Stay the course, reset the course, or scuttle the ship?

After two months of playing some of the best baseball in the majors, the Astros have hit the inevitable bump in the road. The team has sprinkled more consistent losing in with less consistent offense and pitching and thrown in Luis Valbuena heading to the DL into the mix. Their call ups have taken turns not hitting, they have wasted some very good Dallas Keuchel starts and Doug Fister, Mike Fiers and Colin McHugh have mixed good starts with what Mr Bill aptly called stinkers.

What to do? With the trade deadline racing  head-on towards them the Front Office has multiple paths to take.

Stay the Course

Many folks say – don’t do anything (at least outside the organization). Bring up your Cuban if he ever gets his papers, bring up pitching help from the minors and hope that improves the team or at least does not hurt the future. Also, hope that the pitchers brought up perform better than Tyler White, A.J. Reed and Alex Bregman to date.

Reset the Course

Trade off some of that minor league talent including pitching for Chris Archer or Chris Sale or Andrew Miller or Jay Bruce or …

Hope that this move turns out better than picking up Scott Kazmir or Carlos Gomez did. Pray that this sparks a big finale to a bit above average season. Keep repeating a mantra in your head that no one we trade has proven anything …. yet.

Scuttle the Ship

OK, no one is going to purposely choose this course. But the results of continuing to trade youngsters for veterans who fail could bring this team back to the same sandbar it hit in the late 2000’s. A team that is so-so at the major league level and a disaster down below.

So, not that the Front Office cares about your opinion, but what is it? What direction should they take and why?

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160 responses to “Stay the course, reset the course, or scuttle the ship?”

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    • I saw that op – but no mention of for what or who…..

      I feel for you and your wife op. I had to nurse my wife back from surgery that turned into an infection that almost killed her. It was so hard, but it really brought us closer and she eventually recovered – so I pray that happens for you too.

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  6. Surprisingly, I’m not disappointed we didn’t make any trades other than Feldman. The price was too high. It’s probably a sure thing the Rangers win the division this year, but the WC is still in play and we kept all 7 of our top 100 MLB prospects.

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    • Yup nothing better than loosing, but hey we got prospects and so far under Uncle Jeff watch, who has panned out CC and hopefully LMJ.I love my stros , but after Altuve, CC and sometimes Springer. we don’t come close to the A teams, but we have prospects

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  7. Also, I’m guessing Fister or Fiers moves to the bullpen and Musgrove is called up to replace Feldman and will be moved to the rotation.

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  9. I am really confused. When we trade with the Brewers we give up prospects galore for guys who fall apart over here.
    The Rangers get a top flight catcher and a very good reliever by giving up two former 1st round picks who are not lighting it up at AA.
    What am I missing here (or is the description of the trade incorrect or incomplete?

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      • If they had traded Reed and Musgrove for 1.3 years of Lucroy you would have been very upset, which is essentially what the Rangers gave up for Lucroy. Sandy, I have come the conclusion that whatever Luhnow does (Trade prospects or keep prospects) will not satisfy you. That’s fine as you don’t like him as a G.M., but he is still regarded in the top half of GM’s in baseball.

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      • Tim, I’m simply pointing out the Rangers got Lucroy and Beltran in a deal for a couple of good prospects. We’ve traded 6 or 7 prospects for not much of anything.
        I don’t have anything against Luhnow as a person but he’s failed at trading. Period.
        How long can he get by as a GM when the only thing he’s good at is drafting?

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      • Actually, he’s good at trading because he made the smart decision to not trade in this extreme seller’s market. When knowing not to trade is also a part of being a good GM.

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  10. The comments here have me puzzled. The majority were screaming that the Astros gave up too much in recent trades, but now everyone is screaming that the Astros should have made a trade in a market that was so heavily in favor of the sellers that it would have cost us our very top prospects. So, I ask you, what do you want? Lucroy for 1.3 years and lose Reed and Martes or just stand pat?

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      • It would have been nice to add a LOOGY or a bench bat, but considering the prices that were getting paid I think the Astros are better off standing pat.

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    • I am fine with them standing pat, but I felt like the Rangers traded the equivalent (performance wise) of Derek Fisher and Kent Emmanuel for Lucroy and Jeffress. That’s all.

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  11. Welp……there’s always NEXT year. As far as Musgrove goes, he’s been pitching like a rock star in Fresno. I’d hate to make another starter, go to the pen when he was pitching so well as a starter. AND…….how much longer can this club go with such a short bench. We *need* help TODAY !!
    I forgot the date, but can’t the teams still trade after today???

