I’m wondering if Scherzer pushed the LAD side of things. After all, he held all the cards at the end of the day in terms of a trade happening or not.
You’re absolutely right about withholding judgement about guilt, but if he does get arrested, I cannot see any team playing him while they await the trial. The backlash would be too brutal.
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That is exactly what Steve Phillips speculates happened this morning. He says Nats and SD would have agreed on players involved first, which they must have done leading to the reports of a deal being close, but when the Nats then went to Sherzer, he probably said try harder with LA first.
Rockies reportedly not dealing Jon Gray, so Berrios is definitely the top SP left
eta: I forgot about Kyle Gibson, his last 3 starts have been terrible though
So the talking heads on MLB Radio just chatted about the Astros. All 3 think Click did well to address our bullpen issues and that doing so while staying below the threshold was good GMing. We won’t like this if they are right, but they feel Houston is done and would be shocked if we did anything else. They like what Straw has done in center and say our lineup is fine.
I don’t know for certain if Bauer is guilty of the heinous acts he has been accused of. I am certain he is a first class scum bag.
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Has anyone talked about John Means?
He may be an option if the team still want to address the rotation.
I don’t think the Yankees, A’s, or Red Sox have done enough to be better than the Astros. Still the team to beat in the AL
If that plays out, the World Series is more about the hot team than the talented team.
Don’t get me wrong, talent helps and is necessary. No team gets to the World Series without it.
But frequently the more talented team loses the Series to a team playing better ball.
Look at 2005 and 2019. I feel the Astros had a better roster in both of those Series.
Right now, I think the Dodgers are the only team with a better overall 26 man roster.
Agreed
I totally agree looking for a CF was folly, but I hope like hell he is not done. A SP would be great, Crane said the threshold will not be an issue, and Click said he will not be done until the deadline expires. I think that is talking heads who know nothing, but if Click does nothing today but congratulate himself for staying under the luxury tax, I’ll be pissed. I’d like to see some comments from him to a Houston writer about today.
I’m fine with that.
Playoff baseball, or maybe any sport, always is about the hot team and not the better team. Mark and I have personal experience with that principle in 1997. We were the hot team and beat several better teams in the playoffs.
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We will see, but I think if we do anything else it will be back of the rotation depth only, just to help rest Garcia for the stretch run and to provide cover for injury. The Twins are asking a fortune for Berrios. Dipoto in Seattle is in a tight spot with the morale of his team. He might overpay to get him and the Twins are asking for his top 10 pitching selection from last year, another top 100 prospect and a major league ready player. The Padres might be willing to overpay to try and catch the Dodgers. Just don’t think we have the talent stock to match them for Berrios. Rockies seem to have indicated Gray won’t be traded. Doesn’t leave much else unless the Mets make a huge splash somewhere and it changes the Braves mind about Morton.
We may not be done, but I don’t think it will be a huge splash if we do something else. Hope I’m wrong.
You obviously take whatever you read as gospel. I hope you are too.
ETA: DiPoto is really in a tough spot after the trade and his confident pronouncement he had several more steps to take to complete The Plan.
Here are some of the remaining options:
Byron Buxton and Bryan Reynolds for centerfield, possibly Kris Bryant if the Astros believe he can hold his own there after playing a few games for the Cubs in center this year (I think it’s unlikely they think he can)
Jose Berrios, Kyle Gibson, Kenta Maeda, Michael Pineda, and Jon Gray for starting pitching. It would take a lot to convince the Rockies to trade German Marquez or the Orioles to trade John Means. Perhaps, you could convince the Braves to trade Morton after the Dodgers loaded up.
Craig Kimbrel, Richard Rodriguez, Ian Kennedy for more bullpen help.
In my world, CF is fine, and a SP or a top tier reliever is what I would be after.
Excellent summary, David.
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I was hoping Click would go after Daniel Hudson and try to shorten the game if we couldn’t go out and get another SP. Obviously he’s gone.
What about Iglesias from LAA? If we could make every playoff game a 6th inning game I think that would dramatically help out chances as most of our SP’s are solid through 5-6 IP’d.
Less than 4 hrs.
And crickets.
Yep, and no rumors with Astros mentioned anywhere.
I agree with you that pitching is the most pressing need. It will be interesting to see what Click does.
I’m not too worried about not hearing rumors. Click may be the kind of guy who says a deal is off if he hears anything about it from anybody else.
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