Happy New Years, fellow Chipalots and Chipalettes!!
After a 2017 that fulfilled the wishes of our Astro lifetimes – it is hard to gear up for another run at the big ring. It is just more fun to bask (as Chip so aptly put it) in the warmth of a World Championship season.
But in a positive mode today – what do the fans of the team want the folks connected to their team to resolve for 2018?
Here’s one random list…..
- Owner Jim Crane – Resolve to continue as-is – supporting the front office in their endeavors and opening that wallet as needed.
- GM Jeff Luhnow – Resolve to sign someone (hopefully Jose Altuve) long-term in the next calendar year.
- Jose Altuve – Resolve to continue to be the most hungry superstar in any sport.
- Carlos Correa – Resolve to extend what you did over 100 games to 162 games in 2018
- Ken Giles and Chris Devenski – Learn from rough post seasons but move on from them
- Josh Reddick – Resolve to wear more appropriate celebration gear
- Joe Musgrove – Resolve to carry over that great 2017 you spent in the bullpen
- Alex Bregman – Resolve to continue to be the clutch player you showed in the second half of the season and the playoffs
- George Springer – Resolve to continue to be the heart of a championship team
- Brad Peacock and Charlie Morton – Resolve to hold the high ground that you took last season with career years
- Justin Verlander – Resolve to go undefeated with the Astros in 2018 as you did in 2017 (We can dream can’t we?)
- Dave Hudgens, Brent Strom and other assistant coaches – Resolve to do whatever they did all over again because it worked
- Evan Gattis – Resolve to embrace the role of DH and give the Astros’ offense an extra boost
- Francis Martes – Resolve to follow Dan P and work on that waistline in 2018
OK, your turn. What resolutions do you wish for the folks above or for those players that were not mentioned above?
CHIPALATTA 
I resolve (after watching in frustration year after year beginning in 1962) to be happy and content if the Astros are competitive in 2018 and beyond. Another World Series is just the cherry on the top of the dessert.
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I wish for the team to resolve to work hard next year and to repeat as world champions!
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I never make any resolutions…..I usually break them anyway! BUT…..I resolve not to jump up and down for a trade for Justin Verlander!! Oh wait….that already happened! Ok, it’s gonna kill me to say it, but don’t trade the farm for Chris Archer. I reserve the right to back out of that one!
Reddick is pretty happy tonight…..his Georgia Dawgs will go to the championship game next week!
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Yeah my choir director is a Dawg and I know she is going nuts tonight.
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I would like for Jim Crane to have our AAA team in Round Rock by next Christmas.
I would like for Jeff Luhnow to continue with the plan that got us to this happy place. Now the Astros are in the business of building World Champions for years.
The Verlanders and the Correas, Springers, Altuves and all the other Astros couples to think of Houston as a place they could call home.
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Your first wish brought a big smile to my face since I am a resident of Round Rock. I am confident the Astros AAA team will be playing here starting the 2019 season.
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Nothing like having your AAA team in the same time zone, huh? Round Rock should return to the fold.
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I had you in mind when I wrote that.
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If we hardly ever post anything are we Chipalittles rather than Chipalots?
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You are posters of high quality – Chipabests
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I think op mentioned this in a previous blog – here is a link for a fun – strange but true for 2017 from Jayson Stark
https://www.facebook.com/notes/jayson-stark/strange-but-true-2017-edition/10155255804912759/
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Assuming no major trades or FA signings before ST:
Lance McCullers, Jr. – please resolve to increase your innings per start to at least 6.25 – and make the 3rd time through the opposing team’s order your best.
Ken Giles – please resolve to cut the number of walks you allow and the number of wild pitches you throw in half.
Francis Martes – please resolve to become a consistent strike-thrower in the major leagues. With your stuff, if you just keep it close to where the catcher calls for it, you will go far and do some serious damage to opposing offenses.
Dallas Keuchel – please resolve for 2018 to pitch like you are hungry and have something to prove again – you know, the way you did in 2015.
Anybody – please resolve to be a DH that will actually have an OBP over .350, a BA over .280, a BARISP of over .300, drive in 80 or more runs, and actually add strength to our line-up instead of being our weakest link.
Yuli Gurriel and Alex Bregman- please resolve to show us what you are REALLY capable of doing this year! We haven’t seen hitter’s instincts and bat control like yours in a long time.
Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve, George Springer, and Josh Reddick – please resolve to stay healthy, on the field, and playing hard but smart all year!
Chris Devenski – please resolve to be the good dragon all season long.