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  12. Standing pat was actually my recommendation unless Chris Sale or Chris Archer were targets. Quite frankly, I don’t think either of them were really available. I would have liked to have had Beltran – if for no other reason than I am tired of hearing people boo him for no really good reason. To me DH is our weakest position. We could stand a hole at catcher and CF in favor of defense if we had production from DH. If we can ride VBs hot streaks and he and Marwin are healthy, they can produce while rookies adjust. I never thought we had the starting pitching to win the division this year when combined with our streaky offense. But some big changes are needed in the off season if we are going to fulfill that 2017 prediction. We can’t expect the rookies and the 32 YO Cuban to carry us to the WS unless we get 2015 pitching from Keuchel and McHugh (and I seriously suspect we won’t). Too much reliance on what guys “should” do based on stats as opposed to what they are actually doing.

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  13. Here is what I see the rest of the year. Our highest level [AA and above] prospects will be given a chance to get their feet wet and surprise us – or fail miserably and be gone after this season.

    Top 2 prospects – with all MLB’s eyes on them = Bregman and Musgrove.

    2nd tier prospects – with all Texas’ eyes on them = Reed, White, Hernandez, and Kemp

    3rd tier prospects – with Astros’ management’s eyes on them – Hernandez, Moran, Feliz, Devenski, Rodgers, Hoyt.

    Unless Gurriel and at least one of the guys in each tier listed above is is absolute dynamite for us, we will finish 10 or more games out in the West and out of the WC race by 5 or more games. If that happens, that’s okay, because we weren’t going anywhere this year anyway with Gomez, Gattis, Rasmus, Fister, Fiers, and Sipp weighing us down, with Keuchel half of himself, and with Valbuena way overdue for a cool-off and reversion to lifetime stats.

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      • I agree, but the FO apparently considers Reed blocked by Margo and Valbuena, so I included him in tier 2 just because his name is neither Bregman or Musgrove.

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      • The scouts were right on Reed. His bat is not quick enough to dictate at the MLB level. He will need to develop an approach that anticipates pitches and spoils when he guesses wrong. I’m not sure HOU can help him there.

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  14. WOW! The Rangers sure made a splash by adding Lucroy, Jeffress and Beltran. I think these moves make them a strong contender for another WS appearance. The most underrated addition is Jeffress, who has always been a great reliever and has stepped into the closer role this year with 27 saves.
    They traded their #2, 3, 4 prospects plus a PTBNL for a controllable catcher, closer and a rental bat. I wonder which of the 2016 draftees will ultimately be the PTBNL.
    My question is, would you give up the Astros #2 (Reed), #3 (Martes), #4 (K. Tucker) for the same three? What if the PTBNL was one of Whitley, Dawson, Rogers?

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  16. Hey, we have another Cuban! 19 year old IB/LF Yordan Alvarez comes to us from the Dodgers in place of Josh Fields.

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    • The Dodgers signed him before the new signing period began and gave him a $2million bonus. They then paid a $2million penalty for signing him.

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      • For Crane’s sake I hope we didn’t pick up any of the $2M on the front end, or take the penalty hit on the back end. This is suspicious to me, as why did the Dodgers trade us this guy for . . . Josh Fields????????????

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  18. Feldman and Fields yielded 2 decent and very young prospects. That’s what I wanted. I wish we could have traded more expensive guys for prospects, but the players I wanted to trade away couldn’t hit a butterfly this year.

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    • I like the deals with Fields and Feldman. What I would do now is place Gomez on waivers and see if someone will take him in. If they don’t I would release him and eat his salary. I see it this way; if someone offered to trade me a MLB ready, 23 yr old, OF prospect with his AAA stats for Gomez and I had to eat the remainder of his 2016 salary I would do it in a heartbeat. Seems logical to me.

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      • Gomez will assuredly be put through waivers this month and go unclaimed. This will allow the Astros to trade him, which they may still do for a low level, but high upside minor leaguer similar to the guy they got for Feldman. Despite the angst among Astros fans with Gomez I bet he still has some trade value, especially for someone who needs a good defensive CFer. He’s not Marisnick, but Gomez is still a top level defender in CF.

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  19. Well it seems to me about 6 contenders got better today, we got more prospects cause you know it’s good to have a lot of prospects, Maybe the market is to high this year I’m Ok with that. There is always 2018. My issue with this FO is all the trades and prospects we have traded away, we have Gomez, Gattis, Friers, on the 25 from those trades, VB give that a B-. We still have a lot of average or less on this JL roster. JFSM, Castro, Rasmus way over pay, We have decent bullpen all FA’s or pickups. Giles who knows to early on that trade. Our SP Has been mis manged/developed for 4 years. When we bring prospects up thay fail miserably at the plate.

    SO I’M baffled how anyone can rave about this FO as on of the top 10 hell 20. I must be getting old and senile. WE just got our asses royally kicked by the Tigers

    There need to be some major reconstruction of this team for 2017

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      • And I can say the moon is made of green cheese. Doesn’t make it true. Improvement in MLB team will be the proof. We still don’t know if the plan will work. If it doesn’t, then this may prove to be one of the worst FO due to all the negative PR and massive losses we endured for 3 years. Other GMs (I’m looking at you Theo/Jed) have turned a team around faster.

