just going to use up spots on the 26-man roster while you fix them, that’s just going to make things worse on the pen because of the limit on the number of pitchers you can carry.
Given all of that, the only starters that you can realistically replace — absent injury — are Brown, Bielak, and France, and France is the only guy who is actually doing a good job right now. There’s just not a lot of wiggle room. Frankly, getting a useful Urquidy back is probably our best hope, so that Bielak could go to long relief and maybe offer some flexibility in managing Brown’s innings, which will become an issue soon.
You can probably play those same long relief games if you pick up a starter or two, but that still won’t let you put Framber on the sidelines for two or three weeks to get his shit together, which is my main point. For better or worse, he’s going to have to figure it out on the mound against major league hitters.
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If Urquidy is back and effective, and you add one more starter, they could go to a six man rotation, with Bielak going to long relief. That could relieve some of the innings stress on the starters. You could even go with a 5 man rotation and skip a starter each time thru the rotation, leapfrog style per se, to give them a breather.
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All of that is true but they do both have multiple options (until 5 yrs service time).
Its perfectly acceptable to do just like Tor did with Manoah.
No reason those innings don’t count on the arms though.
I would prefer to keep them at the MLB level but reduce their innings by limiting them to 4-5 innings. Can use an opener or just schedule a 2-3 inning guy to follow like its spring training.
It doesn’t impact them being stretched out like skipping a turn would but reduces the innings on the arms.
I know nothing about pitching but it feels reasonable
I may have spotted the flaw in your reasoning.
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