Jake Marisnick – please resolve to further increase your OBP [last year’s .319 was substantially better than 2016’s .257] and to decrease your Ks [which were actually a lot worse in 2017 than they were in 2016].
Tyler White, Colin Moran, Tony Kemp, J.D. Davis and Derek Fisher – please resolve to have such an amazing Spring, individually and collectively, that Hinch and Luhnow lose a lot of sleep in March having to make an agonizing decision who should fill the last 25-man roster spot.
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A couple of things I noticed:
Yonder Alonso had a great first half last season and finally made the AS Game. Then he tailed off after he was traded. Now, he is playing 1B for the Indians.
Alonso’s splits against LHP were horrible last season, but his only split worse than that was his split in 54 PAs against the Houston Astros. Houston had almost all RH pitchers, but Alonso still only managed a .143/.242/.204/.426 slash line against them.
Zack Cosart has been signed to play 3B for the Angels. Cosart, who will soon be 32, was drafted out of college by the Reds and has never played for any other organization and has never had a year like 2017.
Zach Cosart has never played 3B in his entire professional career. Not even one inning.
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The only resolution I want the players to make is to come to spring training in shape and ready to work.
I’d like Jim Crane to resolve to be humble.
I’d like the Houston fans to resolve that they will buy tickets and pack the house all season long…and then continue to do it in years to come.
I’d like ESPN to resolve not to show us the Red Sox and Yankees instead of the World Champion Houston Astros.
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The following have reportedly been seen walking depondently from city to city, and from busy intersection to busy intersection, holding up a sign saying: ‘will play a child’s game for millions of dollars’:
– Yu Darvish
– Jake Arrieta
– Mike Moustakas
– Eric Hosmer
– J.D. Martinez
– Jay Bruce
– Lance Lynn
– Lorenzo Cain
Who will have mercy on these homeless souls?
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The world has turned so cruel to these starving artists. The indignity of making $200 million instead of $300 million.
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Not signing these poor souls is the only way to get salaries back near the normal zone.
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Maybe we should set up Go-Fund-Me accounts for all of them – though some folks might change the spelling of that middle word…..
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I agree wholeheartedly. I often tell people to vote with their wallets. I hope the owners will not get trigger happy and hold the line on these guys. Mind you, I don’t want any collusion, but every time a guy gets overpaid (Carlos Lee, Jason Werth, Jason Hayward, every FA that goes to Colorado, Pablo Sandoval, etc.) the bar keeps raising and everyone soon forgets.
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Scott Boras must be in conniption mode right about now
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This story could get real interesting in about 6 weeks if none of these people aren’t signed. It would be nice to try to bring some sanity back to the bargaining table.
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I finally figured out why the Astros are going with Evan Gattis as the DH instead of backup catcher.
The only offensive stats the Astros were lacking in for 2017 were Triples and Caught Stealing. Getting Gattis’s tired legs out from behind the plate and unleashing him as the DH should vault the Astros toward the top in both of those categories.
And DDJ just stares at El Oso Blanco in awe.
1OP, revealing Astros secrets, even before spring training starts.
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That’s probably it, OP. And all this time I thought it might have something to do with the fact that in the 49 games Gattis caught last year, his pitchers were charged with 27 wild pitches [not to mention his 4 passed balls], and he/they allowed 35 out of 39 attempting base stealers to ‘go ahead and take that base, thank you very much!’
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Nope, it’s all about the triples!
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Just filled out my 2018 Astros calendar…….and every guy on it is coming back this year! I ordered it early, tried to order the World Series one but it hasn’t been finished yet.
Scott Boras is in for a big surprise this off season, teams aren’t going to bow down to him and give these guys $200+million for 6-8 years. I hope the guys who are on this team who are represented by him realize that, sooner rather than later.
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I’m not sure Boras is surprised at any of the guys being unsigned except for JDM. They are all on the wrong side of 30, if I recall. The regression in velocity for Arrieta and general ineffectiveness of Darvish probably caused a lot of teams to re-evaluate what they would offer those guys. Boras is likely targeting high dollar, 3 year deals for most with options added on. It would give them another shot at high dollar fleecings if they can maintain their level of play.
I hope the Astros can get some of our favorites resigned (if not all), but my fear is there is too much time between now and then for the market to go crazy again.
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That is a real change Becky. In previous years there were always plenty of folks who were already gone or who you sure didn’t want on your calendar for a whole month.
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In July of 2016, Michael Saunders and George Springer were trying to get to the All-Star game as the fans voted the last player in. Springer didn’t have a chance, as all of Canada voted Saunders in.
Since then, Michael Saunders has fallen off of the baseball planet and has been horrible.