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      • The point is Feldman is a better pitcher than Gomez is anything. Wouldn’t it be nice to have Feldman available for long relief and also have Musgrove starting?
        There are no guarantees that Musgrove will stick in the majors on the first try.

        Why not just let Gomez go?

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      • Gomez is injured and has little trade value. We are already complaining about a short bench. Trading or waiving Gomez and bringing up Musgrove would not have helped the bench.

        I agree we don’t know who is better and, for this year, Feldman, may prove to be better, but there’s no reason to trade for the sake of trading. Feldman isn’t returning next year so the Astros decided to get something for him. This year probably won’t result in a playoff appearance, but at least we still have depth and talent to be competitive for many more years.

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  20. I’m not pleased that this club did not get better. Seems to me that the powers to be think we have enough to win, or, they are not going to make any real effort to finish 2016 in the post season. And if that’s the case, I’m alright with that, but then let’s get Gomez off the club now, and give Jake one last extended chance to hit by playing him every day. Bring Reed back up to play first, again, everyday. Tell White he’s got the DH job until the end of the season. Let Musgrove start. Bring up Hoyt. And if we struggle over the next couple of weeks, then have a fire sale before the August deadline.

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    • They had a bad week, but up until that point the Astros were the hottest team in baseball for 2 months with the players they have on the roster and we added Gurriel for the stretch run. They still need to play the players that give us the best chance to win this season. If they are out of it by September I’m sure the young players will get ample playing time.

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      • They were indeed the hottest team in MLB for two months. But all good things must come to an end. Tim, you’re smart enough to see that this team has a fair amount of holes. And the team we trail by 6 games just got considerably better. We stood pat.

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      • There’s no doubt the Rangers got better for this year and will probably win the division. I bet we could have had Lucroy for Reed and Musgrove, but that’s not a trade I or most on here would have liked. The Rangers realize they have about a 2 year window to win it and are going for it. It stinks now, but the tide will turn.

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  21. We have a good major league SS.
    We have a very young guy who has shown me in the last week that he can play third base and his bat is supposed to be better than his defense.
    We have the best 2B in baseball and he’s still young.
    We have AJ Reed who is very young and has huge power to play 1B.
    We have George Springer, one of the best young outfielders in baseball.
    We have Gurriel, but are not sure what we have in him yet.
    We have a 29 year old catcher with power who is more popular than the catcher we have had for years.
    We have last year’s CY winner, and a good young pitcher in LMJ and a pitcher in Colin McHugh that is a MOR at the best but would be a very good BOR pitcher.
    We have some guys who have not had a decent shot to play yet, but show a lot of promise, in Tucker, White, Kemp and Moran.
    We may have a real darkhorse candidate for a long term outfielder in Teoscar for sometime in the next year or two, who is having one of the best years of any minor league outfielder. He also carried it from AA to AAA without a hitch.
    We have four young pitchers in Paulino, Martes, Feliz and Musgrove, who all have shown flashes and have years of inexpensive control for the club.
    We have Giles, Hoyt, and Harris who all have years of inexpensive control left with the club. We have quite a few good arms in the upper minors for our bullpen and we have Chris Devenski.
    We may have Lourdes Gurriel, too, if my predictions are correct.
    This team could really be loaded and will have a ton of money to spend come October 2016 and 2017.

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    • I agree with everything you said OP. But, there are a lot of names listed that still have to prove their success will translate to the major league level. No way that all of them do. And the ones that don’t, will no longer be assets to be used for trades. I still do not have any proof that JL can assemble as World Series winning major league roster.

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      • I cannot disagree with anything you say, even if I wanted to. But I do think we have what is needed to put nine dynamic position players and five good starters and a really good bullpen together for next year if we let our duds walk away this fall.
        As a side note, Danny Worth cleard waivers and signed a new minor league contract and is headed to Fresno where he will be welcomed with open arms, I am sure. When he was called up, he was the leading hitter in the 16-team Pacific Coast League and would have been an All-Star.

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    • I agree with everything you said. If you really look at it, our minor leagues are still loaded with multiple prospects at most positions and a very good mix of young, “almost MLB ready” and MLB ready. We have a trio of triple digit arms (with Guduan being a 100 MPH lefty). Also, I am with you that the signing of Lourdes is inevitable and was probably pre- arranged (why else would you go 5 yrs on Yulie). What I don’t see in our system is a legitimate catcher that is even close to being major league ready. Hopefully Rogers can hit and move up quickly, though I’m not sure he has the body needed to be an everyday catcher. I’d also add Rodgers, Ferrell and Gustave to pitchers that can contribute within a 12 month window.

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      • Mike gets lost in the mix but you are right, he has been solid since he was drafted and is really having a good season at Fresno. He has improved command and cut down on walks; as usual he is missing plenty of bats. I saw him pitch earlier in the year and he looked good, but for some reason I see him as a long reliever in MLB rather than a starter. If I remember right he is getting up there in age for a prospect so it is probably now or never for him in 2017.

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