And George Springer? Well, we know how that is going, right?
Baseball has a lot of stories. These two guys have taken off in different directions and Canadian voters blew it, eh? Saunders had already gone into a death spiral by the time he had gotten voted in. The Phillies gave him $8 million dollars for negative WAR last year and then sent him back to Toronto.
Now he is looking for work.
I thought Luhnow should have taken a look at him last offseason, but Luhnow wanted Josh Reddick. How did that work out for us, Jeffie?
Wait, don’t answer that.
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Jeff, if you ever commit the Astros to a 7-year contract like folks are talking about doing with Eric Hosmer, please make sure the player’s compensation is based on a sliding scale tied to performance.
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Six weeks from yesterday…
https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/houston-astros-will-reunite-on-valentines-day/c-264237452
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Odds and ends:
* Charlie Morton earned $1.875 million dollars in incentive bonuses, over and above his $7 million base salary in 2017. He also got that $438,000 World Series share check. His contract for 2018 carries the same incentives.
Charlie Morton and the 2017 Astros were a perfect match.
* Every team in MLB will get a check from MLB for their share of the sale of BAMTech to Disney. That payout will be somewhere in the $50-68 million range per club in the first quarter of 2018. It feeds spending money to every club and they can spend it or keep it for a banner year for free agents, like 2019. There is still the salary cap and it’s penalties to consider, but every club will get that windfall when the sale goes through.
*Dallas Keuchel has made $17 million in his Astros career and has delivered from 15.2 WAR(Fangraphs) to 16.4 WAR(Baseball Ref.), depending on who you use statistically. Dallas has been terrific and will get handsomely paid, but will never deliver value like that in his career again. This is a PERFECT example of why teams need to grow, recognize and develop their own starting pitchers from the draft and/or shrewd moves.
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Charlie was worth every penny in 2017 – though he had no history of being worthy of it. The FO saw something in him, and were able to bring it out of him.
DK was worth far more money than he made in 2014, 2015, and for a few weeks in 2017; the rest of the time he was not effective at all – or was, or should have been, on the DL. I presume the FO can see his trend, just as it saw the opposite trend in Charlie Morton. I also presume that is why DK has hired Scott Boras.
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Luhnow really had some great moments in 2017. Besides Verlander, Morton gets the best pick up award. Yuli became such a successful experiment. How many other GM’s would have made that move? That’s why I won’t rule out Gose yet. Or ignore our 28 year old Cuban catching prospect. Something pretty cool is bound to happen in 2018 too.
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dave i am right with you. luhnow & staff see the players way more often and are privy to way more information than the average fan and have a track record of great moments (a few stinkers as well, but hey who is world champions?) so i give them the benefit of the doubt. gose may be just an experiment, but with only 25 available spots on the roster, he has to be able to contribute and it appears they think he can. im interested to see it.
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I hadn’t done my homework on the BAMTech sale. Disney already owned a huge stake. I’m unsure this was the best move for MLB long-term and will have to do some reading. I’ve spouted off about my doom and gloom outlook for traditional sports broadcasting enough, but licensing their streaming technology to some of it’s users (HBO, NHL, Sony, ESPN, etc.) should have brought in big $$$ for a long time. Someone cashed out on this, but the teams are only getting the windfall once. If the broadcasting dollars dry up as advertisers become aware of the shrinking audiences then each team is going to be looking for new, sustainable revenue streams each year.
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OR!, they might have to go back to playing baseball as a game and learn to control their costs by putting some real caps on spending.
Maybe we are the last few generations of baseball lovers and baseball will go the way of the real pub, destined to be replaced by whatever the future generations want to replace it with:
Baseball Hunters! That game is so dated. It’s a complete gut job and we should tear it down and put our own stamp on it, make it our own. OMG, real grass? We’ll get rid of that and play it on genuine hardwood floors. Replace that outfield wall with a glass tile backsplash. Replace all those umpires with stainless steel appliances.
It’s the best game EVER! We made it just like us.
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Our baseball has to have an ocean view, too.
Can we make the game last longer, it has to last longer.
We want a private en suite in our box seats. We are not willing to compromise on that. Double vanities!
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More likely, baseball broadcasting will follow the trajectory of ‘news’ broadcasting, such that instead of reporting the real game score and what really happened on the field, the announcers will just say a lot of bad things about the owners of any franchise they don’t like, insult that franchise’s fans, and just make up their own narrative of stats and scoring to fit their agenda.
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Bill, it sounds like the Washington Nationals will have a distinct advantage in that scenario, considering where they are located.
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